Nope!
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| NMAI Archive Center Stacks |
Archives around the world document human history. They hold materials fundamental for academic
and personal research on almost every subject conceivable and have long been collecting
immeasurable amounts of material long before the birth of the internet. The Smithsonian Institution, for example, was
founded in 1846 with a dedication to the “increase and diffusion of
knowledge”. The Smithsonian’s first
website was inaugurated in 1995. That
leaves 149 years of collected knowledge before we even had an online
presence.
In addition to
working at the National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, I
am also in graduate school. I am often
frustrated with the assumption by students that research can be done solely
through the use of the internet. The
internet is a useful tool, however, it is inconceivable that over 149 years of
material could be fully digitized in the 18 years since we've had the internet,
let alone high-quality equipment. Can
you imagine loading a digital archive on Netscape?
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| A portion of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Records |
Never fear!
Archivists around the Institution are working tirelessly to fulfill the
Smithsonian’s mission of “diffusion of knowledge” and bringing you complete and
accurate digitized material. The project
that I am involved with is the digitization of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation records. Over the past two years we have digitized 51 boxes of manuscript
material, that is, more than 50,000 pages!
Digitizing archival material is a bit more complicated than
running documents through a scanner as we have unique and original
material. A few examples:
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| Fragile Materials: Manuscripts like this field notebook from 1896 require special care, handling, and more time when imaging. |
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| Culturally Sensitive Materials: This is defined in different ways by members of individual tribes, ethnic groups, nations, communities,and religious denominations, but usually include materials that relate to traditional knowledge and practices. Such materials may not be digitized. |
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| Oversize Materials: The physical size of certain items also require additional digitizing techniques. |
So, what is available online? While large collections may not be fully
digitized, we have a lot of digital resources available to help the researcher
in their quest. These online finding aids serve
as a guide to the collections and provide a detailed description of the
contents and arrangement of an archival collection. After that, once a researcher gets familiar
with our collections, they may make an appointment to come see us and conduct their
research!
Remember, Archivists and Librarians are here to help
you. If you don’t live in the DC area,
ask your local reference librarian for a place to start. As you are considering
avenues of research, don’t limit yourself to what is available online, or you
may be missing out on a world of knowledge.
Nichole Procopenko
Archives Scanning Technician
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