Bradley J. Wiles, Head of Special Collections and Archives at Northern Illinois University Libraries, describes digitization from an archival perspective. He says it has become an ever-growing part of his work, but without replacing the care of physical collections. Wiles emphasizes that the widespread expectation that all holdings will eventually be made available online is illusory, as a significant portion of the materials can never be digitized. He also points to the difficulty of establishing uniform standards in the decentralized US archives. Rather, each institution is largely on its own and strives to secure as much data as possible for the long term under limited conditions.
