Handwritten Text Recognition as a digital perspective of Archival Science

Abstract

The digital divide in the Humanities scientific field represents a heated debate between traditionalists (analogue scholars) and digital humanists. While some progress has been made towards a dialogue between the two sides, friction persists. Technology, including the development of artificial intelligence tools and algorithms, is not a threat to humanities research but a solution to problems. However, society has changed dramatically, and new generations require new communicative products and systems. The debate becomes increasingly wearying, but “analogues” do not consider the mutation of reality’s interpretive patterns and
prefer to rely on the “death of traditional Humanities statutes”. The closed-mindedness towards Information technology and communication (ICT) tools, such as Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), makes no sense. This study aims to demonstrate the potential of automatic transcription as a helpful tool for archival fields and research.