From the dawn of the digital revolution era, traditional archivers are compelled to learn the new gradation of technology, as every conventional concept of digital archiving was changing. With great power comes significant responsibilities and challenges; digital archiving also comes with specific trials, which can be tamed with a constant following of best practices. In today’s blog on Tyrus technologies, we will be addressing a few challenges faced by the experts in this field and tips to overcome them.
# Trial 1
The absence of subject matter experts can kill your business
Digital archiving requires expenses, especially for expert digital archivist training and methodical prioritization. But if you can allocate a budget for engaging professionally qualified digital archivists from professional organizations, they can add flying colors to your business goals. Here, the biggest challenge for big and medium-sized businesses is that there are not enough financial assets kept aside to meet the digital archiving needs. So, most digital archiving lessons are still not turned into actions in such organizations.
It’s a fact that best preservation is ‘the state at which everything important about a file is still capable of being examined by a human being […] it’s not about individual records orbits, it’s about allowing humans to understand’ (McDonough, 2012). Contradictory to this, organizations’ attention is most often on learning and understanding digital archiving technical knowledge rather than implementing this on a time-bound basis.
Tyrus Tips
There are no worries if your organization cannot allocate enough resources for in-house digital archiving; one can always outsource it to independent methodical archiving firms. They can meet your digital archiving needs within a pocket-friendly budget. There would require immense hardware and software knowledge; of course, it is time-consuming and not a budget-friendly idea. An independent archiving firm can lighten your workload efficiently.
#Trial 2
Alert! Legal knots can be undone
How much of the document can be digitized? What are the legal issues concerning digital preservation? Digitization can undoubtedly help one improve accessibility, but how authentic is the preserved information! One must be careful in understanding ownership rights and copyrights; if not, you may get into legal trouble. Note that if you own the physical ownership of the document doesn’t always mean you possess the legal rights as well. Copyright is not just a single right but a bundle of requests that can be exploited or licensed separately or together.
Tyrus Tips
Always follow the existing copyright rules of your country. Understanding and implementing metadata standards do not always depend on technology. Your company can include a complete overview of Copyright Law and instructions you follow for acquiring rights and reproductions on your website. Controlled access may be used with required passwords, or unlimited access to the collections may be provided when digital images are marked correctly with ownership (Beamsley, 1999, p. 373). The best idea for solving such challenges would be to outsource your digital archiving needs to an individual digital archiving firm.
# Trial 3
Ethical point of view
Digital archiving at times blurs the legal terms and ethical point of view as well. Ethical issues often arise from the lack of the company’s stands on preserving materials, providing access, and managing them. Organizations are expected to act with integrity, avoiding activities that may compromise themselves, their institutions, or the collections. Small and medium organizations with lesser information to the archive may not find it hard to follow ethics, but it is easy for ethical glitches to creep in when it comes to more giant firms. Institutional administrative security must also be kept in mind. How much of the administrative information routinely held by cultural institutions should be provided online? Do the institutions digitize all of the administrative data that accompanies objects? Insurance, security, and valuation information must be kept secure (Hoopes, 1997, p.89).
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# Trial 4
Technicalities of Technical Issues
Digital archiving requires constant up-gradation of software and hardware. Does your company have enough funds for it?
Because of the digital era advancement, the initial source is often not preserved well. The problem lies in the fact that the content may now be removed entirely from the physical artifact (Besser). It will take a conscious effort to ensure that digital information survives.
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An independent digital archiving firm knows the industry inside out and would have handled and faced most critical situations; their experts know the best preservation techniques. The best practices are identifying your collection, choosing the right expertise, and carefully allocating funds. The expert in the field should have a nose for determining the technical specifications, compatibility factors, re-use, and migration in the ever-changing digital world. A subject matter expert at a digital archiving firm knows it all inside out.
Professionals must work hand in hand and remember that there are no set standards for preserving digital material to address these challenges. And choose your digital archivers wisely.
I hope the read was informative. For more Tyrus Tips, watch out for our blog space.
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