Читать книгу Archives in the Digital Age - Abderrazak Mkadmi - Страница 19

Discussing digital archives (also called “electronic archives”) is in a way also discussing digital archiving, since archives have already been defined previously. It is rather the digital, with characteristics related to the immateriality of objects that raises many questions. We must go back to 1984 when the ICA in its dictionary of archival terminology defines digital archives as archives that are “... generally encoded, readable only by machines, recorded on media such as discs, drums or magnetic tapes, cards or punched tapes” [WAL 84, p. 103]. They are either natively digital documents or dematerialized paper documents.

The immaterial nature of these types of objects certainly brings considerable advantages, but it also implies a set of problems. This immateriality allows a priori the storage of large quantities of documents in reduced volumes, which enables access to these documents in a fast, instantaneous manner and for a greater number of users. It also makes it possible to enhance and enrich archive collections through statistical, linguistic and cultural studies. However, these intangible aspects pose a number of challenges, particularly in terms of the evidentiary value of documents, as well as the risks of loss, alteration and modification of documents, the technological obsolescence of storage formats and media, and so on. This requires the development and implementation of complex technical systems.