1 - 01 Inventory of digital documentary heritage (in archive and library)

The documentary heritage

Until practically two days ago, knowledge was transmitted through the people around us through stories. In fact, still in many places, oral tradition is the main source of knowledge.

Fortunately for our civilization, for about 6,000 years, we have had writing to shape our knowledge and thus leave the legacy of our knowledge for future generations. I don't have to tell you the immense value of a document. In fact, many documents have great cultural value and go far beyond what is written on them. These documents make up the Documentary Heritage.

Many important documents are kept, or rather, kept in archives to allow their preservation. As I say, it is no longer just what is written on them but the milestone they represent. A declaration of independence, a viceroy's correspondence with the 15th century Spanish court, a peace treaty.

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In Africa, when an old man dies, a library disappears with him.

Amadou Hampaté Bâ. Delegate of UNESCO in Mali.

Documentary Heritage is defined and included in the Spanish Historical Heritage Law of 1985 and defines it as follows:

The Documentary Heritage is made up of all the documents from any time generated, conserved or collected in the exercise of their function by any body or entity of a public nature, by legal persons in whose capital the State or other public entities participate mainly and by private persons. or legal, public service managers in relation to the management of said services.

As you know, we like to go around the official definitions to try to make them more ... simple. What does this rant mean? Well, Documentary Heritage is one that has some kind of relationship with public bodies. Although this is not entirely true either.

All the information in Smart Heritage (Spanish).

Digital heritage

Digital heritage consists of computing materials of lasting value worthy of being preserved for future generations, and which come from different communities, industries, sectors and regions. Not all digital materials have enduring value, but those that do require active conservation methodologies to maintain the continuity of digital heritage.

In UNESCO documents, heritage is defined as our heritage from the past, our current assets and what we bequeath to future generations. Heritage is, or should be, something that is passed down from generation to generation because it is valued.

The notion of cultural heritage is well known: it refers to those tangible and intangible places and objects that have cultural, historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological or anthropological value for certain groups or individuals. The concept of natural heritage is also very familiar: physical, biological or geological characteristics, habitats of species of flora or fauna and areas that have value for scientific or aesthetic reasons, or from the point of view of conservation.

Is there a digital heritage in the making?

According to the UNESCO Charter on the preservation of digital heritage:

Digital heritage consists of unique resources that are the result of the knowledge or expression of human beings. It includes resources of a cultural, educational, scientific or administrative nature and technical, legal, medical and other information, which are generated directly in digital format or converted to it from existing analog material. Products “of digital origin” do not exist in a format other than electronic.
Digital objects can be texts, databases, still or moving images, sound recordings, graphic material, computer programs or Web pages, among many other possible formats within a vast repertoire of increasing diversity. They are often ephemeral, and their conservation requires specific work in this regard in the production, maintenance and management processes.
Many of these resources have lasting value and importance, and therefore constitute a heritage worthy of protection and conservation for the benefit of current and future generations. This ever-growing legacy can exist in any language, anywhere in the world, and in any field of human expression or knowledge.

Thanks to computers and other computing tools, humans are creating and sharing digital resources (information, creative expression, ideas and knowledge encoded to be processed by computer) that they value and want to share with others without restrictions of time or space. This is the proof that there is a digital heritage, that is, a heritage made up of components that have many characteristics in common and on which many common threats weigh.

Definitions of heritage must be viewed in context. For example, UNESCO defines world heritage as the set of sites of exceptional cultural and natural value that must be preserved, and many national and state laws also define their own national, regional or state heritage. However, the value of heritage may also correspond to what a particular group or community considers important, and its constituent elements may exceed the limits defined by national legislation or international conventions. Anything that is deemed important enough to be passed on to future generations can be considered to have some type of heritage value.

The importance and diffusion of this digital heritage is likely to grow over time. Increasingly, people, entities and communities use digital technologies to document and express what they value and want to pass on to future generations. Forms of expression and communication have emerged that previously did not exist and, among them, the Internet is a prominent example.

It is also likely that, thanks to new tools that enable the growing use of the Internet in multiple languages and scripts, digital heritage will increase more rapidly in certain regions of the world currently disadvantaged by the predominant use of English.

So ensuring that this burgeoning digital heritage remains available is important to all countries and communities around the world.

Read more at: https://es.unesco.org