An online marketplace for archival services

Abstract

Purpose

Online marketplaces, which provide on-demand goods or services through matching providers and consumers, have emerged in many sectors of the society. This paper aims to assess the need and speculate the design features of a specialized, online marketplace for archival services.

Design/methodology/approach

Interview data collected for a previous project were reanalyzed, and the websites of some online marketplaces were explored.

Findings

Existing general-purpose online marketplaces are useful but limited. Archivists and closely related professionals, including conservators, genealogists and public historians, need a specialized online marketplace to connect with their clients. This specialized online marketplace for archival services could adopt some useful features of existing online marketplaces.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first attempt to assess the need for an online marketplace for archival services.

Citation

Niu, J. (2023), "An online marketplace for archival services", Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. 72 No. 6/7, pp. 685-699. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-09-2021-0162