Rola digitalizacji zasobów archiwalnych
The Role of Digitalization of Archival and Library Resources in the Contemporary World

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses the issues of digitalization of archival resources and the role of digital copies both in the area of protecting national heritage against destruction and also in popularizing the activities of institutions that create such reproductions, and in social life in general. The texts lists the objectives of digitalization defined by the Director General of State Archives and discusses them in brief, presenting only an outline of the broad extent of benefits provided by the sharing of digital versions of their collections by state institutions as well as community archives and private collectors, which translates into popularization of digitalized materials. The study also points out the limitations in sharing digital copies related to the personal data protection and other regulations that do not permit unrestricted publication.The next part of the paper contains a discussion on the value of digital reproduction compared to the original. The author stresses that a digital copy is not equal to the original, which is a priceless value in itself. However, advanced technologies enable a much broader use of a copy, and in some cases, additionally, make it possible to extract from the original the information that is inaccessible or invisible to the naked eye of an ordinary user.The text closes with the issues related to the universality of recording and reading digitalized materials, and to the space that should be provided for the increasing digital resources, and, consequently, the accompanying financial outlays.The issues examined in this study are broad enough to require in-depth research and a separate publication. That is why it does not aspire to exhaust the subject. The growing popularity of digital reproductions in each area of life provokes, however, discussion on this problem.

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