ABSTRACT This essay explores the paradox of inaccessibility in popular archives. Often understood as democratizing, even digital databases of popular literature ironically contain a series of barriers: an extraordinary paywall and frequent image-quality issues that render some texts illegible. Popularity relies on access. What happens to popular literature when its access is constricted? As we recognize the movement of archives towards collections of popular cultures, we must likewise understand the ways in which access to these cultures is still denied in ways antithetical to their original forms and uses. Using The 17th and 18th Centuries Burney Newspaper Database as a case study, this paper investigates how digitized archives unpopularize historically popular texts and what access might look like in a true archive of popularity.

中文翻译：

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黑暗扫描仪：在伯尼报纸收藏中不受欢迎

摘要 本文探讨了流行档案中难以访问的悖论。通常被理解为民主化，具有讽刺意味的是，即使是流行文学的数字数据库也包含一系列障碍：非凡的付费墙和频繁的图像质量问题，使某些文本难以辨认。受欢迎程度取决于访问。当通俗文学的访问受到限制时，会发生什么？当我们认识到档案馆向流行文化收藏的运动时，我们也必须了解如何以与其原始形式和用途相反的方式拒绝访问这些文化。本文使用 17 世纪和 18 世纪伯尼报纸数据库作为案例研究，调查数字化档案如何使历史上流行的文本不流行，以及在真正流行的档案中访问可能是什么样子。