At the heart of an archive – both for the archivist and for the user – is an attempt to find meaning in the data stream. This data can arrive at the archive in various containers: a custom-built lab contraption, a four-hour-long audio interview, an annotated album of photographs. Within each object lie many stories waiting to be interpreted, each a reflection of the interpreter. We will try and unpack this idea.
The Archives at NCBS is a new space for the history of contemporary biology in India (http://archives.ncbs.res.in/). Archives enable diverse stories. This aim shapes the purpose of an archive and what environments it could nourish in the future. We have three main objectives going forward: continuing to build up the archive as a space to strengthen the commons, a focus on education through archival material, and to build a broader consortium of science archives with a discovery layer for the public to find, describe and share archival material and stories. The talk will focus on this last point.