I found the chapter on digitalization of today’s analog artifacts to be incredibly interesting. I like how descriptive and informative the writing is because it does a great job of helping me to understand what’s being discussed. I also really like how easy the book is to understand because the language is relatively simple. There were a few topics in this section that really stuck out for me. These were quality, expenses, and accessibility.

Quality is a significant factor in the digitizing process and there are both pros and cons to this aspect. An obvious problem here is a loss of quality. This is especially prominent in the digitization of visual and audio files. One quote from the text that I liked is:

“But with 24 bits , you would have millions of colors at your disposal and could thus better approximate, though never fully match, the rich rainbow hues of Monet’s Water Lilies.”

As the quote implies, digital images just aren’t the same as the original piece. We cannot completely and perfectly duplicate an image, only approximate it. Aside from this, however, the quality gap between original and digital is being bridged as technology gets better. Additionally, sometimes quality of an old photograph, for example, can even be enhanced and salvaged as a product of digitization.

The expenses of digitalization is also important to discuss. Generally, costs for the digitalization process are high. When quality of work is in question, cost generally increases even more. Although prices are being lowered and it is becoming more affordable than before to digitalize the past, expenses are still significant. I found that costs seem to go hand-in-hand with quality. I personally think that top quality is worth the money.

Lastly, accessibility is another important topic. I personally believe that this is the most important product of digitalization. The accessibility of a file increases drastically once an image, sound clip, or document is digital. This makes it possible to look up and find an important document online that was perhaps only available in a museum. The only drawback to this is searching for a file. For example, audio and visual files are hard to search for because we can only search in text form. However, adding text tags usually solves this problem. Other than that, I think the accessibility of all these now digital items is the biggest pro in this process.

There is no denying that the future, and I dare say even the present, is digital. There are some negatives associated with the process of making analog items digital. Nonetheless, I believe that there will be less problems as technology advances in the future.