Use and reuse of the digital archive

This book examines the use and re-use of digital archives in a unique manner, by combining theoretical and practical approaches to the contemporary digital archive.

The book brings together a range of writers - specialising in media and cultural studies, contemporary art and art history, digital and networked culture, library and museum studies - to explore the cultural impact of digital archives.

Several of the essays describe the process of constructing a digital archive as a specific case study – in digitising a physical archive and designing a searchable digital database as the core of the digital archive.

Other chapters explore the cultural significance of digital archives in more general theoretical terms.

These considerations include: the specific properties of the digital archive; its similarities and differences to the traditional paper-based archive; the ethical decisions made in the design of an archive; and the potential for creative re-use of online archived materials.