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The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Personal Data Protection Code, which has been updated to comply with the principles of the Regulation, have produced significant consequences with regard to the access to archives and the creation of finding aids, which must be subject to certain rules in order to comply with the principles laid down and avoid sanctions. Without claiming to be exhaustive, given the complexity and vastness of the topic, the proposed contribution aims to provide an overview of the situation on this issue, which is still in many ways little known, by offering some thoughts on the key principles of the GDPR and their application to the archival context of access and description.

This paper aims at highlighting how interest in the issues of web and social media archiving and preservation has grown enormously, in parallel with the awareness of the importance of these ‘resources’ as privileged sources for reconstructing the history of our era. How will the historians of the future be able to reconstruct the historical period we are living through if memory institutions are not able to archive and preserve the websites and social media of institutions, public bodies, parties, associations, government bodies, political figures, and famous people in general, given that everything is now conveyed through these channels? The fragility of the web, then, would require immediate action and the launch of ‘web and social media archiving’ initiatives without delay, on pain of the disappearance of all that has been made available online in recent years, but on this point the situation in Italy - with a few exceptions - appears to lag far behind other European countries and enormously behind the Anglo-Saxon countries. There is therefore an urgent need to launch initiatives to raise awareness on these issues and to train the skills and professionalism required to conduct web and social media archiving and preservation projects.

The digital revolution that for at least a couple of decades has radically transformed every sector of society has not neglected to make profound changes also in the personal life of each one – which is becoming more and more ‘digital’ – and in the production and use of documents. Through personal computers, tablets and smartphones, we draw up documents, take notes and personal notes, write literary texts, develop studies and projects, take photographs, read books, interact on social networks, etc. In this way, many documents are created in digital format and many magazines and books are purchased and read in digital format as well. As a consequence, the digital part in personal archives is increasing more and more (and these are turning into “digital personal archives”); in the same way, personal libraries increasingly consist of digital books and magazines and therefore they are becoming ‘personal digital libraries’ too. In many cases digital material is stored on virtual spaces made available by cloud service providers and become accessible only to those who know (or have) the necessary credentials. But faced with this transformation, many people begin to ask themselves: what will happen to these personal digital fonds after the death of the producers or owners? Will the heirs be able to accommodate this legacy? To answer these questions, we need to face the problem of the transmission of the digital legacy, fully understanding the implications that derive from having entrusted personal fonds to systems often protected by inscrutable access mechanisms and trying to identify the solutions that could allow them to secure their future, avoiding falling into that ‘digital dark age’ that more than someone has already begun to foreshadow.

Il presente numero della rivista Umanistica Digitale propone una selezione di contributi presentati al convegno AIUCD 2019 che si è tenuto ad Udine dal 23 al 25 gennaio 2019 ed il cui tema principale è stato “Didattica e ricerca al tempo delle Digital Humanities”. Il convegno annuale dell’Associazione, giunto nel 2019 all’ottava edizione, sta diventando negli anni sempre più un punto di riferimento per il vasto settore delle Digital Humanities, come dimostrato dalle numerose proposte presentate e dalla presenza internazionale assai nutrita. Gli articoli presenti in questo numero, tutti sottoposti a double peer review ai fini della loro accettazione, sono una testimonianza dell’ampio dibattito multidisciplinare svoltosi durante il convegno e che ha visto un’ampia partecipazione da parte della comunità degli studiosi che si riconosce nelle tematiche dell’Associazione.

The paper aims at proposing some considerations on the evolution of the discipline of archival economy in the transition from “traditional” to digital archives, focusing in particular on issues related to the use of new prefixes for binary multiples required for correctly estimate the size of digital archives and the capacity of storage systems. In particular, the paper aims at clarifying this particular aspect, which is rarely taken in consideration while it is very important to take it in consideration during the creation of a digital archive. As a consequence, the skills required to archivists who want to deal with digital archives must change and there is the need of a “new” archival economy which combines the traditional topics with the issues related to the management of digital archives.

In recent years, it has become increasingly common to entrust records to digital repositories; this assumes an implicit confidence in the repositories reliability, and therefore is urgent to identify the criteria on which to evaluate them. The Data Seal of Approval is a set of sixteen criteria that can be used to ensure that archived data can still be found, understood and used in the future. It is a basic level of certification but it is very useful to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the deposit; in any case, it constitutes a solid basis for further certification of compliance to ISO 16363 or DIN 31644. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of Data Seal of Approval in the wider context of digital repositories' certification.

