Digital Archive: A Practical Concept of the National Memory Formed by Modern Information and Communication Technologies and its Function in the Guidance of Knowledge Management and Sharing Intellectual Assets

Digital archives have become one of the main channels for open access to scientific information at a global level and have established their position in the scientific and economic development of nations. This is the result of modern information and communication technologies. Recognising these changing realities, the impact of current technologies and their undeniable role in creating digital archives, as well as the role that both traditional and modern archives have in the scientific, cultural and economic improvement of the information society, this paper is presented in two separate, but related parts. In the first part, in order to study patterns of archival evolution which eventually lead to the establishment of digital archives, we analyse archives and their modern formats, digital archives, from different viewpoints. Then we study the factors which have arisen from modern technologies and which are the primary basis for the formation of digital archives. The features of digital archives and the methods for sustaining and preserving electronic records for long periods of time, and also challenges for research about digital archives and digitalization of records as the social and cultural memory of a nation, are among most important issues reviewed in this paper. Another part of this paper is devoted to the undoubted role of archives in national, scientific and economic development. Therefore in order to study this issue, once again we mention the seemingly new role which has been given to archives in the information society by the modern technologies and that is the role that archives have in the guidance of knowledge management and sharing intellectual assets.