is for Archive.
I read a recent NY Times article on the role of the digital archivist. Or should we more properly say the Digital Assets Manager, or the Archivist, or the Digital Preservationist? As one practitioner, Jacob Nadal, says he does not use the "digital" modifier to describe his job function.
Much of the world's documents and written material (of interest) arose before the digital age. Many preservationists today span the role of the traditional archivist and the archive technologist.
The benefits of converting traditional material to digital form are many. I found an older NY Times article I'd read describing the digital archiving of unique manuscripts in the remote monastery of St. Catherine's in Sinai. Digitizing fragile manuscripts enhances preservation:
Making digital copies for public use will help prevent regular handling of the originals while also providing insurance in case the originals are damaged or lost.
Additionally, digital copies of historic texts can make them much more widely available, as mentioned in yet another NY Times article on putting a Yiddish Library online. It was a joint project with The Internet Archive who has been instrumental in driving for digitization of libraries and collections in hi-resolution to make them available to more people throughout the world.
It's been raining this past weekend in California. Not a bad time to curl up with some ancient manuscripts.
I guess the critical question though is whether the PDF format will be supported for centuries onward :-)
Posted by: Daniel | February 17, 2009 at 12:55 PM