Aspect’s of Modern Technology In Archival Management

A Powerful Tool Of Today In The Services Of Archival Science

Looking for the most accurate answer to the question “what is technology?” we can immediately realize that it is not easy to give a complete and adequate answer. Science and technology in the 21st Century are so interdependent with each other that becomes impossible to separate and identify the boundaries of each field individually. Therefore, in today’s modern society, the relationship between the scientific and technological field is arbitrarily perceived as the basic and unique feature that defines technology. It is an undisputed fact that modern technology can assist science (and in our case archival science specifically) in many ways; information technologies, integration between devices, easier data storage and analysis are only a fragment of the conveniences that modern technology is able to provide. It is extremely impressive to watch the advancement of technology in the modern era, especially in the last fifteen years. Within a very short amount of time, humanity has been able to develop many powerful means of digital imaging and communication that rapidly transformed the world in which we lived to a futuristic environment that most scenarios of science fiction are now a tangible reality. Another essential point is that new machines and technological tools represent larger, even unprecedented, opportunities for archivists to support one of the core elements of their professional mission, namely the use of archive files used.

Despite technological developments in all other scientific disciplines, archival science remains a part of the scientific world based on old-fashioned principles and faithful to classical values. Through my attendance, at the university, I had the opportunity to discover that in the process of studying, creating, and accessing the archives only few things have already been evolved and changed in the last centuries. Technology and digital birth of records is often a term unknown to archivists who have as a archetype the work of great researchers who devoted their scientific work to the formulation of theoretical technological evolution of archival science in an era when the technological means were few and the access to them was financially unbearable. Thus, new archivists regrettably rest on the theoretical principles of previous generations, often disregarding the practical part such as the revolution of digital creation and sustainability in a field so important and so scientifically challenged at the same time.

It is quite shown that we are in the midst of an information revolution, and we are only beginning to understand its implications. The past decade we experienced a dramatic transformation in the way we receive information, a change that has resulted in an unprecedented proliferation of records and data. Small details that were once captured in dim memories or fading scarps of paper are now preserved forever in the digital minds of computers, in vast databases with fertile fields of personal data.1 Every day, rivulets of information stream into electric brains to be sifted and combined in hundreds of different ways. Technology allows us the preservation of the minutia of our everyday comings and goings, of who we are and what we own. Today through the use of computers, dossiers are being constructed about all of us. Of course, this system of information and recording of personal data is reinforced by the furious use of social media by billions of users across the globe. On the other hand, technology is the reason why the global educational system can speak for a future with equal opportunities for all.

Digital technology is pervasive; its use, particularly by the world’s youth, is universal; its possibilities are vast; and everyone in multiple educational and cultural institutions is trying to figure out what to do with it all. It is mandatory that museums, libraries, and archives join with educational institutions in embracing it. Nowadays, it is so easy for everyone to have access to information that was once available only to the experts. Suddenly, everybody can take part in the creative processes of institutions, something that in the past were not even in public view, and indeed a very creative and fruitful process as new and fresh ideas can be shown by people all around the globe. Technology today has already created a golden age of opportunities. Online access to digital objects, images and records is democratising knowledge and giving the opportunity to an avast amount of people to broaden their horizons and and gain insight into many social and scientific issues with great ease. Of course, the greatest medium of sharing information in the modern technological age we are experiencing is the Internet and its sources. The Internet is the largest technological tool invented which changed the communication and to transformed the concept of information into a multidimensional term. Everyday we are bombarded by unprecedented information, through which we can acquire knowledge that would in the past require extensive research. Not only that, but interactive knowledge is now easier than ever; questioning the authority, sharing new ideas, creating content is now a part of the everyday user on the contrary with life before the internet, when the user was passive and bombarded by information provided by authority and institutions who could not be easily disputed.

Despite public’s access to “easy information”, many scientific disciplines have been persistently adhering to the social developments of the past decades, many times unable to adapt to modern technological and social data. Archival science unfortunately is one of them and this technological alienation is completely opposite to the policy and strategy that many academic institutions follow these days. These institutions, with their “open access” ethics, they embraced both digitisation and social networking giving the opportunity of K — 12 education as never before. Museums in particular can bridge the gap between formal and informal learning with lesson plans, online summits, real-time connections to experts, and better credentialing of informal digital learning. The lesson to be learned is that there is a place for both the physical and the digital, with one complementing and leveraging the other. Archival experts should gradually understand that the only way for the archival science to survive through this modern era is through the process of digitisation and the creation of digital-born archives. In a technologically advanced future, information will be created and recorded in a digital way. In addition, existing archival collections should be digitised from experts in order to survive. As it seems, it is going to be a constant struggle consisted of the preservation of the original archive, the digitisation of the original archive in order to be more easily accessible and analyzable, and the perpetual change and reform of the digitised form in order to keep up with the technological advances that will keep coming forward. With this processes archives and valuable records will pass through eternity and at the same time via the Internet, information will be available to the general public and not only to natural visitors.

Until fairly recently most of the official transactions were accomplished by means of paper documents, such letters, deeds, reports and other written or typed records. Materials like these still form the largest part of record materials in practically most archives worldwide. Modern technology is rapidly changing the way in which the public and authorities conduct their affairs, and thus altering the nature of archives. During the 19th century the invention of the printing press and typewriter have had an important effect on the physical characteristics of archives. Especially photography has had and have until today an equal impact; encompassing pictorial records, cinematographic records, aerial photography and microphotography. Of course in 19th century also the widespread use of sound recording has accompanied and complemented various photographic processes. Although, in archival science, the most profound technical innovation of all time affecting records creation and use is the computer. It is revolutionising our lives in innumerable ways, many of which have to do with the creation and manipulation of information. The further we advance into computer age, the greater will be the reliance of government and other segments of society on computers to handle matters that once were documented solely on paper; and the proportion of information in archival repositories on machine-readable media may be expected to increase exponentially.

