The Importance of Context for Digitized Archival Collections

Date
2008-04
Authors
Vajcner, Mark
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Association for History and Computing
Abstract

Archival theory and practice have evolved to ensure the evidential value of records. The context of a record is fundamentally important to this process. While the publication of selected archival documents has always posed problems, this is now greatly amplified in the digital age. This article investigates some of the possible consequences of a loss of context in digital collections and encourages archivists to develop advanced finding aids linking contextual information to digitized materials.

Description
Journal article published in the Journal of the Association for History and Computing. Selecting "view/open" will launch the full-text article in another browser window.
Keywords
Archives, Digital collections
Citation
Collections