Digital Cultural Heritage Archives: Conceptual Analysis and Preliminary Framework Construction

Abstract. Grounded in UNESCO's World Heritage framework and China's cultural digitization strategy, this paper systematically examines the limitations of existing concepts such as relic archives and intangible cultural heritage archives, proposing a four-dimensional framework: "heritage ontology archives, conservation process archives, conservation unit archives and secondary-processed archival products." This framework integrates multi-modal data records of tangible, intangible, and born-digital cultural heritage, achieving an organic unity between static attributes and dynamic evolution of cultural heritage. Furthermore, it outlines a tiered construction approach involving multi-stakeholder collaboration among governments, regions, cultural heritage institutions, and archival professionals. The research demonstrates that the digital cultural heritage archive system not only provides theoretical support for existing conservation practices but also activates knowledge production and value transformation capabilities through archival datafication, promoting a paradigm shift from "passive recording" to "active governance".It offers archival science solutions for the national cultural big data system.