Critically reading the digital archive. Part 2

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Summary

Historical research is increasingly based on the interpretation of born-digital and digitized primary source materials made available online. As the quantity and quality of such materials increase,...

Historical research is increasingly based on the interpretation of born-digital and digitized primary source materials made available online. As the quantity and quality of such materials increase, it may seem as if archives are no longer necessary. Yet, digital archives provide crucial services not only of collection and preservation but contextualization that make them as important as ever. In this essay, you will find questions to guide critical engagement with digital collections and the archives that make them available. First, you will consider what digital archives are, where they are, and how their choices impact what sources are available, and how scholars access them. Then you will explore how to effectively navigate digital archives and consider the kinds of digital sources you will encounter, and the tradeoffs (advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses, benefits and limitations) of working with digital and analog materials, the factors that influence digitization choices and other limits to access of digital resources. By the end, you should understand how archivists' mission to collect, organize, preserve, and provide access shapes research in a digital archive, contributing to simultaneously to abundance and scarcity, and the value added by working with materials preserved, cataloged, and presented as parts of collections whose origins are known and future are assured.

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