The Challenge of Archival Practices' Context for a Better Understanding of Data Web Archives at Aix-Marseille University
Résumé
Web archives have become a key data source within universities—produced and reused like any other type of data. One particular aspect of this issue is that the teams working on it are diverse and multidisciplinary, and in the case of this session, all of them focus on the Mediterranean region. Chaired by Sophie Gebeil (UMR TELEMMe), this panel session addresses the theme of the conference ‘Web Archiving Data Practices and Challenges’ by discussing the differentiated practices and challenges of archived web data for Mediterranean studies. It will introduce three speakers from different professions at Aix-Marseille University (AMU), each with distinct expertise in web data. They incorporate web archives into their work in various ways, such as tracking the progress of research programs, supporting PhD students with their theses, or archiving researchers’ outputs. Christine Mussard, historian and deputy director of the IREMAM research laboratory, demonstrates how investigative practices are transformed through contact with web archives. Véronique Ginouvès, head of the MMSH archives, shares the challenges related to the preservation of online databases managed by the MMSH. Finally, JC Peyssard, head of the MMSH media library, shows how his own expert practices intersect with the support requests from novice researchers who are unaware that understanding the datafied web also requires a hermeneutic reflection. At the MMSH, web archiving practices span from considering web archives as historical material (Brügger, 2012) and as a critical method (Weber, 2020), to viewing web archives as a domain of expertise in data analysis within the humanities and social sciences, in order to address the challenges faced by a research community dealing with impeded fieldwork.The presentation aims to highlight the necessity of working together in order to, over the long term, understand, use, and about data web archives, while documenting who is involved and how they do it. It demonstrates the necessity of an inter and transdisciplinary approach that combines specialized expertise of academics and non academics to transform practices and address the challenges posed by the datafied web in the study of Mediterranean societies. The web archive as a resource in an impeded field: from a substitute source to a major trace in the development of colonial history Christine Mussard (MCF HDR - INSPÉ - UMR IREMAM) The practice of social science research presupposes a regular relationship with the field of study, which is seen as a place where the subject matter can be impregnated and where a wide range of data can be collected. In recent years, the Covid epidemic has hampered access to these experimental spaces, forcing researchers to invent other ways of reaching them. For researchers involved in projects in the Arab world, geopolitical tensions have exacerbated these obstacles even further. The Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds (IREMAM) conducts research on the entire Middle East and North Africa region in all the social sciences and humanities. Access to land is regularly restricted or even forbidden, as conflicts erupt between Middle Eastern states. The use of web archives and, more generally, digital data has become more widespread among researchers, who have had to develop new skills to make use of them. In this presentation, I propose to show, through the prism of a research experience in the history of Algeria under French domination, the evolving approach I have taken to the web archive, initially considered as a substitute material pending access to the source in situ, then envisaged as a central piece of my documentation. This reflection therefore looks at the way in which a constrained context affects the historian's relationship with his sources, including testimonies, generating an unexpected renewal of their uses, and a revision of the way in which they are related and ranked. However, in addition to the odd photo and memory I took from these websites, I was also able to see the different ways of presenting the school memories which occupied a large part of these community sharing platforms. They revealed how the contributors were attempting to reunite classes in today’s very different French Algeria, providing insights into the social connections of the past and the form they take today. The aim of this presentation is, therefore, to investigate the different ways of using these websites which tell memory- packed stories, sorting the real from the fake in terms of the sources and understanding the practice of memory expression as a research topic. Neglect, Stammering, Focus: Processes of an Archival Experience of Archive Collections and Audiovisual Projects at AMU Posted on the Web Over the Past 30 Year Véronique Ginouvès (IRHC CNRS, UAR3125) The presentation aims to offer both a reflective history of practices and to highlight the challenges faced by a Mediterranean sound archives and research center at Aix-Marseille University, as the world of the web and its uses unfolds. The first email written from the UMR TELEMMe, my laboratory created in 1994 at the Université de Provence, was sent from the Sound Archives Department in 1995, yet it was never archived. The first online sound archives database, was created using MySQL in 1997, it left no trace. The first relational database software that facilitated the online publication and documentation of the sound archives dates back to the early 2000s, but it was only