Specters in the archive: faculty digital image collections and the problems of invisibility

Authors

Joan E. Beaudoin, Wayne State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This paper argues that the devaluation of visual information in favor of textual information will result in a loss of visual information in a digital form that has personal, institutional and cultural ramifications. Framing this discussion is a study of the digital preservation practices among two faculty user groups, archaeologists and art historians. The study examined the faculty users’ knowledge, perception, emotions and processes surrounding the digital images they had created and, or collected to support their professional activities. What was discovered is a worrisome situation where an important part of the cultural record is at serious risk of being lost.

Disciplines

Archival Science

Comments

This is a formatted version of the author’s pre-print version of an article submitted to and subsequently published in The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37(6), 2011, 488-494. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.07.005.

Recommended Citation

Beaudoin, J.E. (2011). Specters in the archive: faculty digital image collections and the problems of invisibility. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37(6): 488-494. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.07.005.