The session on exploring the digital divide began with three provocative questions:
1. Are digital archivists hired into situations where they are expected to do “all the digital stuff”? What potential effects might that have?
2. If one person does “all the digital stuff” how do others in the institution build these skills? Does this potentially inhibit cross training?
3. How do we close or narrow the gap between the education resources for “digital stuff” and hands on practice? What about archivists who don’t have institutional outlet for hands on practice (due to unemployment, student status, etc)?
I thought the advice that Rebecca Goldman gave to us was particularly helpful, like:
Don’t wait to get started
Go public
Make time
Be specific about training needs, etc.
Ask librarians for help
Get frustrated
As the presenters shared their experiences it became clear that we need more training and learning opportunities at all phases of our careers. Our knowledge gaps are all relative to the positions we’re in and the kinds of projects we want to develop.
Regardless of our positions, we must start somehwere with born digital materials.
How have you started to bridge the gap at your own institution and gotten started preserving digital content?