Digital Humanities :: Final Paper Abstract :: Ben Goldman

Abstract

Scholars working in the literary studies field rely heavily on the artifacts of authorial activities. Manuscripts, drafts, journals, and correspondence produced by authors typically end up in archives and special collections departments of libraries, where scholars visit to examine these primary materials. These primary materials, however, are increasingly being born-digital. Many writers now largely use word processing programs to create texts, correspond with friends and colleagues using email, and perhaps even author blogs as a form of journaling.

Archivists and rare book librarians have over the decades developed sound processes for preserving these material artifacts of print culture, but the growing abundance of digital artifacts will require new processes and skills to ensure accessibility to future scholars. Many of the processes—redundancy, emulation, migration—have been developed and subsequently described in the corpus on digital preservation, and may be of use to libraries working with born-digital works. This paper will examine the various digital preservation methods in an archival context.

Archives and libraries are already being forced to confront these issues as more authors begin to donate, as part of their literary papers, the computers and storage devices used to produce and store texts. Emory University and the Harry Ransom Center in Texas are two institutions who have begun working through these issues and publishing the results. A review of their experiences will demonstrate where other archives and libraries need to focus their energies and suggest new ways forward.

The problem of digital preservation is one that affects all information organizations, not just libraries. While research has identified many methods for preserving digital information, often these methods require an expenditure of human and financial resources that is not within the means of libraries. As a result, an increased emphasis is being placed on building preservation processes into the acts of authorship, and into the tools used for creating works. This paper will review some of the measures that authors can take to ensure long-term preservation of their digital files, and the ways in which archivists can collaborate with them on this work.