University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Personal Collections and Personal Information Management in the Family Context

Krtalić, Maja; Dinneen, Jesse David; Liew, Chern Li; Goulding, Anne

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/113658

Description

Title
Personal Collections and Personal Information Management in the Family Context
Author(s)
  • Krtalić, Maja
  • Dinneen, Jesse David
  • Liew, Chern Li
  • Goulding, Anne
Issue Date
2021
Keyword(s)
  • Family
  • GLAM
  • Personal collections
Abstract
People who produce something notable for future generations during their lives often have collections of documents and artifacts with potential cultural heritage value, but such collections can be lost forever just as easily as preserved and enjoyed by future generations. This paper reports on five case studies of significant individuals’ collections to explore how such individuals and their families value and manage their collections, the decisions they make and challenges they face in doing so, and what effects these and other challenges may have on the transference of their collections to preservation institutions. We found that family bonds play a significant role when deciding what to do with a collection, as does having the awareness, skills, and support to organize collections and negotiate with libraries, archives, and museums. Participants viewed personal collections as proof of their professional identities and as having valuable storytelling potential. However, the locus of responsibility for safeguarding personal collections of significant individuals remains unclear. The paper outlines how to more effectively organize personal collections and protect them from being lost and contributes to closing a knowledge gap at the intersection of several areas of information science, namely information behavior, personal information management, and cultural heritage management.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Illinois School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Library Trends 70 (2). Fall 2021
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113658
DOI
10.1353/lib.2021.0020
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2021 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 70 (2) Fall 2021: Family Matters: Mapping Information Phenomena within the Context of the Family PRIMARY
Library Trends 70 (2) Fall 2021: Family Matters: Mapping Information Phenomena within the Context of the Family. Edited by Nicole K. Dalmer and Sarah Barriage.