“If everything is an archive, what meaning does the word have? What is so great about being an archive? Why have we given the word such power?”
What makes something truly worthy of being preserved and recognized as history?
17 Matching Annotations
- Last 7 days
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www.uproot.space www.uproot.space
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In the face of this guilt-inducing backlog, special collections have turned towards digitization as a solution, prioritizing getting images of Black people online and hoping that will be enough.
Putting things online doesn’t automatically fix the problem. It might look like progress, but if there’s no real explanation or context, people still won’t understand what they’re looking at or why it matters. Just uploading images isn’t the same as making history truly accessible.
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Academics continuously loosen the concept of the archives in vigorous debate and flowery speech, while hundreds of linear feet of Black history are stacked in secure shelving, unbeknownst and inaccessible to implicated communities.
This part highlights the disconnect between theory and reality. Scholars debate what an archive means, but real Black historical materials are sitting on shelves and not accessible to the communities they belong to. It shows how discussion does not always translate into action.
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- Feb 2026
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blog.josephscott.org blog.josephscott.org
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Most Unix systems are kind enough to allow just about anything in a file name.
This shows that even though systems allow a lot of flexibility, that doesn’t always mean users should take advantage of it without thinking ahead.
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This merits a specific mention because detecting that a file name has one is not easy to do visually.
This explains why small details matter, since mistakes that are hard to see can still cause problems when working with files.
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www-jstor-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu www-jstor-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu
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ibraries and archivesreally have to keep our roles whole and moving forward because we have a verydifferent point of view than the commercial guys. Wil
This idea directly connects to Besser’s argument that digital libraries should preserve traditional library values like access, ethics, and service, rather than becoming commercially driven platforms.
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ickly. The current digi
How can we realistically preserve digital materials long-term if it requires constant attention, money, and people to keep updating them?
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o preservation means "make copies."
Kahle is basically saying that the safest way to preserve digital material is to make multiple copies and share them, instead of trusting just one archive to protect everything.
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nclusion, I argue for univeris within our grasp financially. It'sour gr
Kahle’s main argument is that universal access to knowledge is not just an ideal, it’s something we already have the tools, money, and systems to achieve if we choose to act on it.
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www-jstor-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu www-jstor-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu
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So preservation means "make copies."
Kahle is basically saying that the safest way to preserve digital material is to make multiple copies and share them, instead of trusting just one archive to protect everything.
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nclusion, I argue for univeris within our grasp financially. It'sour gra
Kahle’s main argument is that universal access to knowledge is not just an ideal, it’s something we already have the tools, money, and systems to achieve if we choose to act on it.
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companions.digitalhumanities.org companions.digitalhumanities.org
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It is very possible that digital libraries will enable future humanities scholars to engage in new activities that we haven't yet envisioned.
What kinds of new activities might he be imagining, and are scholars actually ready for that shift?
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Libraries (either digital or brick-and-mortar) have both services and ethical traditions that are a critical part of the functions they serve.
This highlights that libraries are defined not only by what they contain, but by how they serve users and uphold values like privacy and fairness.
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Digital libraries will be critical to future humanities scholarship. Not only will they provide access to a host of source materials that humanists need in order to do their work, but these libraries will also enable new forms of research that were difficult or impossible to undertake before.
The author emphasizes that digital libraries aren’t just about easy access, they change how research can be done. It’s a shift from visiting a library to interacting with the material in new computational ways.
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- Jan 2026
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www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
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But it’s still not entirely natural, and he sometimes slips. About halfway through a recent nine-month research project, he’d built up so many files that he gave up on keeping them all structured.
I find this interesting and relatable because even people with years of experience can make mistakes. I sometimes give up and just put everything in one folder too. This shows how people often shift from structured folders to a “one bucket” approach when things become overwhelming.
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Guarín-Zapata’s mental model is commonly known as directory structure, the hierarchical system of folders that modern computer operating systems use to arrange files.
This explains that computers organize files using folders inside other folders, similar to how people organize papers in real life. It connects back to the drawer analogy.
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“I open a drawer, and inside that drawer, I have another cabinet with more drawers,”
I have experienced this when modifying game files on my PC, finding the directory, opening a file, then finding even more files, and even more when opening one of those.
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