Digital Library Collections
Different ways digital collections are stored:
- Digital or institutional repositories
- Cloud and data grids, servers and hard drives
- Dark archives
Digital objects are normally stored by format, topic,
geography rather than Library of Congress classification
number.
Maintenance
Maintenance of digital archives can
become more complicated than their
physical copies since digital librarians need
to create the best way to describe, store,
and provide access to each item so that it
can be found again in the digital archive
(Gregory & Rudersdorf, 2015).
Digital Information Profession
The archives in libraries are continuing to
have their archivists transfer documents,
creating the new library field of digital
archivists.
This is how digital libraries are coming into
place, with interface designs for example, as
a way libraries are able to keep their
software up to date with the transfer of
documents into the digital world.
Names for informational professionals with
focus on digital library collections:
- Digital curators
- Digital archivists
- Digital stewards
- Digital preservationists
- Digital librarians
With technology being such an
enhancing way to maintain
archives into the digital world,
many fields have been created
so that information
professionals can assess how
to attend to their virtual
audience.
Circle of Archiving Life
Technology is now part of the archiving life, allowing the
birth of a new format of information to be shared to more
people than ever.
The three ages of a virtual archive:
1. From the fact of life
2. The written document
3. Digitized version (Sava & Pop, 2010).
Circle-of-life pattern is the composition of the three
main ways information is shared thanks to
technology, which has become the third way.
-All formats of information start with the mind. An idea is the
beginning of information.
-Once the fact has formed does the handwritten document
comes into place.
-Then digitization comes into place, which by scanning it, the
same information takes on a different form.
Preservation of Digital Materials
Future historians need digital material to
be saved successfully in the present
time.
Technology comes with its own
complications, including the question
of whether all digital sources need to
be preserved.
Interface Design
Interface design
-Allows complete transition of libraries into the digital world.
-A necessary shift that maximizes digital libraries’ potential.
-Shares materials that are no longer exclusive solely within the
library.
-The new way newspapers, for example, have transferred into
the online world and away from the traditional print version.
(Harkema, 2014)
Printed Copies
Digitally archiving of
original printed forms
of documents, such
as books and journals,
makes the process
easier online so long
as the printed copy
is kept safe within
a physical archive.
Vice Versa
- This process vice versa is
difficult because online sources can
constantly change due to editing and
even go through deletion.
- A printed version can be archived, but if
the original online version gets changed in
any way, this significance of its physical
archive is lost.
Possible Technical Issues
There are two main technical issues at the core of digital
Preservation that continues to be a concern in the digital
era.
- Data loss
- Technological obsolescence
(Kastellac, 2012)
- A concern arrives regarding
born-digital data, such as
blogs and websites, These
online medias are difficult to
preserve as the sources can
constantly change and be
edited.
- Keeping a printed copy of
them is encouraged, but they
are given such “fragile and
vulnerable nature,” and they
may not likely be not ever
been catalogued correctly
(Rowland & Bawden, 2012, p. 224).
Welcoming Technology
Archives would normally keep their “holdings behind walls of
copyright,policy, or indifference, rendering them inaccessible to
many” (Prelinger, 2007, p. 114).
Technology is still being welcomed regardless of its tendency to
become problematic and
disruptive. Many archives
accept that technology is
available to help keep
documents useful in the
future through preservation.
Risks in Digital Transfers
Archivists are in charge of taking extra care of old papers that can
wither away without proper care. Digital transfers of old papers
requires extra care in removing old documents from their spot in
the archive to be scanned digitally. While technology is now
encouraging to transfer paper to computer, archivists have a
legitimate reason to be weary of transferring certain documents.
- Some books may be held
by staples and fasteners
on the pages, which would
require extreme care when
removing if to be scanned.
Archive Discretion
Librarians have learned
to develop different ways
to work around this issue
of handling old papers in
the scanning process
while also being aware of
the documents that need
extra care and to use
their own judgment on
whether to risk scanning
them.
- Books may also be held in boxes to
prevent any light. These may need a
judgment call by the archivists whether
they can risk taking them out of the
boxes to be put into the scanner.
Digital Archiving
The traditional form of archiving is
becoming outdated with the introduction
of a digital archivist field. While saving
Hand copies of documents is crucially
important in the information world, the
ability to share these documents is
becoming a way to provide more data
and studies for other researchers and
information experts to use in their own
studies, creating a chain of information use.
Collaboration with technology
and physical archives
Instead of debating between a
virtual or physical archive is the
best way to store information,
many physical archives are using
technology to preserve their saved
copies held in the archive rooms
since digital archives are now
becoming a necessity.
There is now a “collaboration
between archivists and information
technology professionals in a
university library in order to manage
the university’s born-digital archival
records” (Lawrimore, 2013, p. 189).
Conclusion
Physical archives may be considered an
outdated way to store information, but
they still need to stay alive in the internet
world because they are reliable when
digital born materials have the risk of
system malfunction. Instead of fearing
the worse in technology, digital
archivists work with discretion to share
as many stored information as possible.
References
Cain, M. (2003). Managing technology: Being a library of record in a digital age. Journal Of
Academic Librarianship, 29(6), 405-410.
Gregory, L., & Rudersdorf, G. (2015). Digital resources. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information Services
Today: An introduction. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. 94-98.
Harkema, C. (2014). A site for scholarly primitives: Exploring the digital library interface.
International Journal Of Technology, Knowledge & Society: Annual Review, 10(1), 113.
Kastellec, M. (2012). Practical limits to the scope of digital preservation. Information
Technology & Libraries, 31(2), 63-71.
Lawrimore, E. e. (2013). Collaboration for a 21st century archives: Connecting university archives
with the library's information technology professionals. Collaborative Librarianship,
5(3), 189-196.
Prelinger, R. (2007). Archives and access in the 21st century. Cinema Journal. 46(3), 114-118.
Sava, E., & Pop, L. (2010). The ethnological archive: Memory and technology. Philobiblon:
Transylvanian Journal Of Multidisciplinary Research In Humanities, 15393-407.