Digital Preservation and the Opportunities it can provide Young People

With technology constantly evolving and becoming a vital instrument we use in our everyday lives, it is equally important to see how this digital era affects the preservation of our cultural heritage and how we are using it as a way to ‘future-proof’ the sector. Digital heritage has been on a rise particularly since the Covid 19 pandemic, it not only had a huge impact on our digital presence but also how we use digital assets to enhance preservation, accessibility and engagement in the cultural sector.

Digital Heritage is the practice of creating physical cultural and historical materials into digital formats so they can remain accessible for current and future generations. With this merger of cultural heritage and digital technologies, we can keep the cultural authenticity of our historical objects while also changing to fit the needs of modern developments (like this digital era).

There are two distinct parts to digital heritage. Born Digital vs Digitised. Born Digital refers to objects that were created digitally from the start, i.e. CD, vinyl, cassettes etc. Digitised refers to physical objects that have been converted into digital formats, like creating digital images of historical manuscripts, maps or plans etc.

Digital Preservation is the active management and ongoing planning to ensure digital materials can remain accessible and usable but also stay culturally authentic for future use. Therefore, this is a long-term initiative that will continuously work around digital transformations of its time to ensure its continued accessibility.

Not only does it allow for materials to be ‘future-proofed’, but it is particularly important in the case of fragile heritage objects that have been exposed to agents of deterioration such as; disasters, conflict and environmental change. Through the act of digitisation, cultural institutions can safeguard rare manuscripts, archives, oral histories, photographs, and books, which significantly reduces its vulnerability to deterioration due to manual handling.

a. Prevents Loss: Digital copies can support the longevity of fragile objects, i.e.fading photographs, crumbling documents, making sure that they don’t disappear forever, particularly in the case of extreme condition loss.

b. Broadens Accessibility and Opportunities: Makes museum and archive collections more accessible to a wider audience, so that they can view objects without having to physically visit. Increases research opportunities between individuals and institutions and provides great opportunities for people to get involved in preserving their local history while gaining valuable digital skills.

c. Engaged Communities: Virtual and online exhibitions can act as a connection between different community groups, heritage spaces and cultural heritage. This also increases engagement and understanding.

d. Disaster Recovery: Digital backups and digital surrogates ensure that our cultural heritage survives longer in the case of fire, floods, or extreme cases of war and conflict, where physical objects get destroyed.

A lot of digital skills will come from using a wide range of software, digital tools like cameras, digital archiving (knowing how and why we store digital files), and a lot of creative aspects to digital accessibility. This includes website creation and a lot of social media outreach. Not only do you learn to use these tools within the context of heritage, but you gain confidence using digital tools that you are then able to apply to every-day life as well as future projects and work.

We continue to navigate through the digital transformation of society, where digital heritage remains a critical moving part for the collective preservation of cultural identity and our cultural legacies by making them accessible for future generations. If you would like to know more about digital projects or are interested in undertaking a digital placement, then why not try the Digital Heroes Scheme!