The Romance of Form

This chapter is concerned with the properties of both the physical archive and the digital archive. One of the attractions of the archive is the physical form of the record: the leather-bound volume, copperplate handwriting, silvered photographs—the colour, smell and sight of past generations. The challenge for the digital archive has been whether it ought or should replicate this romance of the physical form. Debates about the merits of encapsulation or retaining a record’s ‘look and feel’, dominated early discussions about digital preservation. But does the attraction of the digital archive lie in other conceptualisations? While the aim of born-digital records preservation is to ensure access to information over time, emotional connections are harder to provide. Rather it is in the contextual relationships, the spider-web of search and discovery, where the digital archive can be most powerful.