Do archives have value?

摘要

This book is a collection of essays written by archive and record-keeping professionals from around the world, each discussing the use and value of archives and records in contemporary society. When I started reading the book towards the end of 2019,I could not envisage that it would become quite so uncannily relevant by the time of writing this review, in May 2020. The introduction includes a very good contextualization section entitled The crisis facing archives', which places the contents of the volume right up-to-date. It highlights political and economic pressures that are likely to affect funding to archive services for the foreseeable future, in the UK and abroad. As we are in the grip of the COVID crisis, with renewed strains on the economy and areas such as the arts and culture being badly affected, it is more important than ever to be able to advocate for the value of our sector.