The emergence of new technologies has created an inevitable shift in the perspectives and paradigms of researchers, students, and community participants alike. The abundance of preservation software and digital archives has only increased throughout the last decade as archivists and scholars are realizing the importance of maintaining documents crucial to the political and social histories of communities around the world. However, as days, months, and years go by without correctly storing these important academic and cultural findings, we are losing integral parts of our worldy culture that cannot be restored.
Reading through Gaffield’s article on her search for the Haitian Declaration of Independence initially excited me, as I am a history junkie who relishes the idea of having my own National Treasure moment, excavating historical documents and treasures deep inside the Pyramids of Giza or the mysterious lost city of Atlantis. I appreciate how she thought outside the box and conducted thorough and unique research on the involved participants to draw more conclusive findings than any previous researcher had done before her. In similar ways to Gaffiled’s innovative research, Noriega’s work with UCLA’s Chicano Research Studies Center, utilized creative methods to preserve all forms of media related to the field of Chicano Studies. I admire the focus on protecting important historical documents for the use of both academic institutions and cultural communities.
In my last quarter at UCLA, I had the honor researching important projects and documents related to the city of Los Angeles and its past and present infrastructure. Naturally, as a Digital Humanities Minor, I was drawn to the Los Angeles Aqueduct Digital Platform (LAADP), an online archive of articles, documents, and other relevant information contextualizing the history of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. This platform revealed the various social, political, and environmental impacts the aqueduct has made on the community and the nation. Through the compilation of various text and media samples such as photographs, maps, newspapers clippings, and pamphlets, the public is able to look at past archives to discover the historical significance behind the Los Angeles Aqueduct. This platform enables scholars and students alike to assess how the community has managed water over the past century, and provides ideas on how to continue maintaining it throughout the next century and beyond. The nature of databases proves to be unbiased because they draw from so many different sources, libraries, and other research institutions. The LAADP is fashioned in the same way, putting heavy emphasis on the diverse list of resources it pulls from. It provides permanent samples from over a century’s worth of historical events, cultivating dynamic conversations over the innovative perspectives it reveals.
The emphasis on a depth and breadth of information in archives and databases adds to the credibility and usefulness of the source itself. Gaffield’s extensive research in combination with Noriega’s variety of preservation methods and the accessibility of the LAADP contributes to the value we put on digital archives in our world today.
Works Cited:
Bon, Lauren, and Metabolic Studio. Los Angeles Aqueduct Digital Platform. UCLA Library
Gaffield, Julia. “Haiti’s Declaration of Independence: Digging for Lost Documents in the Archives of the Atlantic World.” The Appendix 2, no. 1 (January 2014)
Chon Noriega, “Preservation Matters,” Aztlan 30:1 (2005)