Digital archives are collections or repositories of materials that were originally in digital format (e.g., podcasts, videos, sound recordings, word processing documents, wikis, blogs), and paper-based or analog artifacts that have been digitized (e.g., books, official documents, tape recordings). Archives traditionally have been defined both as collections of historical documents and the places where such documents are stored. Archives provide for the safekeeping of valuable records, guarantee the ongoing legal authenticity of those records, and allow access to them. The world of paper archives has been giving way to digital archives, which presents challenges in terms of storage, preservation, and access. This entry discusses how digital archives differ from print archives and issues relating to the use of digital archives.

There exist fundamental differences between paper ...