Vocab Term: Digital Archive

Definition: This is an archive that is ordinarily accessed online. Archives typically represent a compilation of historical, intellectual, artistic, or literary work from either from an individual or an entire society/civilization. Digital archives can feature information/content from the recent past, but typically the time scale of content/ information contained in an archive is from the distant past (decades & centuries). Therefore, these archives will often contain anthropological or archeological information as well. To provide context for what is contained within a digital archive there is always editorial commentary.

DH Source: The commentary contained in a digital archive is pliable. Experts will often discover a new piece of information that will cause them to revise previously stated digital archive commentary. Therefore, digital archives aren’t necessarily a static repository where information is contained. “The digital edition…[is] an archive of source material with an editorial layer built on top: the one operating as the established and immutable facts of the text, and the other operating as the changing domain of human perspective and interpretation” (Harris 17).

Commentary: Digital archives move beyond being a mere database, but there is also a metadata component that I find interesting. Being able to provide a revision to previously stated editorial commentary allows experts to instantly stay informed. This is crucial when it comes to discoveries related to fields like archeology, geology, and anthropology. Moving beyond a mere database provides experts and curious scholars with a hub for accessing and understanding information related to their interests/fields of study.

Katharine Harris. “Archive” The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.