This week has been really quiet due to making comments on other groups websites while waiting on their suggestions. I decided to revisit the article “Why don’t archives digitize everything?” For me personally I think that everything should be digitized and saved because that’s just how I am. Every magazine, assignment, basically any piece of paper, I try to save. Even if it is never going to be looked at again I want to keep it. While I do end up recycling most of these things part of me wonders whether or not future generations would want to see a math test from third grade. Yes, I know it’s a tad crazy but I’m all about preservation of just about everything.

The first point that the article makes is that digitization is really expensive and time consuming. I found a website that sells these types of products and found that a thing called the ‘Preservation Pencil,’ which directs moisture, is $2000. This product doesn’t digitize, it is about preserving the paper and it is that expensive. To buy digitization products, you have to be a member of NARA (National Archives and Records Administration.) If money wasn’t a factor as to why more things aren’t digitized I would gladly spend all my time doing it because I love it. At UMW, we have a digital collection, but I have not spent time there. I know that one person works with the records so I assume that it is a small collection. There is also a digital archives class at UMW, which I regret not taking because I think that it would have been really interesting.

To manage a digital archive you have to be extremely tech savvy. You have to have a computer with a large hard drive and know all the ins and outs of the format changes that each piece of content brings. The article mentions that these formats are constantly changing, which is difficult to deal with when the process costs so much. Hopefully, the costs go down due to how digital our society has become. It makes sense to me that as tech takes over digitization of records would be a normal thing so the costs go down due to such high demand. At least that is what I’m crossing my fingers will happen.