Archives may thus be seen to take many physical forms, each of which has its own special requirements for storage, preservation and use. The major categories may be briefly described as following: Manuscripts, cartographic and architectural records, audio-visual materials, machine- readable records, and printed archives. It might be noted here, parenthetically, that both micro- reproduction and the computer are increasingly versatile and powerful tools for accomplishing a variety of sophisticated tasks in archival repositories, as well as serving as the means of recording permanently valuable information which eventually come into archival custody.

At present, it is well known that computers and everything associated with them are changing and developing so rapidly that archivists and writers cannot keep up with them. Nowadays we seem to have moved from a period of excessive optimism to a period in which the limitations and drawbacks of automated systems are mush to the front of users minds.

In addition, over the last twenty or twenty-five years, many of the largest archive repositories have begun experiments seeking the development of computerised archive descriptive databases. In many repositories, these efforts have gone through the experimental stage and are now being incorporated into ongoing substantive programs. Storage and publication of aid through these programs is now taking place in some storage areas. Since the 1970s in the United States of America, many archive repositories have joined the “SPINDEX III” programs, with a view to a sufficiently extensive network for the computerised accumulation, manipulation and exchange of archival descriptive information. Although this particular program was created in order to provide administrative control over holdings and provide automated forms of access to archival materials, this research had been very beneficial for the archival science itself. Ιn todays society, online search of archive data bases is now technically feasible, although in any given repository it is likely that only a fraction of the available descriptive data is still computerised. Unquestionably in the near future, digital forms of archives will multiply compelling the archival experts to broaden their knowledge from traditional information management techniques to new skills involving programming, data analysis, computer networking and so on and so forth in the direction of a new form of archival management, which will be purely established upon the help of cybernated media and platforms. That of course will not diminish the importance of the traditional archival collections, but contrariwise help them evolve, adjust and be kept safe.

Archivists, especially in the last decades, have witnessed many changes in acquiring copies of documents. For many generations they were required to hand copy the documents or they hired copyists to do the job. In the end of the 19th century, digital scanners brought a new era in researcher copying. Scanning devices allowed archivists to examine and explore pieces of information contained in archive collections more easily; in combination with the Internet, they were able share this information with users simply by uploading them to websites and all of a sudden the online copies were available throughout the world, easily accessible to anyone with a computer. Digital copies can now be cleaned up and provided to users, keeping in mind that a high — resolution digital master is always required for photographs. However, it is not just the custodians of records who are making use of scanning devices. Τheir electronic “eyes” measure the light reflected off a scanned surface and convert it into binary code.

There are many advantages offered to archives adopting more vigorously the use of scanners. For archivists, a scanner and portable means of digital imaging offer many advantages and even more valuable features. Image reproduction make archivists job more simple and easy because they can scan a document and then provide a copy to users without the user handling the original manuscript. Nevertheless, among the advantages of digital documents is the ability for the archivist to manipulate user copies. By digitising the most endangered, and most used documents, an archives is also taking an important step in safeguarding, if not the physical artefact itself, at least its virtual memory. Digital copies are an intelligent for archivists way to reproduce high-resolution digital back up records in order tο maintain the keep safe the information in case of a disastrous fire or flood. Of course, not all archivists have the same view on the scanning process. Many researchers have argued that the process accelerates the destruction of sensitive and harassed records. Nevertheless recent Studies have found that scanning most adversely affects documents that are already aged and deteriorating.

Besides scanner, nowadays digital cameras have become extremely accessible to people with all levels education because of the declining costs and increasing ease of use. The popularity of digital cameras is closely linked to the increased use of Personal Computers, which allow users to manipulate their informations and store them on internet. However the use of digital cameras raise many preservation concerns similar to what already discussed for scanners. Archivists understand that a document is at risk of damage during its use, but even nowadays in many cases cameras are allowed to be used in a large number of archival institutions because many researchers lack the knowledge of appropriate handling methods.

Last but not least, cell phones with their advanced applications are able to store and transform multiple types of records in digital form. Many archivists concerned about the potential loss of documents and image control. Security is a very big issue in archival science. If users are able to use digital cameras and cell phones with such easy in order to distract informations, what is to stop patrons from distributing copyrighted materials over the Internet? Modern gadgets can provide high-resolution images which could lead to forgery attempts. Thus, archivists must re — orient themselves to asking a different set of questions about the nature and purpose of their reference services.

As information technologies have become both more powerful and portable, individuals have become mobile information processing centers. Libraries, museums and archives still remain three of the most prestigious and most important places for the preservation of cultural heritage. Nevertheless, the world is moving at a fast pace, and archival science should be able to follow the new trends and modernise its research and action field at every opportunity. Moreover, it is my belief the issue of creating a global information and knowledge network would be the best possible future scenario for archival science, due to the fact that the legacy of archives, museums and libraries should be easily accessible to the public eye without restrictions; the positive fact is that technology today can provide us the creation of such a remarkable network. Last but not least, new archivists must be bold in order to bring the long- suffering technological revolution in their scientific research, and also to be clever enough in order to exploit every technological sophisticated for their own benefit.