For my advanced degree in archival science, I have organised and catalogued two family archives; man Family Archives ("Gardtmanska släktarkivet") and the Hamnström Family Archives ("Hamnströmska säk- tarkivet"). Though both could be labelled "family archives", there were many differences between the two. The Gardtman Family Archives contained the records of several family members from a period of several centuries, spanning from the early 17th century, to the early 20th century. It was by far the larger of the two archives. A substantial part of the records consisted of documents regarding various agricultural estates the family had owned or been involved with in one way or another. The Hamnström Family Archives was smaller than the Gardtman Family Archives. It was of a more recent date. It contained also contained records from a more con- densed period of time; most of the records were from the 20th century. A large part of the material consisted of photographs from the early 20th century.    The different nature of the two archives made different organising and cataloguing principles suitable. I organised the Gardtman Family Archives more or less chronologically. My judgement was that other organising principles would destroy the provenance too much. I organised the Hamnström Family Archives according to the Martin Grass scheme for personal archives. Though it contained records from more than one person, it had many of the characteristics of a personal archive, since the persons lived during a relatively brief period of time.    In a final, theoretical part of this essay, I discuss some theoretical issues surrounding family archives, with special focus on provenance and appraisal.

For my advanced degree in archival science, I have organized and catalogued the Blomqvist family archive.  The Blomqvist family archive consists of records from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21th century. The records in the archive depict and describe different aspect of the Blomqvist familys life and work. Specific problems and theoretical questions that appeared during the cataloguing of the Blomqvist archive were related to the great presence of objects and photographs in the archive. A discussion concerning the role of objects in archives and within archive institution took place. The problem with cataloguing photographs as well as the problem of searching for photographs in archives, were also discussed.

Uppsatsen behandlar hur Riksarkivet, trots avsaknaden av tvingande juridiska bevarandekrav, agerat i frågan kring bevarandet av personarkiv och hur detta i sin tur har avspeglats i arkivinstitutionens beståndsprofil under perioden 1901-2002. Ämnet är av intresse då tidigare forskning kring personarkiv främst koncentrerats till ordnings- och förteckningsprinciper eller frågor kring personarkivens användningsområden för forskarsamhället.  Undersökningens teoretiska ramverk utgår från att arkiven inte är neutrala förmedlare av historien, utan aktivt formas av den rådande tidsandans idéer och förutsättningar. Därigenom blir arkivarierna, genom sina ageranden och ställningstaganden, viktiga aktörer i konstruktionen av det förflutna. En annan viktig teoretisk utgångspunkt för studien är hur minneskategorierna; kollektivt minne, personligt minne, arkivminne och historiskt minne, interagerar med varandra för att forma vår förståelse av det förgångna.             Undersökningen består metodologiskt av två delstudier – en kvalitativt inspirerad studie av myndighetens egenproducerade handlingar för att utröna agerandet i personarkivsfrågan, och en kvantitativ motsvarighet för att belysa hur detta avspeglats i myndighetens personarkivsbestånd, där källmaterialet bestått i Riksarkivets beståndsöversikt över person- släkt- och gårdsarkiv.  Resultatet visar att Riksarkivet under åren 1901-2002 går från att vara en institution med ett ganska svalt intresse för personarkiv till att bli en aktör som på ett aktivt sätt både insamlar och genererar nytt personarkivsmaterial. Resultatet visar också att Riksarkivet inte haft någon tydlig förvärvspolicy eller fört någon mer teoretisk diskussion kring förvärvsstrategier under åren, annat än att man förvärvar arkiv av ”nationellt intresse”. Av denna anledning har enskilda aktörer inom Riksarkivet i stor utsträckning kunnat påverka riktningen på arbetet gentemot personarkiv och i förlängningen också samhällets kollektiva minne, även om den allra största påverkansfaktorn för beståndets utseende har varit institutionens nära koppling till historievetenskapen. I ett större sammanhang pekar resultatet på nödvändigheten i att arkivinstitutionerna, och också arkivsamfundet i sin helhet, på ett tydligt sätt diskuterar förvärvsstrategier och bevarandeaspekter också inom personarkivsfältet, för att kunna erbjuda ett mindre slumpmässigt format personarkivsbestånd.

