EViDAnCE - Exploring Value in Digital Archives and the Comainn Eachdraidh

Rural areas have strong place identities, formed through the reproduction of traditional cultural practices alongside contemporary influences. These identities are performed and constructed through a repertoire of knowledges, histories, and customs, and include modes of expression such as story-telling, music and song, poetry and literature, dance and drama. Together with material objects, artefacts, sites and cultural spaces, these form dynamic cultural heritages. Both tangible and intangible heritage activity takes place in remote rural areas. Community based initiatives play an important role in such areas in the collation, production and communication of local cultural heritage. The Outer Hebrides contains 14 of Scotland's 28 Comainn Eachdraidh (CE) or historical societies which began in the 1970's with a very specific political and cultural purpose. Within their recent history, there has been a specific turn towards the digitisation of such work but to-date the relationship between the production of lived and virtual heritage is little understood and valued.

Community digital archives represent both a major economic asset and a key community resource, having potential as education tools, for empowerment through co-production of local knowledge, to encourage community engagement in local history, and for recreation and tourism consumption purposes. Yet, the conversion to digital archives is not a neutral process. The interrelationship between volunteers, professionals and digital applications needs further interrogation to understand the fluid practices involved. By comprehending these networks of cultural heritage production the value of such digitisation initiatives will be understood in terms of how they assist or problematize community development and cohesion, cultural preservations, individual identity, wellbeing and finally how they contribute economic value to communities.