Digital Dark Age

Definition of Project

The “digital dark age,” a term coined by Terry Kuny in 1997, refers to the fear that the fragility of digital objects will lead to a lack of historical records about the early digital era in the future. This bibliography examines the scholarly discourse around whether the “digital dark age” will exist, and it also looks at one prominent subtopic in this literature: will the digital dark age be universal or will it affect some groups and types of digital objects more than others? It does not discuss the also voluminous public discourse around the digital dark age. Those interested in how the term has entered the public consciousness might want to look at the Wikipedia article on the “digital dark age,” which links to many articles about the concept in the popular press (and in the scholarly press).

For this bibliography, the journals Archivaria, American Archivist, and DLib Magazine were searched for the phrases “digital dark age” OR “digital dark ages” OR “digital black hole.” Several general library and information science databases were also examined. Bibliography mining was used to find older articles on the topic, and Google Scholar was searched using these citations to find more recent articles related to the topic. Ten articles published between 1998 to 2020 were then selected to represent the wide spectrum of opinions on the digital dark age. On the question of whether the digital dark age exists at all, see the Kuny (1998) article for a pro-digital dark age view, the Harvey (2008) article for an anti-digital dark age view, and the Jeffrey (2012) article for a middle-of-the-road view. The others all examine aspects of who and what will be most affected by the digital dark age and what can be done to change it. Lyon (2016), Tansey (2016), Manoff (2016), and Whitt (2017) cover who is most likely to experience a digital dark age. Britz and Lor’s (2012) article covers ethical issues involved in appraising and selecting digitized and born-digital materials. Finally, Kelly (2020) and Hammond (2016) look at how the digital dark age will affect specific resource types such as film and online art.

Annotations

Britz, J.J. & Lor, P.J. (2012). An ethical perspective on political‐economic issues in the long‐term preservation of digital heritage. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(11), 2153-2164. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22725

Most writers concerned with a possible digital dark age urge that action must be taken immediately to preserve records from as many different groups as possible. Britz and Lor worry that this haste to preserve all records is causing archivists to act without considering the ethical implications of their actions, and they argue that archivists must still pause to consider whether everyone wants their records preserved. Specifically, they fear that institutions in rich countries might decide to harvest and preserve digital records from poorer countries without asking permission from institutions and creators in that country, possibly leading to exploitative situations. They detail the ethical issues involved in two hypothetical cases and urge that archives in rich countries who are thinking about preserving records from poorer countries should treat institutions in those countries as full partners and co-owners of the digital records.

Hammond, C. (2016). Escaping the digital black hole: E-ephemera at two Auckland art libraries. Art Libraries Journal, 41(2), 107-114. https://doi.org/10.1017/alj.2016.10

Many writers on the digital dark age fear that it will disproportionately affect some types of digital objects, and Hammond shares these concerns. Specifically, she fears that online artistic ephemera such as virtual posters, fliers, and graphic art related to one-time events and exhibits are at particular risk of falling into a “digital black hole.” She details how two libraries in New Zealand are trying to preserve this fragile genre by proactively trying to collect it close to the time of creation and by normalizing file formats to simplify both preservation and access.

Harvey, R. (2008). So where’s the black hole in our collective memory? A provocative position paper. Digital Preservation Europe. https://www.digitalpreservationeurope.info/publications/position/Ross_Harvey_black_hole_PPP.pdf

This article is an example of the camp that believe that the idea of a digital dark age is “strident” and “alarmist.” Harvey argues that the digital dark age is completely overblown and that there is little evidence of widespread data obsolescence and loss. He urges archivists to research data loss quantitatively, not anecdotally, if they want funders to take their requests seriously. While there are others who also oppose the idea that there will be a widespread digital dark age, Harvey’s extreme opposition does seem to be an outlier in the literature.

Jeffrey, S. (2012). A new digital dark age? Collaborative web tools, social media and long-term preservation. World Archaeology, 44(4), 553-570. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2012.737579

Jeffrey’s article represents a middle-of-the-road perspective on the existence of the digital dark age: the threat of it is very real, but it will not inevitably come to pass if archivists take action. He argues that Kuny’s article raised the alarm about the initial “dark age” and that archivists were then able to avoid it. He predicts that new developments in technology, such as social media and collaborative online creations at the time of his article, will forever spawn possible new “dark ages” but that they can always be made temporary if archivists take action.

