Dick Eastman posted a very thought-provoking essay about why all historic documents need to be digitized and stored at multiple locations worldwide. He cites the recent archives collapses in Cologne and L’Aquila as impetus for such a worldwide project – and the Social Security Death Index as a good example of how it can be done. Check out his “Lessons Learned About Digitization” blog.
I’ve been a fan of digitization for years – and providing backup is just one reason. Digitization makes documents too fragile for public review available to the masses – the University of Virginia proved this years ago.
I would love to see more archives available online – open and accessible to all. That this would also provide a protection from disaster is only another reason to make the effort to digitize the collections.