Don’t Be Afraid of the Digital

• Main Author: Martien de Vletter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-01-01
• Series: Arts
• Subjects: architecture; born digital collections; born digital archives; preservation; museum; ISAD(G); ICAM
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/8/1/6

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal started to receive born digital material in the late 1990s. Not knowing what to do with it, typically only the physical appearance was described. Since 2012, the CCA has seriously started to look into its born digital collections and actively started to acquire more. CCA was not very interested in how to overcome the technocratic question as to how to preserve and give access to born digital material, but wanted to understand how the digital technology has changed and shaped architecture. The curatorial approach and the investment in staff and expertise led to success: the CCA is now able to preserve its born digital collections, to describe it, to access nearly all files, to make it accessible for research, and to share this with the community. How? By just doing it, making mistakes, and learning by doing.