6620-week viii-when information came of age

8/6/2019 6620-Week VIII-When Information Came of Age

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Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700-1850


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Professor Emeritus of Social Science and History at RooseveltUniversity (Connecticut)Ph.D. in History from Princeton University (1971)Speaks French, Spanish, German and ItalianPrimary Interests: Environmental History, International Relations and

the History of Technology Books Published:POWER OVER PEOPLES: TECHNOLOGY, ENVIRONMENTS, ANDWESTERN IMPERIALISM, 1400 TO THE PRESENT (2009)TECHNOLOGY: A WORLD HISTORY (2009)THE EARTH AND ITS PEOPLES (2008)

WHEN INFORMATION CAME OF AGE (2000)THE INVISIBLE WEAPON (1991)THE TENTACLES OF PROGRESS (1988)THE TOOLS OF EMPIRE (1981)

Over 28 Articles Published in Journals as well


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1. Systems used to gather information,2. Systems for naming, classifying and organizing

information,

3. Systems to transform information from one form toanother,4. Systems designed for storing and retrieving

information, and

5. Systems for communicating information.


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Examples from the book:Carl Von Linne (Linnaeus) information system andcoding device for botany being used more than twocenturiesMetric SystemLavoisier & Guyton de Morveau/Chemistry Revolution


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Statistics (Creation & Evolution of)Censuses Americans: A Calculating People (what's the

difference?)British Statistical Movement


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Maps & Graphs Visual RepresentationMapping the Land

Mapping the Sea Above & Below the Surface of the EarthStatistical GraphsThematic Maps


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Dictionaries & EncyclopediasThe Evolution of DictionariesFrom Dictionaries to Encyclopedias

Universal Encyclopedias Alphabetical Vs Thematic OrderOther Reference Works


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Postal & Telegraphic SystemsCommunication SystemsPostal Systems before the 18 th Century European Postal Systems to 1840Two Postal RevolutionsThe Chappe TelegraphOptical Telegraph Networks to 1815

Optical Telegraph Networks after 1815Optical to Electric Telegraphy Naval Signaling


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Daniel Headrick quietly cheats his readers by his classification of information systems. He defines five categories and it appears thatthere is a chapter dedicated to each one. However, both chapters three(The Origin of Statistics) and four (Maps and Graphs) are dealing withcategory three (transforming information). There is no chapterdedicated only to category one (gathering information). Why? Is it dueto all of these chapters touching on gathering information in one way

or another? Is it because this is one of the overriding themes of the whole bookgathering more and more information?On the chapter for storing information, the author calls the World

Wide Web a universal encyclopedia that has no organization,principles and countless unlearned authors. Headrick even mentions

that would leave Coronelli and Zedler breathless. Even thoughHeadrick wrote this in 2000, this seems an accurate description of Wikipedia. Does this relatively new online resource fit the originaldriving force of the first encyclopedia authors to create a work thatshows knowledge is both finite and comprehensible? Is it the next step

in this process or a step back without proper guiding principles?


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The Rise of System in American Management JoAnne Yates


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Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management at the MITSloan School of ManagementHas Been at MIT Since 1980Ph.D. University of North Carolina (1980)

Recipient of Waldo Gifford Leland Prize of the Society of American Archivists (For Control ThroughCommunication )Other Works:

Structuring the Information Age: Life Insurance and Information Technology in the 20 th Century (2005)Structuring the Information Age: Life Insurance and Information Technology in the 20 th Century (2001)


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Most Managers Oral Communicators Written Word Mainly Limited to Journals & LedgersRailroad Companies tended to be the ones to embrace

communication technology firstThe growth of companies increased need for bettercommunication meansTelegraph, typewriter, carbon paper, duplicatingmachines and vertical files were all early inventions


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Illinois Central Railroad (Stuyvesant Fish)Federal Regulation Interstate Commerce Act Annual Reports from all Common Carriers

