2.1.2

Born-digital documents

These are exciting times for literary archivists. Nowadays, a writer’s legacy presents itself as large chunks of hybrid and disrupted data, partly analogue and partly digital. This chapter reflects on the challenges faced by literary archivists in acquiring, managing, and unlocking born-digital archives of writers, publishers, and literary organisations. There is a real threat of gaps emerging in collections of literary archives, because of the hybrid way a writer writes in the twenty-first century, as well as the unpreparedness of archival institutions. Literary archives are in need of technical skills for dealing with born-digital content in many forms, from obsolete carriers to online content. Finally, they need to work on the writers’ awareness of the fragility of their digital content. Overall, there is a strong need for more and structural collaboration with IT professionals, academics, and the makers of literary archives in order to secure, manage, and unlock born-digital literary archives.