Toward National Certification of Digital Archivists - Mission of Digital Archivists

When a certain field grows and develops as needed, it can finally become separated from the original needs. In the field of biodiversity, GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) was established in 2001 to meet the demand for the centralized provision of biodiversity information for scientific use and conservation. GBIF now holds more than 2 billion records of occurrence. However, the underlying database basics (including the de facto global standard, Darwin Core), and the technology for data utilization are now not immediately understandable to those without basic knowledge. To avoid being a bunch of "geeks", we need an "intermediator who can understand the needs of outsiders and communicate them to specialists in technical terms for implementation. 

The digital archivist are expected to be a mediator who are able to take the needs of non-specialists and convey them to specialists, and to help specialists' intentions be understood by non-specialists in an easy-to-understand way, and to educate them about the importance of the project.