With the growing popularity of various repositories of information, many amateurs have joined in the work of informal archival and preservation of contents. And recently, I have heard about a project at a university (not in the US) that encouraged the digital sharing of privately-owned artifacts related to WWII via digital photo captures.

There was no apparent training of those who posted the contents, and there was not apparent vetting. People basically identified artifacts from WWII based on family lore and photographed the artifacts and uploaded them.

Noise or Message?

From a far distance, that endeavor seemed somewhat shoddy. Were there any benefits for professional histories in terms of these informal artifacts? Were there materials that were supposedly artifacts that maybe had no historical value? Were there efforts at fraudulently submitting materials?

Those who documented this project listed the number of submissions as a kind of proxy for value or success, which seemed like a loose approach.

Did the digital images include metadata? Were there multiple tiers of information captured, such as family memoirs linked to the war? Will the digital information retain its value over time? Will its usability involve captured value? Were there contextual types of information collected?

Protecting Amateur Digital Collections over Time

Then, apparently, this collection was moved off a university server and into a collection on a photo sharing site. “The end.”

This brief summary brought up questions about the responsibilities of researchers to protect the digital archives that they create or inspire. There is need to nourish and support the work of others. That responsibility seems like it would start at the solicitation stage—with some sort of quality vetting of the contents.

Non-pros do have a role—an important one—in capturing and sharing knowledge digitally. However, making sure that the information has value and doesn’t add to the “decibel level” (noise) of amateur contents on the Web is important. Maybe it would be a good idea to form some sort of standards for such collection to improve the quality of the information submitted. These could improve the strength of “signals” and value in amateur-created digital data.

Depending on different domains, it may help to have professionals peruse digital contents for their informational value. Maybe a benefit to the amateurs is to learn some new strategies and information in the process.