Digital Archiving: What is Involved?

Digital Archiving: What is Involved?

Archives

In this article Dale Flecker, the Associate Director for Planning and Systems at Harvard University Library advocates greater involvement by the nation’s scholarly community in the process of preservation and archiving of material. Flecker warns that “the temptation to ‘let the other guy do it’ will be great” and that the field of archiving is “vulnerable to the free-rider syndrome.” He also points out that while larger national institutions such as the Library of Congress are making significant progress in the field, they will not be able to do it on their own, and in order for proper standards to be met it is up to scholarly institutions to “monitor, encourage, and when possible, participate in this innovative program.” Issues such as institutional funding will greatly affect how our digital archives are maintained and constructed. Flecker urges the higher education community to take initiatives that include model archives to demonstrate feasibility and also to demonstrate to government and educational policy makers the importance of supporting digital archiving projects.
This article presents a clear and concise case for greater involvement of America’s institutions of higher education in the digital archiving process. It also points to the importance of the higher education community’s influence on other decision makers as to the continued importance and support of digital archiving projects.

Flecker, Dale

Educause Review

2003

Polk, Victoria

2003 Dale Flecker

Website

https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0316.pdf