What's All This About?

This morning, I took a look at The DIGITAL Archive blog, specifically the 'about this blog' blurb to the right, and I wondered if the words I had written several months ago describing the blog accurately reflected the nature of the blog and its readership.

After some thought (and editing), I believe I nailed down a more simplified description:

The DIGITAL Archive focuses on the Web and its impact on information professionals in libraries and archives..and anyone anywhere fascinated by the Web...

I eliminated the long list of web-related technologies, such as new media and social web technologies, and special topics, such as digitization and digital preservation, in favor of something more brief, succinct. However, I removed these words only for the sake of brevity.

For me, the Web (Web 2.0) covers all these areas - from digitization to social networking - and all the areas yet to be developed.

I still want to focus on the impact of these technologies on information professionals in libraries and archives, so that remains intact.

However, when I write, whether on the topic of technology or personal matters such as opinions on the archival profession, I have a type of reader in mind: It is someone who is not necessarily a librarian or archivist but simply someone who is enthusiastic about the Web, fascinated by technology, and whose vocabulary does not include the words "It can't be done" or "That's impossible" in regards to thinking or doing things differently.

Finally, I often fool around with The DIGITAL Archive's tag line. This week it is:

It's my digital archive, in Technicolor

Well, it is my digital archive, in color. When I blog, I do not write on behalf of any institution or archival association. I avoid archival public policy issues because, quite frankly, I do not know enough on the subject. As writers in other fields suggest, write what you know about, and that's what I try to do, with color.

Too often, people imagine the archives as nothing but boxes, darkness, dampness, dust, more boxes, and black & white photographs. While there is some truth to this, the buried truth, which needs to be unearthed (Archives 2.0 hint hint), is that there is so much color, so many colorful characters and events, so much rich content!

I guess I am a content agnostic. I do not have a preference. I will work with all kinds of content as long as there is a benefit to the audience. But being a history grad and a lover of stories, I guess I have a bias for archival content.

(Geez...so much for my sabbatical.)