n. (also analogue record)a record on human-readable carrier mediaKodak 2003Content also can be sent directly as digital files from desktop applications. Then, using special integration software, the data is written as highly compressed and indexed records that can be checked for quality control, and printed as highly compressed images on microfilm. These analog records cannot be tampered with or compromised; moreover, they are stored on a medium with a life expectancy of 500 years—much greater than digital media’s estimated lifetime of just seven to 10 years.Peters 2006, 27–28After accessioning the paper-based portion of Joyce’s archive, we noticed that a number of digital materials within the archive had a paper-based counterpart, demonstrating that Joyce created both digital and analog records while performing the same activities.Xie 2011, 581The InterPARES project, while acknowledging the existence of analog records in today’s organizations, has been continuously incorporating findings from digital records research into its terminology development. Therefore, the definitions of the terms in the terminology database attempt to capture only the essence of the concept that can be generalized without considering the types of records (i.e., analog or digital). This makes them less effective for illustrating aspects characteristic only of analog materials.Sutherland 2014, 583Bypassing analog records and the issues raised by digital surrogacy, however, too often means that contemporary writings on appraising digital records for long-term preservation presuppose existing systems into which digital records can be transferred and maintained.Patrick-Burns 2015, 59Even as practitioners profit from the lessons learned from microfilming, they may also benefit from applying some of the work done on electronic records to their analysis of analog records.National Archives 2016, 4This document sets out The National Archives’ standards and requirements for the digitisation of analogue records in our collection. It covers the whole digitisation process from initial scanning through to delivery of the images for preservation, including The National Archives’ scanned image specification (see sections 6 and 8).an electronic record that does not contain digital dataLee 2014, 2In the chapter on early analog computing and machine-readable records, Gilliland explores the history of recordkeeping as it relates to technology and computers, arguing that computing and records creation have been tightly linked from the outset, mapping how first- and second-generation archivists have had to deal with electronic records that are increasingly more complex from the end of World War II to the first decade of the 21st Century.Bak 2016, 286–287Even as formerly paper or analog record types went digital, archival management techniques and tools also went digital, whether this meant that paper finding aids and file lists were now created using word-processing or spreadsheet software on a desktop computer and then printed, or whether it meant that the finding aids were themselves electronic documents, spreadsheets, or databases, accessed in real time in the reading room or, as the 1990s progressed, over the World Wide Web.a record that is either human-readable or that is an electronic record that does not contain digital dataShein 2014, 14Although the Institutional Archives regularly services internal requests and occasionally provides public access for all manner of analog records, the Pacific Standard Time interviews represented the first time we were expected to provide public online access to current born-digital materials.Marsh, Punzalan, and Johnston 2019, 270For instance, we have moved from producing mainly analog records in paper, audiotape, or film, to producing born-digital data in word processors, digital photography, digitally recorded and transcribed audio and video, GIS datapoints, and databases for managing fieldnotes, or coding and analyzing transcripts.
Notes
The term analog record is most often employed as a synonym for paper record that is used to distinguish a digital record from a paper one. However, it is also used to distinguish between an analog versus a digital electronic record (the former in the sense that any record is electronic if it requires electricity to be perceived). The term is, finally, also used to mean any record that is not stored digitally, which could include records on paper, microfilm, or even clay tablets, as well as a record stored on nondigital electronic tape, disc, or wire. Some archivists argue, against the evidence of professional usage, that the only records that can be truly analog—in the narrower original sense—are predigital audio and video records.