Le memorie che si basano sulla tecnologia ottica (come i CD, i DVD e i Blu-ray Disc) sono probabilmente tra quelle più utilizzate per la conservazione nel tempo dei documenti digitali, soprattutto nel caso di archivi digitali i cui soggetti produttori sono singoli individui, famiglie o organizzazioni di dimensioni medio-piccole. Queste memorie sono fragili ed è importante conoscere con precisione le modalità di gestione e gli accorgimenti che occorre adottare se si vogliono ottenere sufficienti garanzie sulla loro capacità di conservare, per un tempo più o meno lungo ma determinato, i dati ad esse affidati. L’articolo cerca di mettere in luce quali sono le loro criticità, come averne cura e quali sono le strategie da mettere in atto per evitare la perdita dei documenti, spesso preziosi, che vengono memorizzati su di essi.

The paper aims at proposing some considerations on the evolution of the discipline of archival economy in the transition from “traditional” to digital archives, focusing in particular on issues related to the use of new prefixes for binary multiples required for correctly estimate the size of digital archives and the capacity of storage systems. In particular, the paper aims at clarifying this particular aspect, which is rarely taken in consideration while it is very important to take it in consideration during the creation of a digital archive. As a consequence, the skills required to archivists who want to deal with digital archives must change and there is the need of a “new” archival economy which combines the traditional topics with the issues related to the management of digital archives.

In recent years, it has become increasingly common to entrust records to digital repositories; this assumes an implicit confidence in the repositories reliability, and therefore is urgent to identify the criteria on which to evaluate them. The Data Seal of Approval is a set of sixteen criteria that can be used to ensure that archived data can still be found, understood and used in the future. It is a basic level of certification but it is very useful to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the deposit; in any case, it constitutes a solid basis for further certification of compliance to ISO 16363 or DIN 31644. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of Data Seal of Approval in the wider context of digital repositories' certification.

In recent years, it has become increasingly common to entrust records to digital repositories; this assumes an implicit confidence in the repositories reliability, and therefore is urgent to identify the criteria on which to evaluate them. The Data Seal of Approval is a set of sixteen criteria that can be used to ensure that archived data can still be found, understood and used in the future. It is a basic level of certification but it is very useful to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the deposit; in any case, it constitutes a solid basis for further certification of compliance to ISO 16363 or DIN 31644. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of Data Seal of Approval in the wider context of digital repositories' certification.

In recent years, it has become increasingly common to entrust records to digital repositories; this assumes an implicit confidence in the repositories reliability, and therefore is urgent to identify the criteria on which to evaluate them. The Data Seal of Approval is a set of sixteen criteria that can be used to ensure that archived data can still be found, understood and used in the future. It is a basic level of certification but it is very useful to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the deposit; in any case, it constitutes a solid basis for further certification of compliance to ISO 16363 or DIN 31644. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of Data Seal of Approval in the wider context of digital repositories' certification.

In recent years, it has become increasingly common to entrust records to digital repositories; this assumes an implicit confidence in the repositories reliability, and therefore is urgent to identify the criteria on which to evaluate them. The Data Seal of Approval is a set of sixteen criteria that can be used to ensure that archived data can still be found, understood and used in the future. It is a basic level of certification but it is very useful to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the deposit; in any case, it constitutes a solid basis for further certification of compliance to ISO 16363 or DIN 31644. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of Data Seal of Approval in the wider context of digital repositories' certification.

Optical media (such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Disc) are probably among the most commonly used media for the preservation of digital records over time, especially in the case of digital archives whose producers are individuals, families or small to medium sized organizations. These media are fragile and it is important to know precisely how to manage them and which precautions should be taken in order to get reasonable assurance on their ability to preserve documents. This article aims to clarify what are the critical issues of optical media, how to take care of them and what are the strategies to be put in place to prevent the loss of documents that are stored on them.

Optical media (such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Disc) are probably among the most commonly used media for the preservation of digital records over time, especially in the case of digital archives whose producers are individuals, families or small to medium sized organizations. These media are fragile and it is important to know precisely how to manage them and which precautions should be taken in order to get reasonable assurance on their ability to preserve documents. This article aims to clarify what are the critical issues of optical media, how to take care of them and what are the strategies to be put in place to prevent the loss of documents that are stored on them.

Optical media (such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Disc) are probably among the most commonly used media for the preservation of digital records over time, especially in the case of digital archives whose producers are individuals, families or small to medium sized organizations. These media are fragile and it is important to know precisely how to manage them and which precautions should be taken in order to get reasonable assurance on their ability to preserve documents. This article aims to clarify what are the critical issues of optical media, how to take care of them and what are the strategies to be put in place to prevent the loss of documents that are stored on them.

Optical media (such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Disc) are probably among the most commonly used media for the preservation of digital records over time, especially in the case of digital archives whose producers are individuals, families or small to medium sized organizations. These media are fragile and it is important to know precisely how to manage them and which precautions should be taken in order to get reasonable assurance on their ability to preserve documents. This article aims to clarify what are the critical issues of optical media, how to take care of them and what are the strategies to be put in place to prevent the loss of documents that are stored on them.