Defining custody: The impact of archival custody on the relationship between communities and their historical records in the information age. A case study of the United States Virgin Islands

This study is an investigation into the concept of archival custody. The study proposes a redefinition of custody in which access, rather than physical control, plays a central role in fulfilling the custodial obligation. This redefinition is based on the idea that the construction of collective memory by nations, communities or groups of people depends upon their ability to access their own historical records and that access therefore is integral to the custody of those records. Additionally, this concept suggests that any debate about custody and any implementation of custodial paradigms in designing records structures for electronic records must take access values into consideration.; This expanded definition of archival custody is tested through examination of the historical case study of the United States Virgin Islands (formerly the Danish West Indies), a former colony of Denmark purchased by the United States in 1917. At the time of transfer, the majority of the historical records created in the islands before 1900 were removed to the Danish National Archives. In 1937, the National Archives of the United States took custody of most of the remaining records. The effect of the lack of accessibility to their historical records on the Virgin Islands ability to construct its collective memory is examined through interviews with Virgin Islanders, a citation analysis of the use of historical records in dissertations on the Virgin Islands, and a content analysis of Virgin Islands newspapers. Additionally, the historical case itself is scrutinized from the viewpoint of records creation and custodial rights.