Posted on January 19, 2011

I love Google. Just about anything I need to know I can find there, if I look long enough. But, sometimes the Boss send me off on a hunt for stuff in the archives and I end up standing around while some dude goes through the piles and the boxes and eventually arrives with a scrap of paper that's supposed to mean something. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Whatever, I've spent half the morning just waiting to check it out. Imagine if I could just find it all on my computer instead! Everything neat and organised -just type in a keyword, click a button, or a mouse, or something and you've got it! No more crumbling old papers to make me sneeze!

Anyway, when I talk to the Boss about this he emails me the DAC National Policy on the Digitisation of Heritage Resources and says 'check this out, see if it'll make your life easier, or more complicated?' So I do. It's hard reading, and once I finish I have to start all over again before I can make sense of it. And then of course, I've got more questions than answers, so the Boss says, 'spell them out'. When he pops out I take a look at his screen and I see the invitation to a workshop to discuss the policy and I know he just wants me to write out some questions for him to raise, so he'll look clever, or important. Or maybe just a bit simple!

Anyway I think of all those lists in the papers at Christmas, top ten this and top ten that and I decide to make a list of top ten questions. So here goes...

QUESTION ONE: When I started working for the Boss we used floppies and stiffy disks and programmes like Word Perfect, now sometimes I remember something useful I once read, or wrote, but I can't get it off the disk. I can't even find a slot to put it into on my computer so, what about format changes and software changes. How can we be sure that we'll be able to access all this digitised information in ten years time. The policy says we should use 'open' software, but what it the guys who develop this see a chance to make a big buck and suddenly start charging for the programmes, then what?

QUESTION TWO: When the boss does small town history exhibitions he always tells me to look for old pictures, so he doesn't have to pay copyright fees. How does the policy deal with that, all I can see is stuff about licensing and permissions and intellectual property laws, but what about the stuff that's already supposed to be freely available? What laws apply to that?

And here's another thing. When we have to use new picture we have to go through a whole fuss to get permission to use them, especially when the boss wants to write a catalogue - just so he can leave them lying around the office to impress any new clients, I think. Now, if these libraries and such want to digitise the catalogues will they have to get permission to use the pictures all over again, because they're being used in a different format and for a different purpose? Now that would be an administrative nightmare - but the Pres will be happy because it'll create thousands of new jobs.

QUESTION THREE: Language, or rather languages are a problem in this country. There's too many of them, so half the time you can't understand someone and they can't understand you. Now what happens with digitisation when you have to tag stuff or capture the metadata (see, I'm learning another language altogether now, geek-speak). How will the policy deal with all our languages? Will material be tagged in the language in which it was written or in English? This is going to make a big difference to the way in which researchers like me search for or access it? Imagine how frustrating it would be not to be able to find a record because it's been tagged in English and not the language it's written in! Imagine all the stuff that will get lost in translation?

QUESTION FOUR: I get tired reading about new institutions - and worried too. Look how many of the existing ones are falling to pieces because there's not enough money to run them. How will we cope with new ones? But anyway the question here is who will decide which institutions can become National Digital Repositories (an NDR - must remind the Boss to throw that around a bit, and on what criteria will this decision be based? Can any institution qualify for accreditation as an NDR, or will these be set up as 'official' government institutions? Why should all digital content be lodged with an NDR, some institutions may be much better equipped and resourced to do this? Imagine those people at Wits being told to take their stuff to some little outfit down the road staffed by two under-qualified brothers and a cleaner! Fat chance!!! What about standards?

QUESTION FIVE: All the words and acronyms in this document give me a headache. If so much depends on the way in which the digitised stuff is described in words, then surely we need to make sure that the words used by different institutions to describe the content of their digitised resources are standardised, or doesn't it really matter?

QUESTION SIX: Everyone goes on about lack of capacity. They can't do what they're supposed to, but here's another whole lot of work for them to take on. Will institutions like museums and libraries and archives have to set up their own digitisation departments? Will there be centralised facilities that can assist smaller organisations? Isn't there an opportunity for private sector entrepreneurs to provide these services? Now there's an opportunity for the Boss to make his millions - without going to all the trouble of working for a parastatal and getting a package to go away quietly!

QUESTION SEVEN: Digitisation isn't just a short-term project, it's a lifelong commitment! Do these institutions that are rushing into digitising everything in sight think about the long term burden and the strain in their staff and budgets? What about sustainability? You can't just scan everything and move on to something else.

QUESTION EIGHT: Now, seriously. Everyone complains about transformation and neglected histories and suchlike, and seems to think that digitisation's going to be the big equalizer, but surely it could just be same old same old? Who's going to make the decisions about what to digitise and according to what criteria? How can we be sure that marginalised histories or unpopular points of view will be 'written out' of the digital record?

QUESTION NINE: If material is digitised are there ways to limit access to it? What about sensitive material such as that to do with cultural practices that are considered 'secret', or human remains? What guidelines apply? How can intellectual property rights protected when indigenous cultural knowledge is digitised? I'm not sure that the brothers in the rural areas are going to buy this policy.

QUESTION TEN: What happens to the physical records, all those bits of paper and all those tapes? Can a developing country really afford to run two different kinds of archives?

I must say I'm worried. I'm also excited to know we're catching up with the rest of the world, finally finding some direction. But I hope someone can answer these questions before we find ourselves with a whole lot of new problems.

Mak (from Makhado) works as a research assistant to a heritage entrepreneur.