Digital Archives That Disappear

How best to guarantee that they will be around for good? [15may09]

Here are some excerpts from an article recently published by the Inside Higher Ed website:

As digital archives have become more important and more popular, there are varying schools of thought among scholars about how best to guarantee that they will be around for good. Some think that the best possibility is for the creators of the archives -- people generally with some passion for the topic -- to keep control. Others favor acquisition, thinking that larger entities provide more security and resources for the long run.

The fate of "Paper of Record," a digital archive of early newspapers with a particularly strong collection of Mexican newspapers, may be cited in the years ahead as an example of the dangers of purchase by a large entity. Paper of Record was purchased (secretly) by Google in 2006, and shortly after Google took over management of the site, late last year, the archive disappeared from view. After weeks in which historians have complained to Google and others about the loss of their ability to work, the previous owner of the archive has received permission to bring the archive back for some period of time, and resumption of service could start as early next week.

The current loss of access is "tragic," said Ted Beatty, director of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. Beatty said Paper of Record not only has a great archive, but its search tools "revolutionized" the ease with which scholars could search the newspapers in the collection. Beatty said that he has been using the database for years, and encouraging his undergraduate and graduate students to do so as well -- until access disappeared.

Read full article.