Before understanding the
importance of archive digitization for
archivists, you need to be familiar with some of the terminologies related to
it.
What are archives?
Archives are a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people. It can be considered as a storage unit of all the data.
What are digitized archives?
Digitized archives are physical collections that have been scanned, photographed or indexed in order to make the information in them available online.
What is archive digitization?
In the most basic words, the process of converting an archive into a digital archive is archive digitization.
Though there are some archives that have started their life as digital documents and have been used in this format throughout their life, before being transferred to the archive in a digital format.
Now, let’s hold the bull by its horns and address the core question, why is archive digitization vital for archivists?
The best way to answer this question is by highlighting its benefits. So, let’s talk about these benefits in detail.
Benefits of archive digitization
1. Preserve your data for years down the lane
One of the biggest nightmare for the archivists is the loss of the data. It is almost impossible to manually preserve the data for years. And any loss of data can be quite dangerous.
Among the uncountable benefits digitization, one of the prominent one is that you don’t lose data which is online, as it always stays where it is until deliberately removed.
With archive digitization, you can enjoy this feature of digitization. Your documents, which can be lost, or mishandled, are now safe, digitally archived, which is a big stress-relief for any business.
2. Ensure optimum confidentiality of the data
It is extremely vital to ensure and maintain the confidentiality of the data, otherwise it can bring you a huge trouble.
When you digitally archive the data on the world wide web, you are reducing the risk manifolds. The risk might not be completely eliminated but we cannot deny the fact that it is minimized which is not possible if the data is on papers within a file.
3. Accessibility to an undo option
Once a paper file has been through a shredder machine, it is gone, forever. There is no way back. But that is not the case when it is in its digital form.
When the data is in digital form there will probably be no need to delete a file because of the huge space available, and even if there is, you can retrieve it.
This feature provides you an opportunity to undo your errors so that they don’t turn into a blunder.
4. An environmental friendly option
Penning down the entire data on papers will have an adverse impact on the environment. As papers are made at the cost of trees, it is vital for us to reduce our dependence on them, so as to be a responsible creature of earth.
Paper bundles cost you a lot plus there is no fixed upper limit of the paper bunches that you will need every month. On the flip side, digital archives help you get rid of the paper and also save the money spent on it.
Thus, it is vital to opt for digitization in order to keep the data intact.
Summary
Archive digitization is no less than a blessing as it ensures
that all the imperative data is intact for generations to come and you are no
longer entrapped in the fear of losing it.
Comments
Post a Comment