The Digitizing of Cultural Heritage: A Limited Promise

摘要

The storage and retrieval of cultural heritage has a psychological function in maintaining those parts of social memory which are the basis of identity and which is therefore a necessary condition of health and survival. In many countries, cultural heritage has been lost or is endangered, but digitization offers the promise of retention. However there is a problem of the ethics of ownership of cultural property. Debate is often formulated in terms of rightful but neglectful ownership versus acquired benevolent custodial ownership with possibly colonial origin. Virtual ownership may appear to provide an answer but in view of the psychological significance of memorabilia this would seem highly unlikely. However, in other areas, such as of archiving of text and voice of endangered languages, digitization has a valuable role to play.