Record-Making in Early Societies

Geoffrey Yeo's new book & a lecture

Egyptian Scribes Squatting at Their Desks and Assisted by Their Clerks Recording the Collection of Taxes After a Relief from The Tomb of Ti at Sakkara Egypt Dating from the 27Th Century BC

What are the beginnings of human recording practices.? How do societies retain knowledge beyond the normal limits of memory?

You can read Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies by Geoffrey Yeo and sign-up for a lecture!

Geoffrey Yeo is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in archives and records management at University College London.¹

His new book Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies investigates the beginnings of human recording practices and provides a survey of early record-making and record-keeping in societies across the world. It investigates the ways in which human activities were recorded in different settings using different methods and technologies. 

Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies explores non-written as well as written records and investigates record-making and record-keeping in many other parts of the world, particularly China and the pre-Hispanic Americas. The book draws on recent scholarship in archaeology and anthropology, as well as recent thinking in archival science. 

Based on analysis of literature from a wide range of disciplines, Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies offers a distinctive perspective on early archives. It aims, not merely to describe the variety of recording methods and practices used in different societies at different times, but also to engage with a range of questions about the contexts in which those practices arose and the ways in which we might understand and interpret them. 

Geoffrey Yeo’s new book, Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies is available Open Access at this link: Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies

GEOFFREY YEO- ONLINE LECTURE FEB.7, 2023 ARCHIVAL HISTORY SECTION

The Archival History Section of the SOCIETY of AMERICAN ARCHIVISTS invites members of the section and SAA to attend a virtual lecture on February 7, 12 PM EST, by archives and records management researcher Geoffrey Yeo. Yeo will speak about his two recent ventures into the field of archival history: his book Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies and his paper "Let Us See What Is Meant be the Word 'Recorde.'"

During his lecture, Yeo will address the following questions: Why did the topic of record keeping in early societies appear fruitful for investigation? What challenges did he face, what approaches did he take, and what were the conceptual standpoints that he adopted in his writing? What lessons did he learn, and what pointers might his work offer to others who wish to study archival history in the future? 

Please register for the lecture here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMudO-qqjkqHNbLdoN_XNLT9TBA5vUmvE6B#/registration

Geoffrey Yeo

More about Geoffrey Yeo

More writing by Geoffrey Yeo.²

Below is a link to another lecture by Geoffrey Yeo.

"Archives and Records at the Edge of the Information Society." Filmed on the 19th August 2015.

1. Geoffrey Yeo is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in archives and records management at University College London (UCL) where he has taught archives and records management from 1995 to 1997 and from 2000 to 2014. Between 2002 and 2005 he was programme director for the MA/Diploma/Certificate in Archives and Records Management, and the MA/Diploma/Certificate in Records and Archives Management (International), in UCL's School of Library, Archive and Information Studies (now the Department of Information Studies).

He previously worked as an archivist for the Corporation of the City of London, for St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and for the Royal College of Physicians. He has also worked as a freelance archivist and records manager, and as a consultant to the International Records Management Trust, participating in records management and educational projects in The Gambia, Ghana, Botswana, and Uganda, and contributing educational materials for use in developing countries throughout the Commonwealth. In 2010 he was Visiting Professor in the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia.

2

• Geoffrey Yeo, Records, Information and Data: Exploring the Role of Record-Keeping in an Information Culture (London: Facet Publishing, 2018).

• '“Let Us See What Is Meant by the Word Recorde”: Concepts of Record from the Middle Ages to the Early Twentieth Century', Archivaria, no.93 (2022), pp.6-41 [Full text available at https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13833/15225].

• 'How Did Record-Keeping Begin?', ARC Magazine, no.381 (2021), pp.19-21.

  (with James Lowry), 'Data, Information and Records: Exploring Definitions and Relationships', in A Matter of Trust: Building Integrity into Data, Statistics and Records to Support the Sustainable Development Goals, ed. Anne Thurston (London: University of London Press, 2020), pp.49-66 [Full text available at https://humanities-digital-library.org/index.php/hdl/catalog/book/amot].