Irina Schmid, Instructor and Digital Collections Archivist, works at the American University in Cairo.

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A reflection from the Digitization Center at American University in Cairo on World Digital Preservation Day

Imagine a graduate student in São Paulo discovering a 19th-century Arabic poem that perfectly captures her research question. A historian in Tokyo finding administrative records that illuminate Ottoman trade networks. A teenager in Detroit exploring her family’s cultural heritage through digitized manuscripts from her grandparents’ homeland.

These moments of connection across time and space answer the fundamental question: Why preserve?

At the American University in Cairo’s Digitization Center, we live this question every day. We work with fragile manuscripts, yellowing photographs, and deteriorating documents that hold centuries of Middle Eastern intellectual, cultural, and social history. Each item we digitize carries stories that could disappear without intervention. But for us, preservation is about more than preventing loss—it’s about building bridges between past and future, between cultures and communities, between silence and understanding.

The Urgency of Our Mission

The Middle East and North Africa face unique preservation challenges. Political instability, limited resources, and rapid urbanization threaten countless cultural artifacts. We’ve all witnessed the tragic destruction of heritage sites and libraries across the region. This makes our work in digital preservation not just important but urgently necessary. Every manuscript we digitize, every photograph we process, is an act of resistance against the forces of time, neglect, and destruction.

Our collections tell stories that mainstream narratives often overlook: women’s voices from the Arab Renaissance, scientific innovations, the daily lives of ordinary people, and literary works that influenced movements across continents. Without preservation, these voices remain trapped in physical form, accessible only to a privileged few who can travel to our archives in Cairo.

Beyond Preservation: Creating Access and Understanding

Traditional preservation asks, “How do we keep materials safe?” Digital preservation adds a transformative new question: “How do we make them useful?”

Our work goes beyond creating digital copies. We’re developing AI-powered tools that can read historical Arabic script with 90% accuracy, turning silent images into searchable text. We’re building collaborative platforms where researchers from different continents can work on the same manuscript simultaneously. We’re creating educational resources to bring Middle Eastern heritage into classrooms worldwide.

This shift from preservation to access changes everything. A manuscript that once required a special appointment is now available to anyone with an internet connection. A collection studied by a handful of specialists becomes a global resource for students, artists, and curious minds. A regional archive becomes part of humanity’s shared digital heritage.

The Human Stories in Every Digital File

Every file in our repository represents a human story. The personal correspondence of May Ziadeh, a pioneering Arab feminist, reveals the intellectual networks that shaped modern thought. 19th-century administrative records from Cairo show how families, merchants, and communities navigated their world. Poetry manuscripts reveal the creative process of writers who defined modern Arabic literature.

These materials matter because they represent the full, rich spectrum of human experience—not just the stories of kings and conquerors, but the voices of women, minorities, artists, and ordinary people. Digital preservation democratizes access to these stories, ensuring future generations aren’t limited by geography, language, or institutional barriers.

Technology in Service of Humanity

We use cutting-edge technology—high-resolution scanning, AI, advanced metadata, and cloud-based systems. But technology is never the goal; it’s the tool. Every algorithm and database we build is designed to answer one question: How can this help people connect with their heritage and understand their world?

For instance, commercial text recognition technology fails on historical Arabic manuscripts, achieving only 20-30% accuracy. Our custom-trained AI models now reach 90% accuracy, transforming static images into dynamic, searchable texts. This isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about equity. It means a researcher can search an entire collection in seconds, a student can discover her history with a keyword search, and a community can access its own heritage.

Why Preserve? Because Connection Matters

The student in São Paulo, the historian in Tokyo, and the teenager in Detroit represent millions whose lives are enriched by access to cultural heritage. They discover more than information; they find connection—to ancestors, to communities, to traditions that shaped their world.

In our interconnected yet often divided world, these connections matter more than ever. Digital preservation builds bridges across cultures, generations, and geographies. It makes the unfamiliar familiar, the distant near, and silent voices heard.

We preserve because every manuscript contains someone’s effort to communicate across time. We preserve because every photograph captures a moment someone thought worth saving. We preserve because every document represents a human experience that deserves to be remembered.

The question isn’t really “Why preserve?” The question is, “What world do we want to leave for future generations?” We choose a world where knowledge transcends boundaries, where heritage enriches understanding, and where the past informs a more connected future.