Rethinking Digital Collections: A Personal Reflection

This reflection revisits a presentation from the 2023 ArLA/SELA Conference, titled To Make Knowledge thus Obtained the Common Property of All, which focused on digitizing and publishing seven collections from the University of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and Extension. Funded through competitive grants from Project Ceres, these digitized collections document a significant portion of Arkansas’s agricultural history, comprising 3,385 digital objects and attracting over 17,000 views in 2023 alone. The project’s success highlights the dedication of the digital projects team and emphasizes accessibility and educational impact. However, the shift to digital access during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted reflection on the collective environmental impact of long-term digital preservation. Energy-intensive practices, such as data preservation, raise concerns about sustainability and climate implications. Maintaining digital access to historical knowledge while upholding environmental responsibility is a key focus, especially as these collections provide valuable insights into historical agricultural practices that are increasingly useful for addressing today’s climate-related challenges.