Abstract
Provenance research in digitized memory institution collections is mainly devoted to documenting and mapping the trajectories of the physical source documents across time, place and contexts, primarily by developing metadata standards and data models. The provenance of the digital reproduction and its relation to one or several physical source documents is however not being subjected to much inquiry. A possible explanation for this is the face-value approach with which we tend to regard digital reproductions. Looking more closely at such reproductions and their complex digitization process suggests a far from straightforward and linear provenance relation, and begs the question of what it is we actually see on the screen and what source document the digital reproduction purports to reproduce. To ascertain this provenance bond and hence the value, authenticity and usability of the digital reproduction, users need to be provided with keys such as a thorough account of the digitization process, access to various states of the digital images, exhaustive metadata for the reproduction, and not least paradata documenting the digitization process, including conversion, editing, curation, and decisions made during the process.
Highlights
Memory institutions such as libraries, archives and museums have been engaged in digitizing cultural heritage materials in their holdings
In working with institutionally digitized collections, it is necessary to keep track of what particular document is presented on the screen, and in what relation the digital reproduction stands to the physical source document
There seems to be room for an increased critical understanding of digital reproductions as interpretations based on scholarly informed deliberation, or a ‘document criticism’ for digital image reproductions in the manner of how textual criticism has been established since centuries to establish the history, relation and provenance of texts and their versions
Summary
Volume 6 Issue 1 Proceedings from the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Document Academy 2019. Follow this and additional works at: https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/docam Part of the Cataloging and Metadata Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, and the Museum. Studies Commons Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Recommended Citation Dahlström, Mats and Hansson, Joacim (2019) "Documentary Provenance and Digitized Collections: Concepts and Problems," Proceedings from the Document Academy: Vol 6 : Iss. 1 , Article 8.
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