Digitization and access in archives - Hanging Together

"In my last Archives Month post, I reflected on the shift in practice related to allowing researchers to use cameras in special collections reading rooms, and what this has meant for users. Today, I’d like to focus on another area of practice that has shifted significantly in the relatively recent past: digitization. We heard a lot about digitization and a desire for online access to digital collections from all the users we surveyed and interviewed during our research for the Building a National Finding Aid Network (NAFAN) project. Some of this is synthesized in our summary of findings report for the project. But today I’d like to spend a little bit more time pulling together digitization related threads from our user research, as well as reflect a bit on where we’ve been and where we’re going in digital collections work...."