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The
InterPARES 2 Project was an international, multidisciplinary collaboration
that applied a multi-method approach to the development of concepts,
processes and tools to help in the securing of a protected
and lasting environment for the digital records produced in interactive,
dynamic and experiential systems in the course of artistic, scientific
and governmental activities.
Guiding Methodological
Principles
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Interdisciplinarity
The Project was interdisciplinary in the measure in which its
goal and objectives could only be achieved through the contribution
of several disciplines. For example, one of the methods chosen
to develop ways of creating records whose accuracy and reliability
can be protected overtime was to conduct an exploratory study
of cases in each of the areas of activity identified.
To analyze the nature, characteristics, behaviour, relationships
and process of creation of the interactive, dynamic and experiential
records produced in the course of artistic, scientific and governmental
activities, we needed to gather a deep understanding of those
activities, their purpose, their phases and the component actions,
their byproducts and their structure, and their context, but
also their technological environment and their use. Thus, to
understand the records generated in the course of producing
digital music, for example, we needed music theorists and composers,
as well computer engineers and scientists, and music historians.
Also to analyze the results of the case studies we needed the
contribution of methodologies developed in the context of a
variety of disciplines. Among these, text analysis, diplomatic
analysis, statistical analysis, etc.
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Transferability
The ultimate goal of the Project was archival in nature, in that
it was concerned with the development of trusted record-making,
recordkeeping and record preservation systems that ensure
the authenticity of the records under examination over the long
term. This implied that the work carried out throughout the
Project in the various disciplinary areas must be constantly
translated in archival terms and linked to archival concepts,
which are the foundation upon which the systems intended to
protect the records are designed. However, upon completion of
the research, the archival systems needed to be made accessible
and comprehensible to records creators, organizations and institutions
and disciplinary researchers. In other words, the research outcomes
had to be translated back into the language and concepts of each
discipline that need to make use of them. In light of the above,
it was essential to examine the key archival concepts that were
at the core of the InterPARES 2 research, so that each discipline
could identify the corresponding entities within its own body
of knowledge.
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Open Inquiry
InterPARES 1 had its epistemological roots in the humanities,
specifically in diplomatics and archival science. In contrast,
InterPARES 2, while planning as one part of its research to
test some of the outcomes of InterPARES 1 in a range of applied
settings, espoused no epistemological perspective or intellectual
definitions a priori. Instead, researchers in each working group
identified the perspective(s), research design, and methods
that they believed to be most appropriate to their inquiry. The
reason for this openness was that InterPARES 2 was conceived to
work as a “layered knowledge” environment, in the
sense that some of the research work would build upon knowledge
developed in the course of the UBC Project and InterPARES 1,
some would take knowledge of similar issues developed in other
areas of endeavour and bring it to bear on records creation
and preservation, some would reconcile knowledge about records
and their attributes, elements, characteristics, behaviour and
qualities existing in various disciplines and develop it for
archival purposes, and some would explore new issues and study
entities never examined before and develop entirely new knowledge.
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Multi-method Design
Each case study, as well as each of the other research activities,
was carried out using the methodology and the tools that
the dedicated investigating team considered the most appropriate
for it. The methods used were surveys, case studies, general studies, modeling,
prototyping, diplomatic and archival analysis, and text analysis.
The research was guided by the research questions organized
by domain and cross-domain, which were developed for the research
project proposal and were posted as the “IP2 Research Questions.”
In addition, the researchers themselves, in preparing their
case studies tools and framing their inquiries, were guided
by 23 Questions developed by the International
Team.
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