Problems with Describing E-born and Digitized Archival Records

Abstract

National Program for Culture defines that the digitization and preservation of digital content in the field of culture, which include archives and libraries are among the basic tasks of public institutions dealing with cultural heritage. However, it would be reasonable to think how the digitization of library and archival material and free access to the online content are reflected in the description of digital content. Libraries and archives implemented in the last ten years various digitization projects. However, they did not pay attention to the description of digitized material, which raises the question of the importance of context. This raises also the question of the evidential value of the digitized archives as well as authenticity, integrity and accountability of the digitized material in a broader context, which archives provide on the basis of the principles of provenance and original order. The digitization of archives is not specific only from the standpoint of the digitization process itself but also from the standpoint of the description of digitized archives. Adequate description enables namely the wide use of digitized archival material. A short presentation of literature and up to now accomplished research is followed by an analysis of online accessible descriptions of digitized archival material. The analysis was conducted in 48 foreign archival information systems and their databases. These are large systems, some of which operate as a common database of several smaller archives, but some systems are individual systems of the large national archives. The analyses was conducted in publicly accessible user interfaces, and was based on a direct applicability of the descriptions of digitized archival material within individual database. This is the query that can be performed by average user of archival material with access to the search engine knowing at least the basics of the web browser and of searching and sorting of the results.