The current COVID-19 crisis has highlighted tensions between government policy and the medical and scientific communities, influencing the public perception of expertise in these fields. The tension between science and belief systems has surfaced many times before during public health crises and other pivotal events in history, and archival material from these periods illuminate much of the push for science to legitimately influence policy and legislature.

At this year’s Charleston Library Conference, we brought together a panel of speakers to learn about the distinct value digitized society archives offer to the current body of research, and the ways in which archival materials have informed and educated policy and regulation in the past. 

“It’s really important to use history to analyze the strategies and successes of scientists in shaping public policy, as well as the resistance to their work.” – Dr. Alexandra Rutherford

As a professor of Psychology at York University in Toronto and Editor of the Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Alexandra Rutherford wears several hats, many of which directly involve the use of primary source materials and digital archives. She’s currently working on a project to reconstruct the efforts of feminist social scientists in their efforts to influence policy, from WWII to present day. 

“We know that we’re at a particularly tenuous moment right now in terms of trust in science,” Dr. Rutherford commented, “and in the past, professional scientific societies have been incredibly involved in advocacy efforts that extend beyond strictly professional issues and instead move into the area of public policy, which hasn’t been a seamless or uncontested development.”

Dr. Rutherford alluded to several documents in her field that have been important in terms of public policy, from social science research used to influence the Brown v Board of Education decision in 1954 to records from the American Psychological Association that were included in advocacy briefs to support same sex marriage legislation. “Archival material is indispensable to tracing some of the historical policy dynamics at play,” she concluded, “both in individual collections and across societies and national context.” 

“Probably the single most important takeaway from current primary source digitization efforts is the value of an accessible collection of materials to enable cross-searching between different trenches of data.” – Dr. Geoffrey Browell

Dr. Geoffrey Browell, the Head of Archives and Research Collections at King’s College London, agreed with Dr. Rutherford on the importance of primary source materials to both contextualize historical policy changes and provide a lens through which to view current events. 

“As archivists, we have to look forward in time and anticipate what uses our collections might be put to in the future. We have to be time travelers. So, in today’s current environment, the archivist plays a central role.” 

Archivists and librarians, Dr. Browell added, also serve as trust sources of empirical information that can lead to legislative change, support the administration of justice and enrich public discourse. Using examples such as the use of archival material that supported public health campaigns and food standards in the past, as well as a more recent instances of archival materials used in the Hillsborough Inquiry in the UK.

There are such clear benefits of using primary source materials to understand – and even further influence – policy decisions and legislature of both the past and present, that ensuring accessibility to these materials remain paramount. 

“Digitizing archives creates greater equity of access for people in different geographical locations, especially if we’re serious about de-colonizing research disciplines, and especially while working remotely, as has been hugely apparent in 2020.” – Dr. Alexander Hall

Dr. Alexander Hall, Department of Theology and Religion Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham and Section Recorder of the History of Science Section for the British Science Association, offered his own insights into the ways in which access to archives is essential for research. 

Personally, Dr. Hall is interested in how science communication has adapted over the years and how scientists may have used popular and public communication methods, in addition to private lobbying and working with organizations, to influence policy formation during the 19th century period of professionalizing science in the UK.

 “Whether it way through television, religious institutions or regional government structures, there were organized, systematic ways of pressuring the government for scientific inputs into processes around law and policy.”

Dr. Hall continued on to explain the ways in which digital access to the types of materials he is studying day to day has been essential, and, conversely, the lack of access to non-digitized materials during a global pandemic has been palpable. 

“Remote working has been hugely apparent in 2020, and I have a book project that’s unable to be finished because another archival need of mine does not have any digitized collections.” – Dr. Alexander Hall

But even beyond his personal need for access, Dr. Hall shared insight into the value for all of society to promote equity of access. 

 “We can think actually beyond the kinds of simple things that a digitized collection can do for a historian and also consider the analytical ability that comes with a comprehensive digitized database: the ability to see networks of connections beyond individual societies or institutions and cross-examine across multiple sources.”

Dr. Rutherford agreed that the future of research depends on access to more than just physical materials. 

“Ten years ago,” she explained, “I started working on an oral history project, and it seemed to me even then that there wasn’t much of a point in sticking away our transcriptions in a brick-and-mortar archive alone; it was important to make them accessible through the web.”

So, the question according to Dr. Browell was, “How do we create a sort of level playing field in the collection of data and archives relating to big scientific questions and are often very pressing, like global warming and, currently, pandemics?” 

The answer, he added, starts with the expansion of access to digital collections.

Visit Wiley Digital Archives to learn more about the value of digitized society primary sources and discover newly digitized archives .