Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to present an overview of digitization activities and issues in the archives domain. The vast new digital collections that are being developed provide striking examples of impact both internally and externally, that is, on the workflows and functions of archival institutions and on global communities of users.

Archival institutions keep records – but only those records that are considered to be worth preserving in perpetuity. Archival records are therefore those that have enduring value, as evidence for accountability as well as perhaps also having intrinsic informational value not simply today, but also far into the future. The ability to make digital copies of archives available via the internet has had far-reaching influences on archival services, and on users’ perceptions and experiences of archival records. Traditionally, archival institutions have been the exclusive preserve of specialist researchers, but changing societal norms and information needs, particularly relating to family history research, have been instrumental in changing that focus. Digitization has played a key role, being both a consequence of, and motivator for, those changing requirements.

This chapter focuses on projects to make paper records available in digital form. It will not cover current activities to develop repositories and strategies to manage borndigital information. Challenges in that domain are quite distinct; particularly important are the activities that take place when information is created and captured into recordkeeping systems. Significant areas of concern centre around the extent to which everyone has to be aware of record-keeping responsibilities. Attempting to cover both born-digital and digitized information within a single chapter would not do justice to either.

The structure of the chapter is as follows. First, the drivers for digitization in archives are identified and discussed, followed by consideration of the issues that arise. The impact of digitization on traditional archival functions and services and the emergence of new organizational forms are described. The chapter concludes by summarizing the impact of the ability to digitize on archival services.

Drivers for digitization

There are three main influences on digitization activities in archives: the changing usage and user profile of archives; reformatting as a preservation strategy; and the ability to crowdsource and harness ‘user power’.