What does 'born-digital' mean?

Born-digital describes records that originate in digital form — email, word-processing documents, spreadsheets, database entries, instant messages, digital photographs — rather than records that started as paper or another analog medium and were later digitized. Today, the overwhelming majority of records are born-digital.

Why the distinction matters

Born-digital records carry specific challenges from the moment they’re created:

• No analog fallback. The digital object is the record — there’s no paper “original” to revert to — so its integrity and trustworthiness must be actively maintained.
• Technology dependence. They rely on software and formats that change, raising format obsolescence risk over time.
• Easy duplication. Copies multiply across systems, creating convenience copies and ROT.
• Metadata at creation. They need metadata captured up front to stay findable and authentic.

What it means in practice

Because born-digital records live their whole life in the digital environment, they must be captured, classified, retained, and preserved digitally — not printed and filed. This is why modern records programs emphasize in-place capture, auto-classification, and digital preservation (format migration, fixity) rather than treating digital records as second-class versions of paper. Recognizing a record as born-digital is the starting point for managing it correctly.