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.
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No Subject Given
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Google anyone?
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Archivist
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Re: Archivist
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Re: Archivist
I hope in our mad dash to digitize everything we don't eliminate human interaction.
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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.
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Its not that challenging
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