The archival document in the digital ecosystem «Archive–Museum–Library»: Historiographical analysis and rethinking of institutional boundaries

Abstract

The article is devoted to a historiographical analysis of theoretical approaches to the status of archival documents in the context of the formation of a digital cultural heritage ecosystem integrating archives, libraries, and museums (LAM/GLAM). The aim of the study is to determine whether digitalization leads to the institutional convergence of these institutions or instead fosters new models of interaction while preserving their theoretical and professional specificity. The methodological framework is based on historical-genetic, comparative, and conceptual analysis, as well as an interdisciplinary approach combining archival science, information science, and cultural memory studies. The study draws on both classical and contemporary archival theory, as well as the concepts of cultural memory and memory institutions, and examines practices of digital platforms. The results demonstrate that, despite the development of digital technologies, integrated platforms, and standardized metadata, archives, libraries, and museums retain fundamental differences shaped by the nature of their holdings, organizational principles, and professional practices. The study identifies a key tension between the logic of data characteristic of digital information systems and the principle of provenance underlying archival theory. As an alternative to the concept of convergence, the article proposes to consider archives, libraries, and museums as components of a distributed digital ecosystem, in which integration occurs at the level of infrastructures and data, while institutional differentiation is preserved.