On the Re-archiving of Field Notes

Contemporary fieldwork employs a diverse range of methods, including audio recording and photography; yet, field notes remain at its core. Because field notes often contain sensitive, private information regarding both the researcher and the subjects, they generally cannot be made public in their original form. Consequently, once utilized for the writing of scholarly articles or monographs, they often remain in the possession of the researcher, their affiliated institution, or a museum, effectively becoming dormant primary sources. While it is clear that field notes hold significant potential as research materials for future scholarship, their utilization remains a subject of ongoing debate among researchers, largely due to the aforementioned sensitivities. This presentation introduces an approach to re-evaluating the value of field notes by applying methods previously developed for the re-archiving of research-related video footage—specifically with a focus on preserving chronological order. Furthermore, it proposes a framework for sharing these materials, tailored to the depth of the value extracted from them.