ABSTRACT

In a feminist ethics approach, archivists are viewed as caregivers, bound to records creators, subjects, users and communities through a web of mutual affective responsibility based on radical empathy. This chapter examines how a feminist ethics approach can be applied to digital archival projects such that digitisation is just one step in an ongoing ethical relationship between records creators, subjects, users and communities. The digital age has brought about a new kind of ‘public’ in archival contexts, one that makes materials freely accessible to anyone in the world with an internet connection from the privacy of their own home or their smartphone. The chapter explores how a feminist ethics approach can be applied to digital archival projects such that digitisation is reconceptualised as more than a singular event, but rather becomes perceived as part of a larger series of steps to developing an ongoing ethical relationship between records’ creators, subjects, users and communities.