Technology is transforming the way in which researchers gain
access to archives, not only in the choices archivists make
about their uses of technology but in the portable technologies
researchers bring with them to the archives. This essay reviews
the implications of electronic mail, instant messaging and chat,
digital reference services, Web sites, scanners, digital
cameras, folksonomies, and various adaptive technologies in
facilitating archival access. The new machines represent
greater, even unprecedented, opportunities for archivists to
support one of the main elements of their professional mission,
namely, getting archival records used. Settling the first fear:
The loss of documents Electronic mail and virtual reference
Email is for the old folks: What about IM and chat? The new
virtual reference A Web presence Scanning the archives Click,
click, click: Digital cameras in archives Adaptive technologies:
Reaching and empowering new researchers Every archivist knows
that technology is part of their daily