Inaugural Essay

New to the Journal of Archival Organization, the “Technology matters in archives” column examines how technology affects archives and archivists. This inaugural column explains the nature of the column and sets the stage for topics and issues that it will address. It examines the meaning of the term technology. Further, the column explores the notion of technological dependence-- not just dependence on digital or electronic systems--as a lens in which to examine the archival enterprise in grappling with twenty-first century issues. Concluding with the suggestion that technology can be considered from three categorical points of view: soft (philosophical approaches and practices), medium (codified processes, guidelines and standards) and hard technology (hardware and software).