How can we make born-digital and digitised archives more accessible? Identifying obstacles and solutions

Abstract

Access to data is seen as a key priority today. Yet, the vast majority of digital cultural data preserved in archives is inaccessible due to privacy, copyright or technical issues. Emails and other born-digital collections are often uncatalogued, unfindable and unusable. In the case of documents that originated in paper format before being digitised, copyright can be a major obstacle to access. To solve the problem of access to digital archives, cross-disciplinary collaborations are absolutely essential. The big challenges of our time—from global warming to social inequalities—cannot be solved within a single discipline. The same applies to the challenge of “dark” archives closed to users. We cannot expect archivists or digital humanists to find a magical solution that will instantly make digital records more accessible. Instead, we need to set up collaborations across disciplines that seldom talk to each other. Based on 21 interviews with 26 archivists, librarians and other professionals in cultural institutions, we identify key obstacles to making digitised and born-digital collections more accessible to users. We outline current levels of access to a wide range of collections in various cultural organisations, including no access at all and limited access (for example, when users are required to travel on-site to consult documents). We suggest possible solutions to the problems of access—including the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence to unlock “dark” archives inaccessible to users. Finally, we propose the creation of a global user community who would participate in decisions on access to digital collections.

“So how do we balance all of these needs?”: how the concept of AI technology impacts digital archival expertise

“…This perspective can be considered parallel to archival studies discussions about AI, as it is written from the perspective of access and use and generally does not consider the work practices of archival practitioners. Jaillant and Caputo (2022) express frustration at the inability of archival repositories to make large digital datasets available in a timely manner. Additionally, Jaillant (2022) noted that the lack of accessibility may impact end users-DH practitioners included.…”

“…Jaillant and Caputo (2022) express frustration at the inability of archival repositories to make large digital datasets available in a timely manner. Additionally, Jaillant (2022) noted that the lack of accessibility may impact end users-DH practitioners included. Digital Humanities (DH), an umbrella term referring to humanities scholarship concerned with the use of computers as an integrated and essential part of research (Brügger, 2016), have published much more on the use of ML and CV in comparison with archival studies literature.…”

“…According to Jaillant and Caputo (2022), AI offers potential to sort through backlogs more efficiently, specifically by more efficiently screening data for sensitivity. The authors state that "archival collections often close entire collections due to data protection concerns" and that "closing entire collections for an indeterminate period of time is not ethical, since archives in publicly funded organisations are meant to be open to the public" (p. 5).…”

“…Jaillant and Caputo (2022) express frustration at the inability of archival repositories to make large digital datasets available in a timely manner. Additionally, Jaillant (2022) noted that the lack of accessibility may impact end users – DH practitioners included.…”

Applying AI to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics

“…With so many digital collections closed to users due to these issues with data protection and copyright, AI has been presented as a possible solution to the problem of locked archives (Jaillant and Caputo, 2022;Jaillant 2022aJaillant , 2022b. For the purposes of this article, we refer to AI in a broad sense.…”