The memory of a nation in a digital world - 6 views
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Kim Baker on 03 Sep 14"It is an irony of the digital age that at a time when we are used to having easy access to seemingly endless information and knowledge, so much of it is disappearing into a digital black hole. For 450 years the concept of legal deposit has helped to preserve the nation's intellectual record.| There is this aspect of disappearing data as well.
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Philip Sidaway on 04 Sep 14What form does this digital archiving take? Is it cached copies?? There is a real problem with referencing digital materials as the reference (typically including the almost meaningless date of accessing) may not be able to point to what was intended to be cited as the digital presence has been amended or deleted. Therefore the information may never be (re)retrieved in its cited form. Physical copies are of course more robust. Fascinating cultural memory issue.
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Kim Baker on 04 Sep 14Indeed, the article raises many questions. The approach is a national one, looking at the problems of archiving digital memory for a specific country when so many of the born digital items are generated from other domains and countries beyond the control of the country (the UK in this instance). There is no global portal at this stage for archiving everything in a coordinated fashion, leading to a kind of anarchy which is not a bad thing, but which does cause problems for national (country-specific) institutions such as national archives and libraries.
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Jacynthe Touchette on 04 Sep 14As you say, it is hard for libraries and archives services to keep up because they don't get the resources and support they need to do their work properly. Too often, we think that digital content "archives itself", that it lasts forever when, clearly, it is not the case (not to mention that keeping is not enough, content must be findable too!). I really enjoyed this reading, it touches many of my personal interests, thanks for sharing!
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Philip Sidaway on 04 Sep 14See my bookmark post 'Academic citation practices ...' for some geeky stuff on the reference / citation issues.
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Kim Baker on 04 Sep 14Jacynthe, you are welcome, and Phillip, many thanks!