ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the impetus for Archive and Access, begun by two faculty members of the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, and funded by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. The chapter will elaborate on the political culture of archiving through the experience of constructing and maintaining components of the project, which tried to address relationships and issues that framed questions of rights to information and to archival material in India. These are a blog that invites historians to channel the cumulative knowledge they possess into a public forum, and a directory of archives and libraries that allows contributors to post details about historical repositories. A third aspect, currently dormant, is a free joint catalogue linking at least fifteen libraries in different parts of India. The chapter discusses the issues that arose to provide occasions for interactions between students, historians, librarians and government authorities.
