Building a Digital Archive forms part of an organisation’s long-term strategy. It implements a policy aimed at expanding and facilitating access to archival documents. The choice of technologies must support future enhancement and portability. The primary objective of building a digital archive is to enable broader and easier access to documents without compromising their physical condition.
The digital archive includes a комплекс of activities covering document selection, the creation of digital copies (where these do not already exist), the addition of meta-information (metadata), quality control, storage and use. These activities are interrelated.
The objects of digitisation are archival documents stored within the organisation’s structural units and/or currently created by them (if they are not already digital). Documents held by external individuals and legal entities may also be objects of digitisation, provided they are not already in digital form.
The procedures/algorithms for entering and updating information in the digital archive are regulated through separate documents for each activity. The مجموع of all procedures / algorithms for collecting and storing information, the rules for provision, the rules for access, and others, form a system of rules governing the operation of the digital archive.
The software used to manage the digital archive must be web-based and must support not only data entry and modification, but also the visualisation of the public-facing part of the information. Metadata relating to digital documents forms part of the database.
The digital archive is managed by administrators who access the database via web-based software.
The Digital Archive database contains static digital images of archival documents (paper-based textual documents, photographic materials, documents on other media, video and audio materials converted from ... into digital format). For handwritten documents, it is advisable to include additional textual transcriptions.
The core elements of the Digital Archive are the digital objects. Digital objects represent archival documents in their entirety and include all files containing digital images of their constituent parts. Each digital object corresponds to a metadata record (meta-information), including a description.
Quality control, recommendations for correcting digital objects and their metadata, overall management, coordination and control of digitisation activities, methodological support for staff preparing digital objects, inclusion of digital objects in the Digital Archive database, their storage and preservation, and the development of the methodological framework are carried out centrally by a specially appointed committee. The members of the committee and the database administrators sign a specific confidentiality declaration in accordance with ethical and regulatory requirements.
The head of the organisation creates regulatory documents and internal rules governing access to information.
Objectives of creating the digital archive
- Consolidation and integration of the information available in relation to the organisation’s activities.
- Extraction of data.
- Systematisation of information and classification in line with current trends.
- Facilitating user access to information.
- Expanding the circle of information users.
- Improving the preservation of original archival documents.
- Creating new opportunities for information extraction and value creation through indexing, the development of filters and search algorithms. Data mining. Monitoring search trends in order to identify patterns.
KEY PRINCIPLES IN BUILDING THE DIGITAL ARCHIVE
- Ensuring the security and physical condition of archival documents throughout all stages and activities of their digitisation.
- The highest possible level of authenticity.
- Precise selection of archival documents for digitisation, based on common principles, criteria and priorities.
- Compliance with the applicable legislation governing access to and use of archival documents and their copies.