Find Your Options for the digital archiving

 

So much content has been created, paid for and then used only once. Creating a digital archive is a great way to give old content a new life and there are plenty of benefits that might not be immediately apparent.

But creating a digital archive can appear daunting, especially if you have a lot of content. Sometimes it’s just hard knowing where to start. To help you with that, we are creating a new series of articles on how to bring your magazine archive to life. However, often archives are not just about printed material.

Remember our post on how performing arts sector is leveraging on digital archives to bring their past yet precious performances to life? We’ve pretty much established on that feature that dusting off archives and putting them online is, undoubtedly, a good idea. Go for the digital archiving process in this case.

Think about your audience

Holden emphasises the importance of thinking clearly about your audience. ‘The audience for it is crucial. If what you’re trying to do is engage with your general public stay focused on that, because the project can very easily spin out of control. Particularly if you’ve got a long history. So stay really focused on the things you want to catalogue and the way you want to catalogue them, because you’ll never be able to do it all.

Engage your audience

Engage your audience in the process, said Holden. ‘We have volunteers who work with us regularly on all sorts of projects, and they loved being engaged in this process – of scanning, of data entry, of helping in the process of keeping the archive together.’

Work with an archivist

Seeking professional assistance to digitise your archive can be useful. Holden recommends working with an experienced archivist, and with collecting institutions.

Access funding

Holden stresses that creating a digital archive can be costly, so seeking funding can ensure the project is a success. ‘We were funded through the Brisbane City Council, not through any arts program but through a community history grant. And I think if an organisation has a key role to play in the city or in the state, then there is often a grant program to assist with the costs of development.