<p>Hans Olof Alsén, born 16 august 1926, is a Swedish Social Democrat politician who served as the County Governor of Uppsala from 1986 to 1992. During the 1960s, -70s and -80s he had several political commissions including Member of Parliament and government Undersecretary. In addition he had numerous Board of Directors assignments in different business corporations as well as in non commercial associations both prior to, during and after the County Governor period.</p><p>This paper describes the organizing and cataloguing of Hans Alsén's personal archives. The documents at hand were deposited at the regional state archives (Landsarkivet) in Uppsala in 2008 and 2009 by Alsén himself. The documents almost exclusively cover the County Governor years 1986-1992. At a previous occasion Alsén deposited another set of personal documents at the archival institution Folkrörelsearkivet in Uppsala. The Alsén personal archives at Folkrörelsearkivet cover the years 1955-1989 which chronologically corresponds to his political career and activity prior to the County Governor post. The four years of chronological overlapping by the two archives is worth noting.</p><p>This paper addresses some of the principal problems and consequences concerning the mix up of governmental documents in personal archives, for example when it comes to searchability, accountability and secrecy. Furthermore the issue of archives, from one and the same person of origin, split up on several archival institutions is treated as well as some of the more practical problems encountered during the organizing process.</p><p>The Hans Alsén archives 1986-1992 was organized and catalogued by Tony Engström as part of the Master Programme in Archival Science at the University of Uppsala.</p>

Hans Olof Alsén, born 16 august 1926, is a Swedish Social Democrat politician who served as the County Governor of Uppsala from 1986 to 1992. During the 1960s, -70s and -80s he had several political commissions including Member of Parliament and government Undersecretary. In addition he had numerous Board of Directors assignments in different business corporations as well as in non commercial associations both prior to, during and after the County Governor period. This paper describes the organizing and cataloguing of Hans Alsén's personal archives. The documents at hand were deposited at the regional state archives (Landsarkivet) in Uppsala in 2008 and 2009 by Alsén himself. The documents almost exclusively cover the County Governor years 1986-1992. At a previous occasion Alsén deposited another set of personal documents at the archival institution Folkrörelsearkivet in Uppsala. The Alsén personal archives at Folkrörelsearkivet cover the years 1955-1989 which chronologically corresponds to his political career and activity prior to the County Governor post. The four years of chronological overlapping by the two archives is worth noting. This paper addresses some of the principal problems and consequences concerning the mix up of governmental documents in personal archives, for example when it comes to searchability, accountability and secrecy. Furthermore the issue of archives, from one and the same person of origin, split up on several archival institutions is treated as well as some of the more practical problems encountered during the organizing process. The Hans Alsén archives 1986-1992 was organized and catalogued by Tony Engström as part of the Master Programme in Archival Science at the University of Uppsala.

The aim of the thesis is that, from a postmodern archival theoretical perspective, investigate how two personal archives after famous authors Selma Lagerlöf and Astrid Lindgren are arranged, described and presented at KB, the National Library of Sweden. The thesis investigates what constructed image the collections presents, who the supposed user of the archives is, how the collections are accessible and their role as important sources within the humanities research. The study involved the collections digital archive presentations and four different texts that all discuss the archives. The method chosen was qualitative research methodology and critical discourse theory. The analysis included a study of the level of text, discursive practice and social practice. The results showed that specific usage of language and words have a vast impact on the construction of the narrative. Both postmodern archival theory and critical discourse theory enables the exposition of the relations of power and ideology that these discursive and social practices hold. This leads to the conclusion that the majority of knowledge are socially constructed and that archives holds power by promoting one narrative over another. In personal archives this also plays a big role in the construction of identity and in identity politics.

Personal archives are a largely neglected subject in archival theory. Among the consequences of this is the absenceof any general established or formalized practices when it comes to arrangement and description. Thisstudy opposes the notion that an archival institution without formal systems of arrangement and description doesnot order and describe archives in accordance with a general conceptual framework of a correct order. Supportingitself on the anthropological theory of Mary Douglas on dirt and cleanliness, it studies the implicit notions oforder that can be found in the archival descriptions of the personal archives kept by the Swedish national archives.Several patterns where revealed by the study: among them the primacy of quantity stood out. The vaguesystem of categories based on Martin Grass description model appears only to be employed loyally where quantitiesof the particular categories are such that they constitute complete volumes, which seem to be the cardinaljustifier of categorical division within the archive. The model itself is rarely applied with orthodoxy, and itsroughness often means that the categories engage in “border clashes” over which documents belong in whichcategory. Though these are often caused and generally determined by quantities, they also reveal an internalhierarchy of relations between specific types of records and categories. Furthermore, certain categories appearsmore stable than others, and when Grass system collapses, it reveals how certain of them – based on a principleof pertinence or theme – habitually fall out of use whereas categories defined by document types appear to remainfar more stable even in smaller archives and archives with low degree of differentiation.

Introduction. The aim of this master thesis is to examine how students at Uppsala university manage, organize, and preserve their study-related information in a digital environment. It also investigates the motivations for personal information management (PIM) among students, and explores the concepts of sense making as both an activity and a desired outcome. The thesis focuses on the respondents’ experiences and behaviours in terms of PIM in relation to their digital collections.  Method. The research is based on 12 interviews with 9 exchange students, which were audio recorded and transcribed. Transcripts constituted the data for analysis.  Analysis. Interview data was analysed qualitatively with Nvivo software. Concepts were defined so that they could be used in the survey. Results. The study found that the five metalevels of PIM activities proposed by William Jones (2008) were applicable to the interview data, and that the respondents used a variety of digital tools and storage options, including cloud services, text editors and desktop applications, to organize and manage their information collections. Results are also presented in relation to Soo Jin Park’s (2011) three types of organizing and managing information collections.  Conclusion. The results showed that reflection on PIM and planning over time can lead to meaning-making and motivation for personal development. The degree of effort in organizing and managing information collections varied according to the individual values, personality, and contextual situations. The participants’ most common software for data storage were cloud services, text editors and web pages, with laptops, computers and mobile phones being the most popular devices for data storage. Some also had external hard drives as backup solutions and strict rules for discipline regarding PIM. While many participants trusted cloud storage when it came to privacy, some participants were skeptical of large IT companies and tried to find their own strategies to become less dependent on them. The majority made informed choices due to the risk of data loss and fragmentation. They had a profile of cognitive skills that included the ability to use visual messages to create unification and transparency in systems. They had a mix of dynamic and large collections of data.  They preferred to structure their files in a specific and structured system. Some preferred to file in more well-defined locations, while others used a more flexible method of organization. The majority had a one folder filing strategy. Some had file systems with a top-down approach, while others used incremental bottom-up strategies. They used a variety of PIM tools and strategies to meet their changing needs, such as using descriptive file names, splitting projects into smaller collections, regularly reviewing and deleting older files and categorize files by date. The study provided valuable insights into the process of managing digital information and the importance of continuous evaluation and adaptation of PIM tools and strategies to meet the changing needs of participants.  This is a two years master’s thesis in Archival Science.