To have and to hold: exploring the personal archive

The personal archive is not only about efficient storage and retrieval of information. This paper describes a study of forty-eight academics and the techniques and tools they use to manage their digital and material archiving of papers, emails, documents, internet bookmarks, correspondence, and other artifacts. We present two sets of results: we first discuss rationales behind subjects' archiving, which go beyond information retrieval to include creating a legacy, sharing resources, confronting fears and anxieties, and identity construction. We then show how these rationales were mapped into our subjects' physical, social and electronic spaces, and discuss implications for development of digital tools that allow for personal archiving. Author Keywords Archiving, ethnography, identity, filing, email, bookmarks. ACM Classification Keywords H.3.m [Information Storage and Retrieval]: Miscellaneous.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Joseph Kaye, Janet Vertesi, Shari Avery, Allan Dafoe, Shay David, Lisa Onaga, Ivan Rosero, Trevor Pinch
• Keywords: ACM Classification Keywords, CHI 2006, Human Computer Interaction, Material Archiving, Personal Archiving