Kelly, J. P. (2020). “This title is no longer available”: Preserving television in the streaming age. Television & New Media, 21, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476420928480

Kelly’s article is an example of the “digital dark age” literature that fears that some genres of digital content are at far more risk than others. Specifically, Kelly fears that streaming television shows are especially prone to being lost. As a television and film studies scholar, this potential TV dark age concerns her greatly. Her article details the specific characteristics of streaming shows that make them a fragile medium: they exist on many different platforms, they often have ephemeral “paratexts” such as Easter eggs or websites associated with them, and access is based in subscriptions rather than physical copies. She concludes her article with practical suggestions for media scholars and archivists to try to avoid a TV dark age.

Kuny, T. (1998). The digital dark ages? Challenges in the preservation of electronic information. International Preservation News, 17, 8-13. https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/pac/ipn/17-98.pdf

This article is the published version of a talk Kuny gave at the 1997 International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) conference. This seminal talk was the first to use the phrase “digital dark age” and therefore to spawn the entire discourse around the idea. In it, Kuny uses an extended metaphor in which he compares the loss of records in the digital era to the so-called “Dark Ages” (a quite controversial phrase among actual medievalists) and compares archivists to medieval monks trying to preserve documents. He suggests initial actions that the field should take to save digital documents. This article is a prime example of those who believe that there will be a “digital dark age” in which most early digital records will be lost. It also served as a rallying cry to archivists about the urgency of figuring out how to preserve digital content.

Lyon, B. (2016, May 11). There will be no digital dark age [Blog post]. https://issuesandadvocacy.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/there-will-be-no-digital-dark-age/

Lyon is one of a number of archivists concerned with who will be affected most by the digital dark age, although unlike many of them he does not specify which groups he thinks will experience a dark age. The title of Lyon’s article is somewhat misleading. While he argues that there will not be a digital dark age due to a lack of technical ability to preserve digital records, he does not think that there will necessarily be no digital dark age. Rather, he believes that the dark age will manifest in the form of pronounced archival silences for some groups and document types due to appraisal and selection practices still designed for an analog world. He emphasizes that digital technology could allow for fewer archival silences if archivists act quickly to redesign appraisal.

Manoff, M. (2016). Mapping archival silence: Technology and the historical record. In F. Foscarini, H. MacNeil, B. Mak & G. Oliver (Eds.), Engaging with records and archives: Histories and theories (pp. 63-81). Facet Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M60K7N

Manoff’s article offers a wonderful literature review of how different disciplines are talking about how digital technologies and archival silences are intertwined. She discusses articles from archivists, digital humanists and humanities scholars, physicists, and the field of science studies. She even covers artists who are making artwork related to technology and data loss! Manoff believes that the digital age could either lead to the creation of more archival silences or a new ability to lessen these silences. To work toward fewer silences in digital records, she encourages interdisciplinary dialogue between humanists concerned with “the archive” as a metaphor and archivists concerned with the technical details of digital preservation.

Tansey, E. (2016, May 23). Institutional silences and the digital dark age [Blog post]. https://issuesandadvocacy.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/institutional-silences-and-the-digital-dark-age/

Tansey’s post was written as a direct response to Lyon’s article listed above. She is also concerned that the digital dark age will come from archival silences and gaps in the records rather than a lack of the technical abilities necessary to preserve the records. She adds to the conversation by emphasizing that silences do not just come from manuscript archivists failing to collect records from marginalized groups or not collecting on a wide variety of topics. Digital archival silences also appear in the records of the powerful because those with power often ignore retention policies and record managers have little power to force institutions to comply with their requests. Her article compellingly argues that this potential sub-field of the digital dark age could lead to less public accountability for companies, government agencies, and other institutions.

Whitt, R. S. (2017). “Through a glass, darkly:” Technical, policy, and financial actions to avert the coming digital dark ages. Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal, 33(2), 117-229. https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/chtlj/vol33/iss2/1

Whitt’s article gives a lengthy and useful overview of current digital curation practices (as of 2017), current issues in the field, and the technical, policy, and financial actions that could solve these issues. For the purposes of this bibliography, Whitt’s discussion of appraisal and financial issues are of particular interest. In his appraisal section, Whitt gives an overview of why appraising digital records and avoiding gaps and silences are so difficult. He also discusses the various appraisal techniques that archivists are using. In the financial section of the paper, Whitt argues that economic status leads to disparate levels of preservation and therefore different levels of digital dark ages based on funding levels. He states that digital preservation is a public good and that archivists should therefore lobby public policy makers for widespread preservation funding so that a digital dark age will not disproportionately affect poor institutions or groups.