As the COVID-19 pandemic compelled libraries and archives worldwide to close their doors indefinitely, stranded researchers were compelled to radically reimagine what a visit to the archive might look like. Rather than scrutinizing text amid the dust of decaying paper in a Special Collections Reading Room, these researchers found themselves poring over digitized documents bathed in the light of their computer screens. The relevance of organizations like HathiTrust and the Internet Archive, which are committed to the task of document digitization, has been felt perhaps most urgently during this pandemic. But their current prominence simply refocuses our attention upon a larger and long-ongoing debate regarding the digitization of archival materials. What are the benefits of the digitization of archives, and what are its drawbacks? How might libraries and archives, conceptualized initially as physical spaces of knowledge, be reimagined as digitization offers both prospects and challenges to their institutional structures and ethos? How does the impetus for digitization confront long-standing principles of fair use and copyright? In this episode we discuss both the role of controversial institutions like the Internet Archive today and the larger stakes of this debate on digitization with archivist and copyright scholar Peter Hirtle.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Articles: Kathleen Connolly Butler, “Keeping the World Safe from Naked-Chicks-in-Art Refrigerator Magnets: The Plot to Control Art Images in the Public Domain through Copyrights in Photographic and Digital Reproductions” (Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal)
Archival Collections: Making of America collection, Cornell University Library; Normal Mailer Papers, Harry Ransom Center (University of Texas at Austin); Salman Rushdie Papers, Emory University
FURTHER READING
1. Elizabeth A. Harris, “Publishers Sue Internet Archive over Free E-Books”
2. Aja Romano, “A Lawsuit Is Threatening the Internet Archive — But It’s Not As Dire As You May Have Heard”
3. Jill Lepore, “Can the Internet Be Archived?” and “The National Emergency Library Is a Gift to Readers Everywhere”