Please keep this practical guide on digital archives!

A digital archive refers to archives at all levels and of all types that, in order to meet the growing demand for management and use of archival information resources in the information society, use modern information technology to collect, process, store, and manage digital archival information, and provide public archival information services and shared use through various network platforms. What are the main characteristics and functions of a digital archive? Let's take a look!

（1.）Main characteristics of a digital archive

1. Digitalization of information storage

Digital archive information is the resource foundation of digital archives, and it has two sources: first, the digitization of archived collections. This mainly means converting analog archive information stored on different carriers, such as paper archives and audio-visual archives, into digital form through digitization. Second, electronic files received and archived directly. Electronic files are native digital information generated based on networks. These two sources of digital information are organized and managed to establish a database system.

2. Networking of information access

The network is the guarantee for the existence and operation of a digital archives. A digital archives depends on the network for its survival; if the network fails, the operation of the digital archives will be affected. It is the network that connects the user end, Web server, retrieval system, object database, and other components of the digital archives, enabling online publishing, querying, and retrieval of digital archive information.

3. Distributed management of information resources

A digital archive can collect, store, publish, and retrieve distributed digital object resources. It requires each digital archive to follow unified high-level protocols, integrate heterogeneous digital archival information generated based on different system platforms and application software, establish a comprehensive digital resource repository, and provide a unified retrieval entry point.

（II）Main business functions of a digital archive

1. Collection and storage of digital archive information

Digitize existing collections through digital technology, and receive electronic documents and their metadata archived by various archival units online and offline. On this basis, convert digital archive information of different formats and types into a unified format, and perform compression processing and storage.

2. Organization and management of digital archive information

Index and catalog digital objects, establish directories and indexes, organize electronic files and metadata, decompose metadata and object data, and integrate them into a metadata database and object database.

3. Publishing and querying of digital archive information

A digital archive can provide catalog-level and file-level query services, as well as content-based multimedia information retrieval services.

4. Security and permission management of digital archive information

Because archives themselves are confidential, the security and permission management of digital archives is particularly important. Technologies such as identity authentication, data encryption, digital watermarking, digital signatures, and firewalls can be used to identify user identities and control permissions, as well as to manage the security of digital archives.

（Three） Key technologies of a digital archive

A digital archives repository is an integrated information system established on the basis of computer hardware and software technology, supported by network communication technology, and supplemented by various high technologies. In the process of collecting, storing, organizing, managing, and utilizing information, a digital archives repository must rely on various high technologies. Specifically, these include:

1. Archive Digitization Process

The key technologies required in the archive digitization process include: text image scanning technology, optical character recognition（OCR）、video and audio capture, multimedia information compression and other technologies. For audio, video, static images, motion images and other multimedia information, standardized digital formats must be determined.

2. The process of digital archive information processing, organization, and management

The key technologies required in the process of digital archive information processing, organization, and management are: digital resources should be processed and organized in a standardized way. On the basis of traditional archival description and indexing, corresponding metadata should be extracted according to standardized metadata standards, and a metadata set should be established. In this process, multimedia information indexing technology, information extraction technology, massive information storage and organization technology, data mining technology, data integration technology, and ultra-large-scale database technology, among others, are needed.

3. The process of digital archive information publishing and querying

The main technologies in the process of digital archive information publishing and querying are: multimedia data compression and transmission technology, distributed resource and operation management technology, image and video data retrieval technology, content-based information retrieval technology, and so on.

4. Main technologies in security and permission management

The main technologies in the security and permission management of a digital archive include: firewall technology, key technology, identity authentication technology, digital signature technology, digital watermarking technology, etc.

It should be pointed out that in the construction of digital archives, there are very high requirements for maintaining the authenticity, integrity, reliability, and confidentiality of archival information. If archives lose their integrity and reliability during digitization and utilization, the foundation for the existence of the digital library will be shaken. This requires adopting the best technologies during digitization to minimize information distortion, and adopting various security assurance technologies during information transmission and utilization.

（IV）Development stages of a digital archive

The construction of a digital archives repository must be based on the automation of archives repository business work. In China, the construction of a digital archives repository generally needs to go through the following three stages:

1. Archive automation stage

Achieve automation of physical archive management and archive information organization. Specifically including: automation of daily business and physical management such as archive registration, borrowing, return reminders, and warehouse management, as well as automatic classification, automatic cataloging, and automatic indexing of archive information, computerized information retrieval, and establishment of an internal LAN.

2. Single Digital Archive Construction Phase

Mainly includes digitization of collections, archive website construction, and receiving electronic documents into the archive and providing utilization. Many digital archive projects in China are currently at this stage. However, large-scale receipt of electronic documents into archives has not yet truly begun.

3. Stage of interconnection among multiple digital archives

Most comprehensive archives at or above the provincial level in China, archives of national professional systems and large enterprises, and archives of relevant universities already have a foundation in archive automation. Digitization of collections is continuing, and catalog-type and full-text databases are being established one after another. More than 90% of archive institutions in provinces and cities nationwide have established archive networks. Overall, the construction of digital archives in China's developed eastern regions is in the second stage, namely the construction stage of individual digital archives,
However, the construction of digital archives in the central and western regions is still in the transition period from the first stage to the second stage.

A digital archives repository is the future development trend of traditional archives repositories and an important way to collect and manage electronic records. Through the application of a digital archives repository, online archiving, organization, and utilization of electronic records can be realized, and control over the entire lifecycle of electronic records can be completed, making it the general trend in the development of digital archive management.

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