The Challenge Of Digitizing The National Archives
from the a-big-task dept
If you were given the task of digitizing the National Archives how would you handle it? From the sound of this brief Wired Magazine article, it hasn't quite been figured out yet. They're working on a big project that only began recently ("a bit late," as the article notes) -- but the interesting part is that the National Archivist is much more afraid of losing the human expertise and knowledge associated with the people who work at the National Archives. It's a good reminder that for all the automation and cool new technologies out there, sometimes a bit of human expertise can be the really valuable part. Update: An archivist from Penn State helps clarify that the project in question is about managing new digital records, rather than digitizing old records -- something that isn't entirely clear from the original article.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Google anyone?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Archivist
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Archivist
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Archivist
I hope in our mad dash to digitize everything we don't eliminate human interaction.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
digitizing the National Archives?
The substanial amount of electronic records now in the National Archives from the last 30 years will be added to the ERA for preservation and reference purposes.
Now if they were going to digitize the 4 billion pieces of paper now in the National Archives, that would add just a tad more cost -- try at least $400 million additional. No one is suggesting that be done, and that's why the expertise of the archives staff in relation to those 4 billion pieces of paper is so important.
Lee Stout
An archivist at Penn State and a member of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, but speaking for himself.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Its not that challenging
[ link to this | view in thread ]