This essay has its background in the work I’ve been conducting organizing and cataloging two personal archives concerning the life and work of two vicars, Johan Axel Björkman and P.A. Björkman. The time span of the papers stretches from 1823 to 1982. The main problems I’ve been confronted with during this work have to do with respecting provenance and original order. I discuss these principles in relation to the experiences I’ve had with the vicar archives as well as to the special character of personal archives in general. I also discuss the use of Martin Grass’ scheme for personal archives. The essay constitutes my one year master’s thesis in archival science.

Digitization is a concept that has become popular in terms of collections of old heritage-related material such as books, photographs and paper documents. This work is a study of the Swedish composer Allan Pettersson (1911–1980) and his personal archive stored at Section for Manuscripts and Music at Uppsala University Library. My issues are What happens to the archive of the digitized? Will there be a "new" archive of the digitized? What guidelines are Uppsala University Library using for their digitizing and how do they look? What will be the result after digitization? What about copyright and the material? Allan Pettersson's personal papers consist a large collection of sketches of musical notes, newspaper clippings and concert programs. The material is at the time of writing, not digitized except the archive description list. The idea of this work is to show what can happen if a personal archive is digitized. As a theoretical model, Niels D. Lund's Technology Democracy Culture – the essential triangle has been used. Lund shows that there is a connection between cultural content, creative use and access to digital technology and how to make it available. The underlying purpose of the model was to use it to ensure the content to a wider audience based on key words as responsibility, control and representation. Based on this, I analyze how the impact of the digitization process of Allan Pettersson's personal papers. For examine it, the Arka-D project may be suitable as a choice for digitization. This project is a collaboration between Uppsala, Gothenburg and Lund University Libraries, and as a purpose to create a common platform for the digitization of such personal archives. Further aims of the platform is to make heritage-related material available and reach it out to a wider audience at Internet. The final results shows that it is technically possible to digitize it but it is not allowed without special permission. Allan Pettersson's personal archives are protected by copyrights of the law and will be free to publish earliest at 2051.

This thesis aims to study the archiving of Womens archival documents in the Swedish Archive of Press. Through a case study three aspects of archival practice will be studied: collecting, description and availability. The study also aims to shed light on the issues of gender and archives and to emphasize the possibilities that gender perspectives offer to make women visible in archives. The theoretical framework consists of gender theory, intersectional perspectives and archival theory. The method used is a case study in which text studies, interviews and analysis of the historical background and con- text together form a triangulation witch aims to strengthen the analysis. The source material consists of archival inventories of the women’s personal archives, archival documents, transcripted interviews and historical literature. The results of this study shows that women have been made both visible and unvisable in the archival hold- ings. It also shows how structures based on gender, in society and within archival practice, has through unreflect- ing practices led to women being made visible and unvisable in archival holdings. The results also show how the archival practice partly rests on a basis of the notion of archives and archivists as neutral and objective. To im- plement gender perspectives in archival practice this notion needs to be replaced by an awareness of the power relations that exists within the archival profession and archival institutions.

