Archivists and librarians play a critical role in preserving and making
accessible cultural resources, but there is now an uncertainty as to
whether their traditional expertise is sufficient when dealing with
digital resources. A particular focus of concern is the authenticity of
these resources. This article looks at how the concept of authenticity
has been constructed in traditional environments, and specifically
by philosophers, art conservators, textual critics, judges, and legislators.
It is organized around three broad definitions of authenticity:
authentic as true to oneself; authentic as original; and authentic as
trustworthy statement of fact.
The examination of these definitions of authenticity and their
interpretation in different contexts suggests that authenticity is best
understood as a social construction that has been put into place to
achieve a particular aim. Its structures and goals vary from one field
to the next and from one age to another. The article concludes that
digital resources are comparable to traditional cultural resources
such as art works, literary texts, and business records; they are in a
continuous state of becoming and their authenticity is contingent
and changeable.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/3781
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