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Concept information

Preferred term

digital archive  

Definition

  • A digital archive may refer to a collection of records originating from one person or organization and created in the course of their activity or to a collection of items from different entities and/or sources unified thematically (for example records relating to World War I). Furthermore, traditional analogue methods of ordering archives and presenting provenance (e.g. fonds) may not be applied to records in a digital archive which may instead be characterized by the need for specific, detailed organization and descriptive metadata to enable searching and retrieval. Despite this, the purpose of a digital archive remains the same as that of a traditional analogue archive: to preserve these records and make them available because of their perceived value to one or more communities. Records or items in a digital archive should include some sort of descriptive and/or organizational metadata which should be publicly available while the data (items or records being archived) may be accessible in a variety of ways including via a website interface (public or with permitted access) and direct download.

Entry terms

  • digital archives

Source

  • Morris, Sammie L. 2009. “An Introduction to Archives for Librarians.” https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/lib_research/103/.

Example

  • The Archivio della Latinità Italiana del Medioevo project hosted by the University of Siena, http://alim.unisi.it/.

In other languages

URI

http://purl.org/knot/taxonomy/digital_archive

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