Interview Sixteen
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Esfandiari, Aziz
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of Afghanistan Oral Histories
unitdate: label: Date
content: July 2, 2024
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: FSA.A2024.03, File 16
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This interview focuses on the digitization and documentation of museum artifacts. Mr. Masoudi begins his discussion with past museum documentation practices of the National Museum of Afghanistan, beginning with how artifacts are registered at an archaeological site and how they were recorded in inventory books and a card catalog prior to computerization. Computer use began slowly in 2004, but 2004-2005 re-registration was still done on paper. In 2012, the U.S. Embassy and the University of Chicago supported the creation of a digital catalog. Working towards the goal of recreating a complete archive for the museum. Mr. Masoudi describes digitization efforts at the National Museum of Afghanistan and discusses the differences between historical and modern practices.