Review of the LIBER “Think Tank on the future value of the book as artefact and the future value of digital documentary heritage”, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden, 24-25 May 2007

Andrea Langendoen,Dennis Schouten,Helen Shenton

doi:10.18352/lq.7893

Abstract

What is the future of the book, or maybe rather, does the book have a future at all? These are questions that are raised again and again within different disciplines in the digital age, from e-strategists to historical bibliographers. During a two-day Think Tank, held at the Swedish National Library at Stockholm on May 24-25, authors, critics, scholars, representatives of libraries, archives and other heritage institutions and knowledge organizations tried to find answers to these and other related questions, such as: do the concepts of ‘value’ and ‘authenticity’, which are based on physical objects still have any meaning? Does digitisation decrease or increase the value of the book as an artefact? Will the rapid growth of digitised and born-digital publications lead to a new digital cultural heritage? Indeed, has the critical mass of ‘born digital’ and digitised material already created a new digital cultural documentary heritage?

Highlights

During a two-day Think Tank, held at the Swedish National Library at Stockholm on May 24-25, authors, critics, scholars, representatives of libraries, archives and other heritage institutions and knowledge organizations tried to find answers to these and other related questions, such as: do the concepts of ‘value’ and ‘authenticity’, which are based on physical objects still have any meaning? Does digitisation decrease or increase the value of the book as an artefact? Will the rapid growth of digitised and born-digital publications lead to a new digital cultural heritage? has the critical mass of ‘born digital’ and digitised material already created a new digital cultural documentary heritage?
Professor Nichols describing the work of the CLIR Taskforce on the Artefact in Library Collections, spoke of preservation as, essentially, an unfunded mandate, whilst the occasions for collecting are unlimited (Nichols, 2001)
Yola de Lusenet of the ECPA discussed an interesting question: does digital cultural heritage exist, and if so, how can this new “cultural space” be defined? In 2003 UNESCO drew up a charter on the preservation of the digital heritage

Summary

DOES THE BOOK HAVE A FUTURE AT ALL?

What is the future of the book, or maybe rather, does the book have a future at all? These are questions that are raised again and again within different disciplines in the digital age, from e-strategists to historical bibliographers. The recent tremendous growth of information that only exists in a digital form has put new pressure on this issue In her presentation, Yola de Lusenet of the ECPA discussed an interesting question: does digital cultural heritage exist, and if so, how can this new “cultural space” be defined? These web-related activities are part of new social and cultural processes which are developing at this moment From this point of view they should be considered part of our digital cultural heritage. Taking a cue from part of UNESCO’s definition of intangible cultural heritage as being “constantly recreated by communities” and not fixed, cyberculture can be seen as part of the intangible heritage She argued, we should not make the same mistakes as in the past by neglecting “ephemeral” digital material. Web archiving may allow us to postpone these choices, but they have to be made in the end

HOW DO WE PRESERVE OUR PAPER HERITAGE?

Findings

THE BOOK IN ITS PRESENT FORM HAS A FUTURE