The importance of documentation preservation

The different communities in the world have their own belief which makes the information about a community's culture to be preserved. The protection of the documentation is considered to be vital since it helps the people in keeping the history of their culture. Also, all the information which is typically acquired in the documentation can be presented towards the general public to promote an understanding as well as the appreciation of the ancient culture. Documentation is the record or materials which provide information about a particular culture of people are can easily be accessed. Through literature, accessibility of information concerning a specific group of people or culture is easy. People tend to document materials so that they can reveal them in future as they help in conducting research and assisting the people in learning about a particular group of people or culture. In preservation, documentation has proved to play a vital role in society since there is easy retrieval of information from the documented file. Historians tend to record data for later use as it would help in addressing various challenges. Therefore, this paper will focus on the reasons as to why documentation is essential in preservation.

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The preservation makes an area to become appreciated as it helps the people to better understand the history and the spiritual aspects of a particular culture. For example, the document about Cairo city shows that in the fourteenth century the population of the inhabitants was 250 thousand. According to Abdelmonem (et al.35), Cairo visible architectural and urban space used images and evocations which had animated description thus considering the work of Al maqrizi a vital contribution to the Islamic historical writing.

The documentation preservation led to the development of Museums as well as national archives. At museums and the national archives, it is where all the records about a culture or something that happened in the past are stored. The purposes of building the archives and museums are to enable people to understand what was going on in the past. Documentation preservation is essential to the current generation since it helps them to learn and understand the culture and history of specific communities that existed during the past days. This preservation has contributed to the development of the social economy of the country since museums and archives attract tourist leading to foreign exchange in the country (Tyler, Ilene and Ted 118). The funds which are generated through tourism are used for developing other sectors of the economy thus improving the people's quality of life.

In Egypt, the authorities have promoted the restoration of the buildings, which are full of the new marbles. Then, the landscape which is surrounding these buildings is expressing the idea of recovery. This approach aims to preserve the beauty of the structure through the use of highly compatible materials. Egyptians tend to build a religious site because of their associative value rather than the historical or artistic value of a particular structure (Abdelmonem 38). Also, this action is seen from the Canadian conservator where the structures built are spiritual despite the historic fabric of the building which interested the Egyptian coworkers.

Conservators are trained to investigate an object through the use of various techniques that do not require answers to the questions posed by the archeologist. These investigations are taken to ascertain if the objects can be said to be stable, and determining the results of their future stability. The conservators are also trained to be in a position of being aware of any changes that would occur to the archeological objects hence rectifying the adverse effects that result to these changes (Tyler et al. 116). The information which is collected during the work cannot be stored in people memory thus becoming crucial to record by the time of its discovery and preserving for future use.

The use of new technology has facilitated documentation preservation since people can access the historical records and information faster and effectively thus minimizing time wastage. Technology use has changed the process of documentation preservation since data is stored in the computer. The use of machines has improved data storage and record keeping hence improving the conservation work. Accessibility of information from the computer and other technological gadgets use secure thus ensuring the data is safe thus avoiding being damaged or lost. This is one of the main reason as to why the documentation needs to be protected, to prevent any damages from occurring. The damage occurs due to the potential disasters and the natural wear and tear since the documents can fade or even burns quickly (Tyler et al. 118). Therefore, it is essential to take some steps ahead which would help in proper preservation of the stored documents to eliminate any damage that might temporarily occur or the complete loss of the content present in the papers.

The preservation of the documentation helps in expanding people's knowledge as they tend to acquire more information to the stored data and past materials. The stored articles and pat historical documents provide a fascinating account of the history of the world. For example, the historical records are usually used in the learning institutions, where the students can learn and gain knowledge of the past happenings. Without this kind of documents, recent information would have been lost, and people would not have any other way of expanding their knowledge towards these subjects. Also, document preservation relies on historical information. Historical data is vital for the continuation of species on earth since most people use the information as a firsthand account when viewing the previous world wars, the government actions, and also other disasters, which are customarily preserved the historical documents (Tyler et al. 153). Therefore, society relies on having the available knowledge about the government mandates, property records and laws through the proper preservation of the documents.

The documentation in perseveration contributes towards the creation of a permanent record which is the method of document preservation that goes beyond protection of the available documents. The technique involves the creation of a permanent copy or a file for public use or consumption. Most of these copies are made by using the microfilm equipment thus being accessed in the government agencies as well as in the libraries. Also, the creation of permanent copies is one of the ways of ensuring that the history of the country is conserved and the people can engage with the preserved content without requiring the document (Peters et al. 110). Therefore, preservation of the document has proven its significance to permanent record keeping and accessibility of document in the future.

Document preservation preserves the arts which play a part in the conservation of the culture of a particular society. The performing arts highly fill the different roles in the customs of people hence leading to the improvement of the instrumental music, vocal, the dance and theatre presented in different cultures. People use this information about performing arts for community development; for example, they use a particular dance during the wedding ceremonies or other celebration in society (Peters et al. 115). Therefore, the role of documentation towards this domain has helped in the preservation of the original digital recordings of these art forms.

On the other hand, documentation of the cultural heritage customarily preserves oral traditions. The oral traditions are the spoken elements in a culture which are present in every community or society. It is done by transmitting the knowledge and the cultural values in a document, and then preserved for the future memory of a community. Some of the things which are kept together to form a community traditional documents are; the society's riddle and the proverbs, the community songs rhymes and the tales about the legends. Also, through documentation of the crafts and customs of an organization, there is the protection of the knowledge and skills which is necessary or needed in the creation of different works. The use of these skills leads to a continuous process of production of these arts. For instance, the cultural documentation would produce the video and audio recordings, which can be used to create the artifacts of the cultural materials such as clothing's, carvings and materials for making baskets Abdelmonem (et al. 42). The preservation of the documents about the traditional craft help to the people who are willing to perform the crafts activities since the materials act as a source of knowledge and skills. Therefore this act helps people to understand and appreciate their values, customs and culture since they are the determinants of the traditions in the society.

Conclusion

The preservation of the documents is considered to be of great importance towards the country, community and to the individuals since they acquire the knowledge from the material which was stored during the earlier years. The information which is in the preserved documents can be used in the conduction of research due to the diverse data which was used during the past years. The historical records about culture, politics of the country should always be kept safe and secure since act as an essential reference to the present and future generations. The loss of past information through improper document storage and preservation makes researchers and learner face difficulties when trying to acquire information and data to be used in their research. Document preservation would help the future generation to have a clue of what was going during the past years hence ensuring they conserve their cultural norms and customs.

Works Cited

Abdelmonem, Mohamed Gamal, et al. "Virtual platforms for heritage preservation in the Middle East: the case of medieval Cairo." International Journal of Architectural Research: ArchNet-IJAR 11.3 (2017): 28-41.

Peters, Nonja, et al. "Digital preservation of cultural heritage." Technology, Society and Sustainability. Springer, Cham, 2017. 107-114.

Tyler, Norman, Ilene R. Tyler, and Ted J. Ligibel. Historic preservation: An introduction to its history, principles, and practice. WW Norton & Company, 2018.114-120