Preserving History in a Digital Age: What Transforms Information into Trusted Knowledge?
<p dir="ltr"><b>Guest lecture delivered as part of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s Grand Challenge Seminar on </b><b>15 February 2026.</b></p><p dir="ltr">In today's world of mass digitization and rapid technological advancemen...
محفوظ في:
| المؤلف الرئيسي: | |
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| منشور في: |
2026
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| الموضوعات: | |
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إضافة وسم
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| الملخص: | <p dir="ltr"><b>Guest lecture delivered as part of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s Grand Challenge Seminar on </b><b>15 February 2026.</b></p><p dir="ltr">In today's world of mass digitization and rapid technological advancements, there is often a misconception that digital (or digitized) information is inherently preserved, secure, and reliable. In practice, digitization, backup, and archiving serve distinct but complementary purposes, each contributing in different ways to the overarching goals of digital curation and preservation throughout the lifecycle of digital content – long-term discoverability, accessibility, and (re-)usability. Conflating these activities can jeopardize the longevity of digital content, defeating the very purpose they are intended to serve.<br><br>This talk explores the current practices for transforming digital material into trusted knowledge that remains accessible and usable over time, utilizing the digital repatriation work at Qatar National Library as a case study. The Library's initiatives to repatriate heritage materials pertinent to Qatar and the region, including archival documents, aerial photographs, oral histories, historical maps, and drawings dispersed across international archives, illustrate that digital preservation transcends mere technical challenges; it encompasses accountability, governance, and enduring stewardship. These examples illustrate that trust is established through verifiable provenance, authenticity, contextual integrity, and institutional commitment, rather than solely through digitization.<br><br>This discussion also explores blockchain-based integrity verification as an emerging digital preservation method. The session examines the specific digital preservation challenges that blockchain can effectively resolve, including fixity verification, supporting provenance claims, and enhancing audit trails, rather than viewing blockchain as a universal solution. It also explores the reasons for its limited adoption by libraries and archives, despite these capabilities. The discussion highlights the pragmatic obstacles to adoption, including competencies, sustainability, governance, financial implications, and long-term accountability.<br><br>The presentation also underlines the role of libraries and academic institutions in promoting digital preservation literacy and transforming awareness into practice. The session concludes by encouraging students and early-career researchers to critically evaluate blockchain beyond its hype, to examine digital preservation as a socio-technical challenge, and to recognize the importance of collaboration with libraries and archives in shaping the future of reliable digital knowledge.</p><h2 dir="ltr">Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">License:<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"> https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</a><br></p> |
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