digitalborn

Digitalborn is an adjective used to describe content and data that were created primarily in digital form and originated in digital environments, rather than being produced in another medium and later digitized. It is often used interchangeably with born-digital, though some writers distinguish digitalborn to emphasize digital-native creation processes. Digitalborn spans text, images, multimedia, software, websites, and data records.

Key characteristics include native digital provenance, integration with digital workflows, and metadata-rich records that support discovery and rights management. Digitalborn items may rely on interactive features, hyperlinks, or dynamic rendering, and they frequently require ongoing digital-preservation strategies to maintain accessibility across changing platforms.

In libraries, archives, and museums, digitalborn materials present preservation challenges because their value may depend on software, hardware, or networked services. Best practices stress robust metadata, persistent identifiers, clear licensing, and documentation of provenance, context, and dependencies to enable future access and authenticity.

In publishing and culture, digitalborn works encompass ebooks, blogs, podcasts, digital art, and software-based games and experiences created for digital platforms. The term underscores the distinction from digitized materials and highlights the role of digital environments in creation, distribution, and use.