All by Sara Cosemans

Digital research on twentieth-century refugees: dealing with information overload

Digital technology has transformed archival research. Instead of painstakingly taking notes most historians today take digital pictures or scans from archival documents. The advantages are undeniable: it reduces time spent in one archive, which increases the possibility to visit more archives and enhances accuracy. However, there are downsides, too. Access can lead to excess. The sheer volume of paper has exponentially increased since the invention of the typewrite in the late nineteenth century; computers, digitisation, and online access have only enhanced this growth. Hence, historians often end up with enormous collections of research photos on their personal devices. Many struggle to properly process their digital material. The problem of multitude is no longer situated during but after the archival visit.