Reflective Journal: The Importance of Archiving Documents Ashley Swan Spring 2012 LI801XR

One of the reasons I find archival studies so interesting is for my own personal knowledge. My mother likes to call me the Family Historian as I have reached out to many family members to make digital scans of documents, newspaper clippings and photos that might be of use to me or another family genealogist in the future. If I dont preserve these documents, they might be lost down the road due to deterioration or getting thrown out by an uninterested family member. Geller, Menefee & Fenton (2008, p. 161) note for example, the situation at NASA where the moon walk tapes have gone missing and cannot be found. The same could happen to digital content unless there are measures taken upfront to archive it properly. This applies not only to my personal family collection, but also to collections in libraries, archives and government agencies all over the world. These documents are a precious evidence of our history and great care and thought needs to be taken in preserving them both physically and digitally. Rubin (2010) writes that historically, the focus of preservation was to protect an item. He goes on to state that in contrast, preserving information in a digital format increases access; fragile documents can be converted to a format so that millions can use them. With the rise of cloudcomputing and data storage, hosting these digital documents is becoming easier and easier. Digital preservation also provides better quality and lower cost than photocopies and microfilm. Digital formats provide access to documents and images that a person might never be able to see in person. For instance, the National Library of Sweden has an original copy of the Codex Gigas, or the Devils Bible. Such a rare item would normally sit in an archive with little access to the general public. The library has made a digitized copy of every page so people all over the world can view it online; free (Codex gigas, 2007). Such advances in technology are important because anyone can have access to such wonderful information at the click of a mouse. I find the possibilities fascinating!

References: 1. Geller, M., Menefee , D., & Fenton , E. (2008). Cooperative trends in digital archiving: An open discussion. The Serials Librarian, 54(1-2), 155-169. Retrieved from http://0ejournals.ebsco.com.www.whitelib.emporia.edu/direct.asp?ArticleID=45DBA9246CEB2291BB8F 2. Rubin, R. (2010). Foundations of library and information science. (3 ed., p. 258). New York: NealSchuman Publishers, Inc. 3. Codex gigas. (2007, June 10). Retrieved from http://www.kb.se/codex-gigas/eng/