The Challenge of Obsolescence of Digital Archives in Cultural Heritage. A Case Study

This paper addresses the challenges of format, font, and software obsolescence, with a particular emphasis on cultural heritage archives. While technological impermanence is intrinsic to the digital domain, it poses serious risks to the accessibility and long-term preservation of humanities data. Focusing on intangible cultural heritage—specifically, dialect data—we explore both the problems and opportunities associated with the FAIRification of legacy resources. A case study of the Atlante Lessicale Toscano (ALT), a dialectal lexical atlas of Tuscany originally published as a digital archive in 2000, illustrates how painstakingly collected linguistic data can be transformed into sustainable, interoperable formats that ensure long-term usability and scholarly value.