The digitization of history project will explore the following questions:
Who digitizes what, and why?
The limited dialogue between scholars within the humanities and social sciences and experts on digitization techniques and resources has had serious effects on the accessibility and quality of digitization projects affecting these disciplines. While some have predicted that all information will soon be accessible online, with subsequent democratization of access, in practice this vision is not feasible within existing projects and funding schemes. Access to texts through projects like Google Books is limited, for the most part, to bibliographic searching, while other projects scanning full-text content are extremely expensive. Thus only a few ‘pockets’ of historical resources have been made available, many of these only to a restricted few, and the effect of digitization on archives and libraries as social institutions has barely been explored.
How can we democratize access while ensuring that projects have adequate funding for maintenance?
While the Borges-like vision of a ‘universal library’ seems remote, what has emerged are a series of significant ‘digital divides’: divides between, for example, particular institutions and collections whose materials have been made available online and those which do not have the resources to do so; between scholarly users with access to subscriptions to such collections through connections with larger universities and users belonging to institutions ‘off the (new digital) grid’; between the resources available online for Anglophone research and those available in (for example) non-Roman scripts.
How will digitization affect the practice of history, and the ‘social universe’ of historians, archivists and librarians?
The group has begun a series of interviews with individuals involved in digitization projects, both corporate and academic, in the interests of fostering dialogue and exchange which may be helpful to institutions and researchers underserved by the current information orders. One idea which has emerged from early conversations within the group has concerned a possible ‘archive of archives,’ which might act as a virtual finder’s guide to less accessible collections. We are particularly interested in examining the possible future needs of such archives and collections, including the need for help in responding to inquiries generated by digitization.
Key points:
What is being scanned and why?
What are the limits of ‘corporate responsibility’ in relation to digitization?
Accessibility and language issues
Will digitization offer greater democratization?