Memory institutions

Memory institution

A metaphor about libraries and other institutions.

Memory institutions - according to Hjerppe (1994) are for example libraries, museums, archives, cultural heritage institutions like monuments and places, botanical gardens, zoological gardens and all kinds of "collecting institutions".

Also other kinds of social memory institutions may be considered, e.g. scientific journals (in particular "archival journals"), educational institutions and teaching practices, which communicate knowledge from one generation to another are more implicit kinds of memory institutions.

There may be good reasons to regard the common aspects of such memory institutions. There is an increasing tendency to look at archival studies, library studies, and museum studies as part of a broader field of information science. One reason for this development is that such institutions increasingly orient themselves towards digital media, thus increasingly sharing common problems.

Literature:

Bowker, G. C. (2006). Memory Practices in the Sciences. The MIT Press.

Hjerppe, R. (1994). A Framework for the Description of Generalized Documents. Advances in Knowledge Organization, 4, 173-180.

White, H. D. (1992). External Memory. Pp. 249-294 IN: White, Howard D.; Marcia J. Bates & Patrick Wilson: For Information Specialists. Interpretations of Reference and Bibliographic Work. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corp.