Lecture by Dr. Frank M. Bischoff: Archives in the digital age
On November 19, 2024, the Krupp Foundation continued its lecture series. In his lecture “Archives in the digital age – left behind or in the fast lane?”, Dr. Frank M. Bischoff, President of the State Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia, shed light on the role and importance of archives in today’s digitized world. Frank M. Bischoff addressed both the challenges and the opportunities presented by new technologies and innovative access strategies. The topic of the lecture is of particular relevance to the Krupp Foundation, as it is the owner of the Krupp Historical Archive. In his welcoming address, Prof. Stremmel, head of the Krupp Archive, discussed the role that archives will play in an increasingly digital world.
Archives as the memory of society
During the lecture, Dr. Bischoff explained that archives are the “long-term memory” of our society. They safeguard traditions and preserve political and administrative decisions, allowing people to remember the past in the future. In this way, it remains verifiable what actually happened in the past. Archives thus contribute to transparency – an essential contribution to safeguarding democratic structures. At the same time, they provide information that creates a sense of identity and are open to all interested parties.
Challenges and opportunities of digitization
One focus of the presentation was digital administration and archiving. Dr. Bischoff highlighted initiatives such as the Digital Archive NRW, which, as a central platform, relieves the burden on smaller archives. Setting up electronic archiving infrastructures is a major challenge, especially for smaller institutions, as the requirements are complex and resource-intensive.
Making digital content available to the public is becoming increasingly important. While numerous finding aids and millions of description units are already accessible online – for example via the NRW archive portal – the proportion of digitized holdings is still around 10% in many places.
However, the increasing use of such portals shows the need: Last year, 60 to 70 million hits were recorded on Archiv-NRW-Online alone, including many from abroad. Users from the USA led the way with 5.4 million inquiries, followed by Germany with 1.6 million accesses.
Future prospects
Archives are facing a structural change that has been ongoing for over 30 years. Questions of prioritization in archiving, the training of specialists and the integration of new technologies determine the current discussion. Archives are developing innovative strategies to cope with the increasing flood of data.
Dr. Bischoff summarized that archives are not only important preservers of cultural heritage, but are also recognized as key cooperation partners when it comes to solutions for archiving digital documents. In doing so, they act with agility, but without overtaking the production speed of modern administrations – because archives are at the end of the information chain.
The event emphasized that archives, such as the Krupp Archive, remain indispensable in the digital age – as preservers of the past and as a resource for the future.