Scovill Manufacturing Company (John H. Goss)1,000 to 4,000 employee growth in less than 25 yearsForemen and superintendents had too much powerSystematic Management Dependent on various types of documentation (regulations put in placeexceptionsrecorded written approval)

E.I. du Pont Nemours & Company Too many small companies & plantsNew management (3 partners) wanted to consolidateOne-man rule became management by committee Active corporate memory A system of minutes and reports


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Authority (Clanchy) witness, testimony, behavior,right to commandHegemony (Headrick) ideology, beliefs, values,influence, intellectual, leadershipControl (Yates) regulate, dominate, structure,manage, order, commandPower ability to act, produce an outcomeHistorians look for context

Age of Reason Age of RevolutionIndustrial Revolution


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How has a shift from paper based records to electronicrecords impacted our roles as archivists? What can be deduced about the need for Corporate Archivists and their specific functions from the readingsand case studies in Control Through Communication ?In what ways has communication become a system?How has internal, written documentation helped shapeand define the role of corporate record keeping?In what ways des information management in businessparallel information management in the archival world?


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Or should we blame this all onthe French Revolution???


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French Revolution Defining Moment in ArchivalDevelopmentNational Archives

Centralize 405 Archival Repositories in Paris and 5,700outside the capital

First Archivist - Armand-Gaston Camus (ties in withBrichford article)

Various policies, acts, and legislation arecovered/described


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Leopold von Ranke (father of scientific theory) Authored 63 volumes Won faculty appointment at BerlinGreat passion for memoirs, diaries, letters, reports,narratives

Three Prussian Archival TheoristsThe Zeitschrift fur Archivkunde, Diplomatik andGeschichteFriedrich L. von Medem, Ludwig F. Hoefer and Heinrich A. Erhard

Max Lehmann Adoption of Principle of Provenance


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Samuel MullerExpanded on what their French and German colleagueshad createdSon of an antiquarian and bookseller

Studied law in Amsterdam and history in Leiden Age of 25, appointed municipal archivist at Utrecht (he was promoted 6 years later and served there till the ageof 70)Declined 4 professorshipsRude and dislikedBUT has since been acknowledged atthe leader of Dutch archivists Why???


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Took an archives filled with material pushed into cigarboxes and a leaky roof and created a respectableinstitutionBelieved strongly in the organic nature of archives ascompared to a preconceived library-type subjectsystemHelped lead the Association of Archivists andpublishing of their famous manual on archival

practice, Handleiding Early believer in marketing archivesdont hide yourlight under a busselProvenance, provenance, provenance!!!


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An instant success Translated into German in 1905French in 1910

English in 1940Portuguese in 1960Greater uniformityeventually becoming canon law


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European archival history and profession little morethan an illusion and little less than absurdity Archival administration grew as a natural organicphenomenon???Roman Empire examples lostMonarchs, Feudal Powers, the Church, Towns allorganized their records keeping independently

13th and 14th Centurieslocal and nationaladministrations began to emerge


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1542- Archivo de Simancas in SpainBy 1567all records of the councils, courts, chanceries,secretaries and treasuries of the crown resided there

1610 Levinus Monk & Thomas Wilson (appointed by James I) as Keepers & Registers of Papers & Records 1610 Vatican Archives createdBirth of administrative monarchies

Local administrations multipliedSpecialization became more commonProduction of records skyrocketed


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Enlightment era brought a fondness for classificationsystemsand this was the common arrangement then inarchives1841 respect des fonds Provenance defined by archivist,librarian and historian Natalis de Wailly.

It is fitting to formulate . . . the principle and the elements of the method to follow in classification and to define the resultswhich one is seeking: [in part] to assemble the differentdocuments by fonds, that is to say, to form a collection of all the documents which originate from a body, an organization,a family or an individual, and to arrange the different fondsaccording to a certain order.

Provided the archive profession with a unique identity


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Does modern European theory match up with Americas archives today? What are the many differences and/or similarities? Is there some sort of global theory of archives now?

6620-week viii-when information came of age

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