The Grande Bibliothèque du Québec (GBQ), the merger of the National Library of Québec with the Central Municipal Library of Montréal in a ninety-million dollar construction project which opened in the spring of 2005, serves as the point of departure and as a model and metaphor for reflection on the significance of libraries in the cultural life of a society and in the construction of social identity. The province of Québec is unique, not only because it is the sole province in Canada where the citizens are a French language majority, but also because it is the only province to have established its own national library. The Bibliothèque nationale du Québec and other significant libraries around the world collect and preserve memory in ways that create a context for cultural recall. Government and religious leaders have, for a long time, recognized the potential that libraries have in influencing popular thought and ideas of citizens. In societies where democratization of information is fostered, libraries are promoted as a source of pride and cultural achievement in buildings that are constructed as architectural monuments. In war-torn regions or in areas under authoritarian control, library materials are censured and cultural epochs are erased or destroyed. The heated debates that took place at the turn of the late 19th and early 20th century over the creation of a public or municipal library in Montréal and in the struggle between religious and secular forces over control and direction of public reading characterize a lengthy discourse that parallels the development of the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec and of public libraries in Québec. The various stages of evolution and current metamorphosis of the Bibliothèque nationale / Grande Bibliothèque can be viewed as a reflection of the evolution and metamorphosis of society and cultural memory in Québec throughout the nineteenth century to the present.

Thesis (M.A. (Hons.) - Visual Arts) -- University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1997. / Bibliography : p. 42-45.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Vermont, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 180-190).

Den här uppsatsen hanterar ämnet om ett nukleärt arv och minne genom en fallstudie bunden till fyra identifierade aktörer. Alla fyra arbetar med etablerandet av ett slutförvar för högaktivt och långlivat radioaktivt avfall vilket förväntas vara fortsatt farligt under 100,000-tals år. På grund av det enorma tidsspann det gäller lyfter uppsatsen även koncept så som djup tid och den antropocena tidsåldern som bakgrund till sitt ämnesmaterial. Uppsatsen håller även ett fokus på ansvarsfrågan, då det visade sig att det inte fanns något tydligt svar på frågan om vem som höll det primära ansvaret i frågan av informationsbevaring hos aktörerna, om det ens skulle falla fullkomligen till någon av dem, i deras egna ögon. Uppsatsen är centrerad kring arbetet i Sverige, och inte på en explicit internationell nivå. Genom att använda värdebaserade teorier tillsammans med Pierre Noras teori om platser av minne närmar sig uppsatsen frågan om hur aktörer arbetar med informationsbevaring och kunskapshantering, samt hur minnesinstitutioner så som arkiv kan bidra i deras arbete. Generellt visade det sig att aktörernas arbete med informationsbevaring låg på en primärt teoretisk nivå med lite försök till konkretisering av planer. Olika ideer som är menade att underlätta i processen för långtidsinformationsbevaring presenteras, så som markörer, markeringssystem, och immateriella och materiella minnesplatser. Minnesinstitutioner skulle kunna spela en viktig roll inom informationsbevaring för aktörerna som är ansvariga för slutförvaret, två primära sätt presenteras i uppsatsen, (1) arkivhandlingar, och (2) involverandet av Riksantikvarieämbetet. Detta är en två-årig masteruppsats inom musei- och kulturarvsvetenskap. / This thesis handles the subject of nuclear heritage and memory through a case study surrounding the work with information preservation of 4 identified main actors. The information preservation is in turn centred around the potential establishing of a future final repository for highly active and long-lived radioactive waste, which is expected to still be dangerous within 100,000’s of years. Because of these immense time frames the thesis also takes concepts such as deep time and the Anthropocene into account as background to its subject matter. The thesis holds a focus on the responsibility question, as there turned out to be no unambiguous answer to the question of who were to hold responsibility, if any of them were to hold responsibility, in the eyes of the actors.  The case study is centred around the work in Sweden, and not on an explicitly international scale. By using value-based theories as well as Pierre Nora’s theory of sites of memory the thesis approaches the issue of how actors work with information preservation as well as how memory institutions such as archives can contribute to their efforts.   In general, it is found that the actors’ work with information preservation is primarily theoretical with little attempt at concrete executions of solid plans. Different ideas that are meant to facilitate long-term information preservation are presented, such as markers and marking systems, as well as tangible and intangible sites of memory. Memory institutions could play an important role in information preservation for the actors in charge of the repository, two primary ways this could be the case is presented in this thesis, (1) archival records, and (2) involvement of the Swedish National Heritage Board. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.

When South Africa became a democracy, many of its cultural institutions were tainted by the stigma of having been tools for the production and propagation of apartheid ideology. This thesis examines two key facets of post-apartheid museums and memorials. Firstly, how they have repositioned themselves as institutions of cultural and social standing. Secondly, their role as tools of nation building, social change, and creators of national collective memory within the new democratic South Africa. Through an analysis of cultural memory theory pertaining to museology, this study elaborates on the methods employed by museums to incorporate memory into their narratives and in turn, transfer collective memory to their viewers. This thesis provides a comparative study of the architectural, memorial and museological strategies of two post-apartheid museums; the Red Location Museum and the Apartbeid Museum. It examines the contributions of both museums to the introduction of new museological strategies for the successful creation and transmission of South African collective memory. Through this analysis, both the invaluable contributions and the drawbacks of post-apartheid museums as tools for the promotion of new democratic ideologies and philosophies are considered. This thesis does not resolve the arguments and questions which have surfaced regarding cultural institutions as tools for the promotion of reconciliation and the construction of national collective memory within South Africa. As the current climate of memorialisation is one of change and paradox, it is presently impossible to fully quantify post-apartheid museums' roles within South Africa's move toward reconciliation and social change. However, the examination of both the Red Location Museum and the Apartheid Museum reveals the extraordinary change that South African cultural institutions have undergone in addition to their potential to become institutions which facilitate active reconciliation as well as social and cultural growth.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Following the end of the American Civil War in 1865, thousands of Union veterans joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the largest Union veterans' fraternal organization in the United States. Upwards of 25,000 Hoosier veterans were members in the Department of Indiana by 1890, including President Benjamin Harrison and General Lew Wallace. This thesis argues that Indiana GAR members met in fraternity to share and construct memories of the Civil War that helped make sense of the past and the present. Indiana GAR members took it upon themselves after the war to act as gatekeepers of Civil War memory in the Hoosier state, publicly arguing that important values they acquired through armed conflict—obedience to authority, duty, selflessness, honor, and love of country—were losing relevance in an increasingly industrialized society that seemingly valued selfishness, materialism, and political radicalism. This thesis explores the creation of Civil War memories and GAR identity, the historical origins of Memorial Day in Indiana, and the Indiana GAR's struggle to incorporate ideals of "patriotic instruction" in public school history classrooms throughout the state.