Trust in Archives-Trust in Digital Archival Content Framework

Abstract

Trust in information found online matters now more than ever. The proliferation of fake news and “post-truths” makes it difficult for people to determine what is trustworthy. People even question digital versions of basic identity documents such as birth certificates, the processes that archivists use to preserve them, and attestations of their authenticity. Given the current landscape, we need to better understand trust in archival materials found online. Drawing from relevant literature, I developed a model to examine the relationship between trust in archives and trust in digital archival content, the Trust in Archives–Trust in Digital Archival Content (TIA-TDAC) Framework. This article outlines an empirical test of the TIA-TDAC Framework. Using measures of both levels of trust, I designed a survey to evaluate archives users and potential archives users’ trust in a diverse range of digitized and born-digital materials from a broad range of archives in the United States. Results of the survey indicate both that the association of trust in archives with trust in digital archival content could be empirically measured and that the relationship between the two trust levels was positively correlated. The article also discusses future directions for research.