Ordering, Searching, Finding

Abstract

The functions of an archive depend on the medium in which its holdings are recorded; the material on which they are inscribed; the location in which the materials are stored, and the system of order in which all of these elements are configured. Digital technology enables archives to be organized in new and multiple ways, according to the principles of what Weinberger calls a ‘new digital disorder’ in his 2007 book, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder. This article asks how different archival orders affect the work of research by examining experiences of searching both the analogue and digital incarnations of two important art historical collections: the Photographic Collection of the Warburg Library and the Conway Library at the Courtauld Institute of Art. It questions the idea that particular ways of ordering an archive are necessarily tied to specific media or forms of materiality.