Digital Preservation of “Historical” Archives. A case study of the Documentary Archive of the “disappeared” Museum of Ethnology of Porto

Abstract. The digitization of inactive archives, commonly referred to as “historical archives,” has emerged as a strategic and fundamental tool for the preservation, accessibility, and safeguarding of cultural heritage at risk of degradation or disappearance. However, despite the digitization process adhering to international guidelines and standards, which are intended to guarantee the efficiency, security, and quality of physical preservation and digital accessibility, the public availability of a detailed methodological manual that standardizes the techniques applied is neglected. This study proposes a clear and replicable methodology for digitizing inactive archives, applied to the case of the Museum of Ethnology of Porto (MEP) (1945–1994), whose remaining documentation was severely affected by the precarious conditions of the building and the successive transfers and reallocations of the collections. The digitization methodologies, the criteria developed, and the logic adopted for the different digital equipment, the tools for exporting formats, applications for image processing, and utilities for automatic metadata extraction and document renaming are described and justified, as well as the final integration into the arquiv@ platform. This methodology — which in itself constitutes an action of documentary safeguarding and preservation — aims to contribute to the dissemination of the memory of the MEP, which, although physically gone, can be (re)constituted through its archive. Additionally, it is also expected that this methodological proposal will serve as a reference for future projects, promoting the standardization of practices and interoperability in the digitization of “historical” archives.