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Post #4: Original Vs. Copy: What Do You Prefer?

 

James M. O’Toole’s On the Idea of Permanence examined archival topics such as archival language and its importance, the discord of what “permanence” is in an archival sphere, the shift from oral records to written records as well as the importance placed on both forms of recording history, and several other important facets of the archivist’s profession. Though I found these topics extremely enlightening and vital, the topic that many of us can relate to is the idea of the original document vs. a copy. In many archives, documents are digitized to allow more access to certain documents while also safeguarding a document’s condition. As a researcher myself, I like utilizing original documents for research, but I understand that that can not always be arranged. Having said this, a quote that O’Toole presents in the article struck me as important in analyzing the research process and digitization of documents moving forward. This quote was from the preservation researcher William J. Barrow, who stated that copies of documents are never as gratifying as the original.[1] This quote made me think about researchers (like myself) who have had more encounters with digital records than original documents. Again, it is not always permissible to view an original document for a variety of reasons, but will there be a greater desire to view original documents in the future from young researchers, or will the digitization of documents be the winning preference? I do believe that documents should be more widely available for all researchers to utilize, but admittedly, I think that there are factors that can be differentiated between the process of viewing a digital document vs. the original in a physical archive. Of course, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, many avenues of in-person research will be limited or unavailable for now, but the “digital vs. physical document” question could be used to poll younger researchers to analyze research practices moving forward.


[1] James M. O’Toole, On the Idea of Permanence, American Archivist, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Winter, 1989), 17.

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