It does sound complex, doesn't it? Since the world is quickly moving away from physical items and paper, digital collections are becoming the record keepers of the future.
A digital archive is very much like an old school physical archive. While the old school archive consisted of actual printed and constructed items, the digital archive is all those things - only in a digital format to be organized and collated to share and preserve.
Here are examples of different types of archives that could be digitized:
Educational - These are archives and records of educational organizations, most notably college and universities. Most schools and educational organizations of all levels will maintain a collection of documents, film and images. In smaller schools, the library staff will double as archivists. Universities and other higher learning centers may have dedicated archiving and record keeping departments.
Business - This can be as simple as an employee tasked with overseeing a room (or rooms) full of documents, images and films. Or as expansive as companies with entire departments dedicated to the sole purpose of archiving and cataloging. One example of a large corporate archive is the General Motors GM Heritage Archive.
Government - The type of archive that's been in the news lately. These collect important (and sometimes "classified") materials related to local, state or national entities. This includes LOTS of documents, recorded audio and video, images and more. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the USA's record keeper. Important federal government documents retire there. Fun fact: Less than 5% of all federal documents created are important enough to make it there.
Museums - Museums collect and organize materials just like other archives - only the main goal is typically to display and exhibit the items. Many museums offer both physical and digital exhibits.
History Preservation Organizations - These are groups whose aim is to learn more about and promote the history of a certain person, place or thing. These sometimes focus on history of a certain region or life of a certain person. Historical organizations also can serve as archivists, archeologists and more. Jamestown Rediscovery is a great example.
Faith/Church Based Archives - These can be vast records from entire denominations or a single church's history. One of our first archival projects at RDA was to digitize 30 plus years of audio sermons for River Road Church in Richmond, VA. Churches often amass years and years worth of audio recordings, paper bulletins, announcements, photographs, artwork and more.
Individual/Family Archives - These are large collections of materials from families, individuals and miscellaneous collectors that are determined to be historically worthwhile and worth preserving. This can be as simple as a digitizing a family's home movies. Or displaying and cataloging and personal collection of books, audio, memoirs - anything really. You can sometimes find these in local libraries and other exhibition areas.
At Revolve Digital Archiving, we specialize in these types of collections. We offer digitizing and cataloging solutions for organizations that have a lot of "stuff." To discover the future correctly, we all must understand and embrace the past. We understand the value of the days of our lives and make it our mission to tell those stories.