Francis Kim R.

Tanay LIS 152

Reaction Paper:

Challenges of archives in during the digital era

Since the beginning, there are many challenges that the world of archiving is facing.
Some of these problems were summarize into two categories. The first was presented in the early
year of 2000s by Thomas Hickerson, a former president of Society of American Archivist,
focusing on the challenges faced by archiving profession. The second are challenges in the
preservation and archiving during the age of digital abundance, in which the discussion of this
paper will focus on. In this paper, I will expand some of the key concepts that affects
preservation and archiving as well as the trend that would help archives adapt to the present time.
At the same time, I will also present some of my opinion regarding the challenges presented and
on what archive may look like in the future.

In the year of 1965, Gordon E. Moore created one of the famous laws in computer
science called the Moore’s Law, in which he states that the number of transistors that can fit to a
computer chip will increase exponentially after several years. Looking now at our present time,
millions of transistors can now fit in a single integrated circuit. The law created by More may
seem shocking but the real thing here in which we could be in awe are the continuous
advancement of technology that turns the dream of the past into reality. Now we are now
experiencing the fastest computing power that the world has ever had. But along with these
trends are the challenges that are now facing by various communities just like the community of
archives. A common challenge in archiving is the topic of preservation and archiving digital
materials. In research created by Leslie Johnston, a director of Digital Preservation in the U.S.
National Archives, she presented four issues about digital preservation today. The first is
Heterogeneity, with thousands of formats and version present today, from PDF, JPEG, .doc, and
even carrier formats such as CD’s, DVD’s, tapes and more, the issues in preserving materials are
very vast. Latest formats can be easily store into hard drives, but digitization can be very tricky
and challenging. For example, converting documents found in a cassette tape which consist of an
enduring value to the community. We know that cassette players are now rarely to be seen, so
finding the appropriate hardware to read and convert the document is very difficult. The process
of preserving such document needs a specialized forensic hardware and driver software. The
second is Complexity. The process of preserving document, starting from its creation until to its
disposal, are crucial and complex. Organizing and categorizing documents that where it should
be are physically and mentally draining especially if facing millions of documents, datasets,
metadata etc. Third is technology. It is obvious that our world is bounded in a technological
revolution. Just focusing on the famous phone manufacturer, Apple. Every year we will notice
that a new model is release into the market, with trends that would really hit the people. But
when you look on some of the archives especially here in the Philippines, technological
sustainability is not yet seen. There are still some who are needed of fundings to build a better
system and invest new equipment that would help in preserving documents. Lastly, security and
integrity. One of the responsibilities of archive in preserving document is security. But keep in
mind that there are also threats that can case unwanted data breach, may it be through hacking,
phishing, and more. Thus, archives must be vigilant especially in these cases. Integrity talks
about the completeness of the document in which no data are loss or have been corrupted. Data
losses are not only bounded to the data itself, but it can be a result of degrading hardware, or
obsolescence.

These are the challenges in preservation and archiving during the age of digital
abundance. You may think that years from now archiving will be left behind and archiving will
be lost its profession. But the truth is, with the vast numbers of information that are present in
our world and will continue to increase as time goes by. Numerous phenomena are needed to be
recorded as part of the identity of a certain community. Because of this, the process of archiving
will always be present in our world, and along with this projects and movements are made to
adapt to the changes. Just like online repositories and archives, database systems, as well as
websites which started to emerge to fill the gap especially during this pandemic season. Leslie
Johnston said, “The goal of digital preservation is not just ensuring that we have safe files…it is
that we are preserving our collections for people who need them nor or will need them in the
future.”
References:

Johnston, Leslie. (2020). Challenges in preservation and archiving digital materials. Information
services & use. 40. 193-199. 10.3233/ISU-200090.

DiMaggio, Paul. (2016). Challenges to Archives in an Age of Digital Abundance. Retrieved

[October 22, 2021] from https://items.ssrc.org/parameters/challenges-to-archives-in-an-age-of-
digital-abundance/