ABSTRACT
The principal issue that this chapter seeks to explore is the responsibility of archivists for ensuring that their collections more fully represent all within society, including those from the periphery and the margins and those with alternative or unorthodox opinions, and not just dominant and institutional elements. Taking this responsibility seriously requires archivists to acknowledge their role as active agents in the process of collecting and constructing archival heritage, reliance on passive accumulation or serendipity being particularly unsustainable in this context. In practice this means archivists intervening proactively within a national and perhaps international framework to identify and support the preservation of contemporary collections for future. It examines how the implications of this collecting, both in terms of the technical challenges and the practical professional duties, means that the archive profession must focus increasingly outwards from its repositories and into partnerships with information technology and digital curation experts, and with community and campaigning organizations.
