Archives & Manuscripts Post #7

This week in class, we talked about the preservation of archival materials. The deterioration and destruction of archival materials can occur in a number of ways, be it in a natural disaster as occurred in Hurricane Katrina, or simply by sealing a document in a plastic laminate. In the minds of many archivists, the solution seems to be digitization, especially for archival photographs.

Photographs comprise an important part of archival collections and remain a fragile historical source due to the photography development methods of the past that often lead to deterioration in the present. As we’ve discussed, Temple’s Special Collections Research Center has digitized thousands of photographs from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and other newspapers. Yet, digitization poses problems to the archival principle of provenance. The digitization of these materials facilitates an easier, more efficient method of research that allows users to search for materials related to their topic. In theory, this new technology eliminates the dreaded act of digging through files and files of material to find an appropriate photograph or document that often comprises archival research. But, convenience isn’t everything. Digitization in instances like the SCRC’s online collection of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin photos partly does away with the context that placing photographs alongside the article that the picture is meant to accompany, not to mention other articles printed in the paper that might help to frame a particular article or photograph in a larger historical context, provides.

Being the twenty-six year old luddite that I am, I couldn’t help but apply this same principle to e-books and large-scale digitization initiatives (LSDIs), as discussed in Oya Y. Rieger’s “Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization.” Initiatives like Google Book Search and Microsoft Live Books gives users access to thousands of e-books, and even allows them to search for terms within the book. The article does not deal with issues of provenance, but I think the topic is relevant. Provenance is usually a concept applied to archival collections, but I think the concept could similarly be applied to material printed in books. The idea of being able to search for terms and words within a book seems to make separating ideas and phrases from the larger context presented in the work an issue in a manner similar to the concerns associated with the digitization of archival photographs. This issue seems worthy of conversation in our digital era.

Editor's Note: Here's a goofy example of the threat that e-books pose to provenance within written materials taken from the satirical internet celebrity, "Edgy White Liberal." In this instance, "Edgy" has re-arranged the writings of Italian Communist intellectual Antonio Gramsci to create a quote celebrating capitalist entrepreneurship, using the search function on the Google Books app of his new Apple Watch! He calls this innovation, "Hack History." This is obviously an extreme example and meant to be humorous. Yet, it still reveals the capabilities of searchable, digitized materials to erase both scholarly context and provenance.