In recent decades, digitization has been high on the agenda in cultural heritage institutions in affluent parts of the world. Prompted by the easy availability of millions of new sources online, scholars in the humanities are beginning to consider what new digital possibilities mean to their research but also to cultural memory more broadly. However, most discussions have focused on the changing research practices rather than the digital archives themselves and the wider cyberinfrastructure in which they are embedded. The focus on end-users downplays the influence economic, technical and political factors have on changing research practices as well as representations of the past. In this talk, I will argue why we need to devote more attention to the digital infrastructure of online archives if we want to understand their impact on our understanding and uses of the past.   

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