Digitising Charles Babbage at the Science Museum, London: managing expectations, enabling access

Abstract

The papers of Charles Babbage at the Science Museum were historically catalogued in different ways and remained difficult to consult, but their digitisation in 2011 and  subsequent incremental release online have increased access world-wide. This paper describes how such access has gradually fulfilled expectations of scholars world-wide, while catering for other audiences. It examines the challenges the Science Museum has faced and the role that archivists, historians and digital professionals have had in making digital access to the archives and related objects possible.