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Affect and rapid response collecting: exploring the significance of emotion in UK archives’ COVID-19 collecting projects

Bannell, Kay; Sexton, Anna; (2024) Affect and rapid response collecting: exploring the significance of emotion in UK archives’ COVID-19 collecting projects. Archives and Records pp. 1-23. 10.1080/23257962.2024.2351378. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

This article explores the affective connotations and emotive implications of archiving in extraordinary times. It examines how ‘rapid response collecting,’ the practice of documenting crises, upheavals, and tragedies during their unfolding or in their immediate aftermath, is felt through an affect-centric examination of COVID-19 collecting in the UK archives sector. An anonymous, online survey of archivists involved in documenting the pandemic was conducted — the first empirical study of archives workers’ experiences of rapid response collecting — to assess emotional reactions and perceptions of wellbeing whilst undertaking rapid response collecting initiatives. Emergent themes surfaced by analysing the qualitative and quantitative data related to the idiosyncrasy of emotive potentiality, the influence of support and training in mitigating adverse psychological effects, and the current lack of fully embedded trauma-informed approaches in rapid response collecting efforts. Whilst acknowledging the particularities of COVID-19 collecting and the small scale of the study, this research indicates that educators, scholars, and professional bodies need to do more to prepare practitioners for the role emotions can play in rapid response collecting. It ultimately contends that a trauma-informed approach is essential if we are to protect the psychological safety of all in future rapid response collecting endeavours.

Type: Article
Title: Affect and rapid response collecting: exploring the significance of emotion in UK archives’ COVID-19 collecting projects
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/23257962.2024.2351378
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23257962.2024.2351378
Language: English
Additional information: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Keywords: Affect; emotion; trauma-informed; rapid response collecting; COVID-19
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Information Studies
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10193684
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