n. (also post-custodialism)a practice in which creators maintain control of their archival records while archivists provide management supportBastian 2002, 76It explores the principle of archival custody as it has developed primarily in the English-speaking world, its historical background, its mid-twentieth-century evolution into postcustodialism, and suggests that access be a primary role for the custodian in the new century.Galloway 2006, 115Given then-current (and indeed now-current) European practice, not to mention the perhaps belated recognition of the frequency of such situations in the recent archival notion of postcustodialism, it is hard to see error in his decision.Edmunson-Morton 2015a, 177–178Getting OHBA off the ground has offered me opportunities to talk with potential donors about research value, records retention, corporate privacy and the types of materials they produce, as well as how the traditional definition of an “archive” comprise of records that are no longer actively useful fits into this discussion. It has challenged me to think about my own definitions of an “archive” and how the theories of community archiving and post-custodialism might be liberating or calamitous in situations like ours.Shein and Lapworth 2016, 13Postcustodialism does not equal non-custody, nor should it be limited to the realm of bureaucratic records; non-custody is but one potential component of a postcustodial approach, an approach versatile enough to encompass personal and community records as well as institutional records.