in 2005 that we thought to archive parts of this documentation on the Wayback Machine. In 2020, the database software the Sound archives center had been using was acquired and a retroconversion of all metadata was required. We did it in EAD format and made an export in DC format from the OAIPMH repository ; we hope the metadata of the new platform will soon be archived at CINES – it is the platform of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. The editorial projects of the "Pôle image-sons, pratiques du numérique" in which I have been involved since 1998, could now be described using terms like "new media" or "alternative narratives." These projects were online and operated with Adobe Flash. Fortunately, this time, we archived them using Conifer and the Wayback Machine before Flash's discontinuation in 2019. In recent months, we contacted INA for legal web deposit, and we are awaiting confirmation on whether the database will be included. The blog for the "Pôle images-sons pratiques du numérique" project, which captured content from the older site (the form is available on the Wayback Machine), is saved on the CINES servers by the platform Hypotheses itself. The web archiving process for projects from an archival center requires careful foresight. However, the first challenge is simply remembering to think about it. Using a data base daily fosters a form of negligence: tomorrow, I will still have access to the site, and the day after that as well. Yet, there comes a day when everything stops. As I write this summary, the Wayback Machine has been forced to suspend operations due to a cyberattack—a sobering reminder of the fragility of our web archiving efforts and the limited tools available to us.This presentation also aims to highlight the issue of web archive hosting, considering the various archiving spaces while recognizing the risks inherent in large, centralized spaces that host data and which are often seen as high-value targets for hackers. Web Archives as a Substitute for Fieldwork: Lessons from a Decade of Research in the MENA Region Jean-Christophe Peyssard (IR CNRS, UAR3125) For nearly a decade, numerous researchers and students have turned to web sources for their research. The centrality of the web and social media in global culture, coupled with increasing difficulties in accessing field sites—or complete inaccessibility in certain areas—has significantly contributed to this trend. The impeded fieldwork is now often replaced by digital fieldwork across all disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. Archaeologists have become engrossed in digital archives, while anthropologists, political scientists, and sociologists have spread across social networks and online video platforms, collecting disordered and context-lacking data on their hard drives during their explorations. Simultaneously, research libraries are beginning to recognize the crucial issues related to the consultation, collection, and preservation of web-based corpora (Neal, 2014), and are witnessing an increasing number of users confronted with these new field materials. The field of web archives has become highly structured since the creation of the IIPC in 2003. The tools, methods (Brügger, 2018), and research collectives are now well-established and have proven their relevance. However, vernacular and improvised uses of web sources remain largely the norm within the within the community, as observed from the research library of the MMSH (AMU). After a decade of experience in training, supporting, and conducting projects using web archives focused on the Middle East and North Africa area, this presentation aims to provide an assessment and offer perspectives on the difficulties and challenges encountered. Can digital fieldwork substitute for impeded fieldwork? Under what conditions can web archives provide genuinely useful knowledge in the study of a society and its social and cultural realities? What are the necessary skills and knowledge prerequisites for an ethical and useful use of web archives in the context of impeded fieldwork? References Brügger, Niels. 2012. “Web History and the Web as a Historical Source.” Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History, Online-Ausgabe, 9(2). https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/2-2012/4426. https://doi.org/10.14765/zzf.dok-1588. Brügger, Niels. 2018. The Archived Web: Doing History in the Digital Age. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. https://search.worldcat.org/fr/search?q=bn:9780262039024. Gebeil, Sophie. 2021. Website Story: Histoire, Mémoires et Archives du Web. Bry-sur-Marne: INA. Gebeil, Sophie, and Jean-Christophe Peyssard, eds. 2023. Exploring the Archived Web during a Highly Transformative Age: Proceedings of the 5th International RESAW Conference, Marseille, June 2023, FUP. https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0413-2. Mussard, Christine. 2024. “Websites as Historical Sources? The Benefits and Limitations of Using the Websites of Former Repatriates for the History of Schooling in Colonial Algeria.” In Exploring the Archived Web during a Highly Transformative Age, edited by Sophie Gebeil and Jean-Christophe Peyssard. 10.36253/979-12-215-0413-2.27. Neal, James G. 2014. “The Integrity of Research Is at Risk: Capturing and Preserving Web Sites and Web Documents and the Implications for Resource Sharing.” Lyon, France. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/907. Weber, Matthew S. 2020. Web Archives: A Critical Method for the Future of Digital Research. Published by the research network WARCnet, Aarhus.
