Archives in the Digital Age

3Archives in the Age of Digital Humanities

3.1. Introduction

For a long time, we have believed that only the exact sciences can benefit from digital technologies and that the humanities and social sciences (HSS) have no relation to the digital world. According to [CLE 01] this is not true, and literature encountered computer science long before many sciences. The first work of digital literature dates back to 1959 [SAE 11].

The new medium of writing that is computer technology necessarily marks a break with paper literature, and makes the work of digital literature a fundamentally innovative subject. [HEN 18]

With the Internet and the explosion of digital technologies, the HSS are undergoing major upheavals in their research methods and practices, paradigms, theoretical orientations, subjects and so on [DIM 15].

While we can be pleased with the benefits of digital technology for the HSS, we need to take a critical look at the characteristics of the tools that are used and the values that these tools carry within them. [BOU 13]

These major upheavals in the HSS have led to the emergence of new concepts, such as “humanities computing” and then “digital humanities”. As a result, major changes have affected different disciplines within the HSS, including sociology, literature, linguistics and history, as well as other sectors, such as publishing, libraries, documentation and archiving. “Today, in a position of institutional marginality and with an uncertain disciplinary delimitation, ...