Heather MacNeil

“This critique calls for reorientation of the archival enterprise rather than wholesale abandonment of the traditional view of the nature of archives. It is more about the role archivists and archival institutions should play in society than it is about elaborating the theory and methods that guide practice. It reflects currents in recent intellectual history that have definitely alerted us that our view of archives is contingent upon a host of factors of their production, use, and transmission. It is indeed true that little about archives is simple, stable, and uncontested. It may be advanced that all sides in the debates about the orientation of archival science and archival work can agree that humanity does indeed rely on archives in many ways. They oil the wheels of governance and commerce; they help render account of the discharge of responsibilities; they provide essential and unique access to what was done in the past; however, much our view of the past is mediated by the purposes of the viewer and limited by the circumstances in which archives are formed and communicated through time.”
― Heather MacNeil, Currents of Archival Thinking, 2nd Edition