preserving preservation
The ability, as a result of collections on the Net, to collect history related to pretty much any aspect of human experience is quite impressive. The primary discussion in Digital History was about collecting information and sites before they disappeared due to the ephemeral nature of the Net. Yet, the collections of these sites and information suffer from the same issue as what is being collected, they themselves belong to a relatively ephemeral medium. Except for those groups which are fortunate to have “brick and mortar” backing or a very dedicated person or group willing to keep it alive over a long period of time, the collections themselves can (and sometimes do) disappear and the information is lost with them. So, in digital archives, there is the additional problem of history being lost because the archive itself has evaporated. However, due to the shear number of sites on pretty much any topic out there, one can be assured that what will be preserved, and the amount easily accessible, will be far more than at any time in previous history. Cultural historians will likely have a field day with what we considered important to preserve.
January 29th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
See, i’m not sure I agree….
I think that the ephemeral nature of the internet makes it hard to be sure what will be preserved and what will not be preserved. I’m sure that even though archives are digitzing materials, they still are making an effort to keep the paper copies at hand…just in case.
From a theoretical standpoint, the lack of physicality of the digital world sometimes can make the past seem less real–hence the importance of also stressing the materiality of archaeology and in a more public realm like museums and schools……
Not sure what I was trying to say so i’ll just end my comment here
January 30th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Which is why I referred to brick and mortar institutions. For those collecting sites which are not digitizing paper but are collecting digital material which is perhaps stored only on the site or by a backup on someone’s computer, what happens when the site shuts down for some reason? The content is erased and unless you can track down the site creator, the content is either gone or only available at whatever site(s) it was originally collected from.
January 30th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
oh ok, I see–I think I thought you were saying something else…