Digital information technologies and scholarly research in the social sciences and humanities: the crucial role of archival science

• Autor(a) principal: Dollar, Charles
• Data de Publicação: 1994
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Históricos (Rio de Janeiro)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/reh/article/view/1977

New and emerging digital information technologies are both transforming the environment in which contemporary scholars in the social sciences and humanities are conducting research and communicating their findings, and creating long-term preservation issues that call into question the trustworthiness of electronic records (sources) scholars of the future will want to use. How can archivists preserve electronic documents where there is no physical entity as such? Given the relative ease with which an electronic document can be altered, whether intentionally or not, how can archivists ensure its trustworthiness? And in the light of rapid technological change and obsolescence, how can they ensure the long-term usability of electronic documents? In reviewing these issues, the author will argue that the fundamental questions are intellectual and archival science can provide substantial guidance to all creators, users and preservers of electronic material.