Mapping Archival Connections
Bibliographic Network Analysis of Archival Collections
A collaboration with Dr Elizabeth McLean
Morgan, Fiannuala. “Reimagining Archival Accessibility through Network Analysis.” Paper presented at Archives and Archetypes: Recovery and Renewal, 14th Australian Media Traditions Conference, RMIT University, Melbourne, 4–5 September.
Morgan, Fiannuala. "Unveiling Complexity: Rethinking the Australian Literary Canon through Archival Networks." Chaos & Order, The Australian Literary Convention 2024. Thursday July 4, 2024. Western Sydney University, Sydney.
Morgan, Fiannuala. “Mapping Histories and Writers: The Role of NLP in Enhancing Archival Work.” NSW Branch of the Australian Society of Archivists, April 3 2024.
Morgan, Fiannuala and Beth McLean “The Consecrated Literary Network: Using Archival Metadata to Construct the 20th Century Literary Network.” Co-presented with Dr. Elizabeth McLean. Place and Space Independent Publishing Conference Research Day November 23, 2023.
Morgan, Fiannuala and Beth McLean. "The Consecrated Literary Network: : Using Archival Metadata to Construct Literary Networks from the National Library of Australia" presented at the ASAL Conference, "Recentring the Region" 4-7 July 2023 Melbourne, Australia.
This project examines how archival silence is constructed and represented not through the physical contents of archives but through their catalogue records, which function as the primary interface between archives and the public. Focusing on Australian collecting institutions this study interrogates metadata as a legacy technology: a system of controlled vocabularies, schemas, and standards developed for bibliographic purposes that continues to structure archival visibility in the digital age. While design and digital humanities scholarship has emphasised “opening up” the archive through generous interfaces, such approaches often treat metadata as a neutral constraint to be supplemented or compensated for. By contrast, this project argues that metadata itself is an epistemological technology, one that encodes institutional practices, cultural hierarchies, and conditions of accessibility. Drawing on network analysis of catalogue records, this study maps connections between individuals and collections to show how archival significance emerges not only from the physical extent of holdings but also from their relational position within metadata structures. In doing so, it situates archival silence not simply as a by-product of omission or design limitations but as an outcome of the bibliographic and archival principles embedded in cataloguing systems.
The first stage of this project focuses on collections at the National Library of Australia, particularly archives connected to writers, editors, and other literary professionals. These visualisations are accessible below.