Hemeroteca Digital Nacional de México, su historia y alcance como fuente para proyectos digitales

Mexico’s National Digital Newspaper Library ( Hemeroteca Nacional Digital de Mexico , HNDM) is a pioneering digital collection in the country. This article presents a reconstruction of the history of this institution based on oral and written testimonies in order to elucidate its origins, its relation to published collections, the series of decisions -technical and archival- that determined its current composition and functioning and, on this basis, better understand the nature of the Library and its limitations as a source for current and future digital projects. Few studies have critically analyzed how digitalized archives are constituted. Moreover, generally speaking, the digital version of documents is used simply as a substitute for the original, physical version. Following Cordell (2017), however, we argue that it is necessary to reflect upon how computers, databases, interfaces, and algorithms, to mention only a few key aspects, add imperceptible interpretative layers that mediate our relation to the object of study.