Anderson Archival

Just ask the librarians at Alexandria, the docents of Brazil’s Museo Nacional, or countless other stewards who will give the same warning: what’s here today could be gone in a flash tomorrow.

"At first my middle sister was like, ‘Oh, I’m not interested in having a copy.’ But then she took a look at Volume One and was like, ‘No, I’ll take one.’ My kids want to look at them. They don’t read Italian right now, but it’s part of their history so I am happy that we are archiving them."

A digital file provides an opportunity for editing, enhancement, and even restoration without any harm coming to the original document or preservation master image. When presented alongside the preservation master, these files provide a fuller, more complete picture of the object itself.

Simply having a #preservationplan doesn’t mean that all is perfect in your collection.

"Everyone has some interest in these old photo albums, so this was a problem staring me in the face. I was trying to find a way to share the albums in a way that was equitable and could be appreciated and easily accessible."

In the digital age, online search engines are the primary means of research for many people. An online library properly set up with searchable metadata offers far greater discoverability than an organization’s website alone.

"Now that they’re #digitized, we can find the specific year and the register that their ancestor, parent, or grandparent lived in and can send that to them."

An ideal method of true #preservation is keeping originals out of common use. This can be done through a combination of physical storage and digital access to reproductions.

"What a role these letters have played in a time when we haven’t even been able to have a service or a mass for my mom. We’ve been able to have a memorial weekendmemorialized both of them, actuallyin a way that probably we wouldn’t have done if we hadn’t been in the middle of a pandemic."

"One of the most exciting things about our team is that we all come from different backgrounds and levels of experiences, but through training and continuing education, we’ve grown into this well-oiled, dedicated #digitization machine."

Digitizing high-use parts of #collections will not only facilitate easier #research and use by their audiences, but it will also reduce the amount of damage taken by these essential works.

Sometimes a single artifact or document can shed light on unknown or obscured history. Oftentimes these types of artifacts are hidden away in family collections or lost to the elements, but when found, their importance is incalculable. The evidence of two explorers showcase how important a single document can be to illuminate events that would otherwise remain a mystery.

If a user were to search for the word armistice, and limited the results to 1918, the main story on this page would appear in the results. If use cases indicated that users would benefit from being able to search by subject (WWI, Kaiser Wilhelm, etc.) even if the referenced term did not appear in the original text, tagging that information in the metadata would make sure that it appeared as a result of those searches.