Balanced Value Impact Model

Memory institutions

In the BVI Model, the use of ‘memory institutions’ is a collective phrase for libraries, museums and archives. In using the phrase ‘memory institution’, this assumes a common aspiration across multiple sectors in preserving, organising and making available the cultural and intellectual records of their societies. It also reflects the confluence with the growth in digital.

The BVI Model uses the phrase as a convenience to refer collectively to archives, museums and libraries but does not assume primacy in their role as ‘memory institutions’. As Robinson states, ‘a wider variety of organisations, such as schools, universities, media corporations, government or religious bodies could also legitimately be ascribed this title’ (Robinson, 2012). The BVI Model’s conception of memory institutions references and includes this wider definition. For instance, these organisations could be included: the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation); US Public Broadcasting, as epitomised by companies like WGBH in Boston; a university press; or the Wayback Machine and the Internet Archive.

Robinson, H. (2012) Remembering Things Differently: museums, libraries and archives as memory institutions and the implications for convergence, Museum Management and Curatorship, 27 (4), 413–29, doi:10.1080/09647775.2012.720188.

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