Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
2) The role of the analyst is one of several which characterize work in the
context of digital archives (or libraries). Other important roles are, for instance: the
role of the publisher
and the
role of the knowledge engineer*
(or the “concept
designer”).
3) The role of analyst takes a number of rather different forms: simple “day-to-
day” activity of classifying personal archives; the work of the librarian/archivist,
classifying and indexing a collection according to predefined criteria; or the work of
a specialist (an “expert”) in the field documented by an audiovisual corpus.
4) The role of the analyst requires a number of skills (i.e. knowledge and
knowhow), of which the following three must be highlighted: a)
textual analysis
skills
(i.e. the ability to produce a so-called semiotic expert assessment);
b)
analytical skill
(i.e. the ability to produce a so-called referential expert
assessment); and c) knowledge and knowhow of the
technologies and tools
needed
to carry out and disseminate an analysis (i.e. always being abreast of technological
developments, identifying the techniques and tools which are appropriate to the
analysis and making effective use of these techniques and tools to carry out and
disseminate the analysis).
5) Given the increasingly obvious importance of identifying, describing,
publishing, disseminating and appropriating relevant information in the context of a
society which is largely conditioned by a knowledge-based economy, the role of the
analyst is now rapidly evolving and tends to include new disciplines and
professional skills.
Archive(s)
1) This term is employed, here, in a very broad sense, corresponding to its use in
the context of digital archives.
2) An archive is made up of a textual collection which forms an
(evolving)space
of
(potential)
knowledge
, and therefore also of values, beliefs,
savoir-faire
,
ideologies of “group thinking”, etc. In other words, an archive can be considered a
form of
textualmaterializationofaculture
, of a frame of reference (to use the words
of Charles Taylor [TAY 98]) for a person, a social group, an institution (see
[STO 11d]. Thus, an archive fulfills different essential functions in the constitution,
maintenance and evolution of an individual or collective identity and of the
transmission of that identity. In addition, an archive constitutes one of the most
significant resources for the expert activity called
cultural
(geopolitical, linguistic,
social, economic, etc.)
analysis
and
assessment
.
3) Adopting a textual and discursive approach (popularized by the expression
linguistic turn
[CRA 08] and at the root of which stand such academic figures as
