The Future of the Past in the Present

The availability of information seems limitless as does its abundance. This raises doubts as to veracity and, where personal information is concerned, as to the justification of its use. At the same time, the short lifespan of digital data makes us fear that it can barely be preserved in the long run, which is a blessing to some, but a curse to society. Archives are the institutions that are most fundamentally affected by these developments. In the face of a digital future, they must entirely rethink and expand their practices. This volume contains the papers from an international conference at which contributors from the fields of archives and archival science, history and computational linguistics mapped these challenges and presented innovative solutions. The highlight was the keynote by renowned archival scientist Luciana Duranti from Canada. Her contribution underlines the important role that archival institutions can play in and for society: They must be and become spaces of a democratic public sphere. The archive is a place where, on the basis of reliable information, we can reflect on the past and on memory while looking towards the present and the future. The other contributions are divided into four sections that concern traditional core activities of archivists appraisal of records and formation of fonds, description and facilitating access while expanding them to include two new areas whose importance has increasingly been recognized. One is the study of the properties of archival records as historical sources, intended to allow a critical appraisal of the information content of digital records in particular. The other is the position of archival institutions in society and their communications with their surroundings. The topics addressed include how archives and the information they hold can be and remain trustworthy; how archive-worthy records are to be distinguished from others and selected for permanent safekeeping; how information can be presented in forms that are accessible to the public; and how to tell whether the work of archives is generating benefits to society. Two key ideas that recur throughout the volume are access and transparency. The task of archival personnel in the future will be to make the information preserved in archives available to all interested parties with the least amount of difficulty and obstacles. While there are many challenges to face, we can look to the future with optimism: to archives as bastions of the permanent preservation of reliable information in times of constant questioning. The title chosen for the conference and the book, The Future of the Past in the Present. Archives as Lighthouses in the Information Age, is thus not only a question, but also a call to action for archives and an encouragement to society as a whole.

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