The Theory of Archive Search Developed by Vladimir Nikolaevich Avtokratov (materials for the «Archival Heuristics» course)
Journal Title: Наукові праці. Серія "Історія" - Year 2016, Vol 282, Issue 270
Abstract
The article analyzes the theory of archive search developed by Avtokratov V.N., a prominent theorist and archivist of the twentieth century. He was the first among archivists who put hu- mans in the center of archival heuristics, emphasized the necessity of studying information needs, search thinking, strategy, tactics, and archival search techniques. He saw two possible types of archive search: the traditional one (a manual process conducted by an archivist, histo- rian, or researcher of other branches of science) and non-traditional or automated. The scholar insisted that the automated search could never provide results as perfect as the traditional approach does. The effectiveness of the traditional search, according to V.N. Avtokratov, depends on the quality of registries, because connects them to the reliability of the search. However, the registry theory that should ultimately provide for the information needs of users is neutral to them. Traditional archive search is deeply rooted in the specifics of archival information envi- ronment and meets the needs of historians in archival information. Traditional search works with images and does not recognize artificial search languages and intermediaries, because the in- formation request merges with search instructions. The key search is the origin of a document during a particular era or important historical events, which are associated with record creators. The search strategy follows consistently narrowing goals from archives to documents in the case. In this process, inventories play the primary role. V.N. Avtokratov was interested in com- plex challenges, so he singled out several stages of the solution method: test searches or ar- chival inquiries, the actual search stage, and achieving logical limits. V. N. Avtokratov consid- ered «immersion» of a historian in the retrospective information space to be the primary deter- minant of the success of failure of a search. The scientist defined the idea of «cross-search» and denied the possibility of its implementation, pointing out that in would not work in practice, because the search thought process moves either in «zigzags» or even «labyrinths». Additional- ly, there are also psychological factors that significantly affect the exploratory thinking of a re- searcher. This interpretation of V. N. Avtokratov’s views is more consistent with his position on the limited capacity of the automated search (cross-search is only possible if a clear cybernetic system exists).
Authors and Affiliations
L. Levchenko
Keywords
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