The object of this two years master's thesis has been to study a specific genre of personal archives by examiningthe archives of nine parents who have lost one or several infants. Using internet-based methods, (e-mail, Skypeand digital photographs), I have conducted qualitative research using a general interview guide technique. Usingresearch from archival theory as well as other fields, my material has been arranged and analysed according tothemes and recurring thoughts picked up from my informants during the interviews.My main theoretical aid has been that the role of parent who has lost a child is the starting point for the creationof the personal archives. Another important theory is my definition of the term “document” as not dependent onmedium and format, but on usage: if an object has been used as a part of an archive, it is a document. I also claimthat study of personal archives is a way to help the archival profession and Swedish archival theory to becomemore democratic and inclusive, since especially the former is mandated to reflect all of society's many manifestationsof culture and memory. The results show that the archives contain a large selection of documents in differentformats and mediums, but that they also have many similarities. This is an effect of the fact that the parentshave all had roughly the same document-creating contacts with their relatives and friends, the authorities and theother parts of society often involved in the events proceeding the child's birth and death (or sickness and death).The reasons to create and maintain a personal archive are to preserve the memories of events, people, places,thoughts and feelings associated with the child and whatever time the parents got to spend with him or her. By remembering,the parents are also confirming the child's existence and place within the family, and helping themselvesconfirm their newly acquired role as parents who have lost a child. The archives and their constituent partsare used as physical and psychological “linking objects”, to help the parents feel (at least temporary) closer totheir child by watching, touching or talking about the most important documents. These are often the ones displayedon special memory shelves, on family photo walls or in memory boxes. It follows that arrangement of thedocuments is based mostly on the emotional attachment of the parent to the individual document, and that destructionof records are extremely rare in the studied archives. Their growth diminished with time, but does notstop completely since the parents, other relatives and friends still create new documents, mostly to observe holidaysand anniversaries. Furthermore, the way the parents use their archives and its constituent parts change astime passes. Individual documents may also change their emotional and cultural significance to the parent, orgain additional ones. Some of the underlying factors behind these findings are my informants views on creating,keeping and destroying documents. They all express a need to “save everything”, and most also want to “documenteverything”. The latter, their wish to create new documents to complement the ones created primarily byothers and as a result of specific events and processes, comes from a feeling of not having enough documents inthe archives. It can also be the result of dissatisfaction with those that do exist. Finally, as is commonplace amongpersonal archives, the archives in my study have multiple record creators within the immediate family and outsideit, even though my informants are usually the main creators. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive,Library and Museum studies.

The Swedish geographer Gerd Enequist (1903-1989) left behind great amounts of private and work material when she passed away. This was donated to the University Library of Uppsala, Carolina Rediviva, in three different accessions. This resulted in three different record. The subject of this report is the progress of assembling these record into one complete record. The registering led to many important decisions such as the role of provenance and the relation of private and public documents. Above all the special nature of personal archives have been a topic of discussion. Personal archives separate themselves from public records and therefore demand a different strategy of listing. The width of kinds of material and the mixture of private and public records are important qualities that differ them from public records. The report is initiated with an introduction of Enequist, followed by a description of the three accessions. In the second part of the report the work with recording the archive is accounted for including a description of the headings of the record. Thereafter the problems encountered during the work are described and discussed. The report is completed with a short proposal of the research values of the archive.

The study set out to find how artists organize and use their personal collections from a Personal Information Management (PIM) perspective, and how that use affects their practice and their art production. A secondary object of the study was to articulate the ways that personal collections are utilized as tools by creative users.  The empirical data consisted of five qualitative, semi-structured interviews with Swedish and Norwegian sound artists. The constant comparative method was used for analysis, and Activity Theory was used as a theore- tical framework for the study. The study concluded that artists’ personal collections, while diverse in content and structure, serve the same functions as tools in creative processes, and that attention to the uses of personal collections highlight needs that could be better met by integrated PIM-functionality.  The study also concluded that artists constitute an underutilized resource for future PIM-research and that artists’ personal collection use provides insight into creative use of collections, and highlights potential direc- tions for future development of PIM tools. This paper is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

This thesis has focused on digital born personal archives; how they are different from analog paper archives and possible ways to overbridge these differences. It is also studied how archivists and librarians are dealing with digital archives, what they think about new proactive solutions when collecting private papers and collections and positive and negative effects with this way to work. The thesis is delimitated to only private collections and digital created material. It do not concern digitized material or electronic documents in government or business organizations. The challenges in digital curation and administration are discussed in aspect of the Records Continuum Model. The empirical material is also put in relation to research in Personal Information Management and identity theory. Two qualitative methods have been used, a case study of an authors personal electronic archive and five deep-going interviews with archivists and librarians working with personal collections in university libraries. This study shows that many difficulties and problems displayed in the electronic archive could be solved in the future with a more proactive approach and early cooperation with the collector. By educating and informing creators of personal records about file formats, archival structure and the need of them to engage in their own collection, more personal digital records could be preserved. Librarians and archivists are imagining more proactive work in the future but are also asking for other solutions. A lot of the challenges united with electronic personal archives are associated with lacking continuity which is a reason to use the Records Continuum Model to explain and work with personal digital collections. This is a two year master’s thesis in archival science.