If you can easily read the opening sentence as “In the year 2026, some skills are fading from use,” then you were likely born before the digital era. What older generations once understood instantly now requires analog skills that today’s digital environment rarely demands. Among these skills are writing and reading cursive handwriting, deciphering Roman numerals, telling time on an analog clock and navigating by using paper maps.

There are concerns that today’s students don’t know how to read or write cursive handwriting, as schools devote less time to teaching it. In Indiana, the current handwriting standard for third grade only requires that students learn to “write legibly in print or cursive, leaving space between letters in a word, words, in a sentence, and words and the edges of the paper.” Without regular practice, future historians and genealogists may struggle to read handwritten documents. Will they depend entirely on artificial intelligence to convert handwriting into machine‑readable text?

Some online tools such as Transkribus are already using AI for handwritten text recognition and continue to improve the accuracy of results. When the 1950 U.S. Census population schedules were released in April 2022, the U.S. National Archives indexed them quickly using Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. A 2025 blog post from ISL’s Genealogy Division reported that breakthrough AI technology has transformed how genealogy records are indexed and discovered on FamilySearch.org.

Recognizing Roman numerals is another increasingly uncommon skill. No one wants to make the mistake of misreading “World War II” as “World War Eleven.” Roman numerals remain relevant and appear on monuments, movie copyright statements, Super Bowls, generational suffixes (II, III, IV), Popes, royalty and in book chapters and multi-volume works. The U.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual (2017) has a section explaining Roman numerals (see below).

Indiana’s second-grade mathematics standard requires students to learn to “tell and write time to the nearest five minutes from analog clocks, using a.m. and p.m.” Since many classical clock faces have Roman numerals, that is an opportunity to learn both skills together.

The Indiana State Library has an extensive collection of sheet maps, atlases and even a few globes. Researchers utilize the county map collection with enough frequency that many historical maps have been digitized for preservation, wider access and downloadability.

Yet in an age of GPS, the general ability to navigate with printed maps is fading. Analog map reading involves interpreting scales, symbols and grids to measure distances and understand terrain – skills less practiced as many travelers rely solely on digital navigation. Before GPS, family road trips required a good road atlas or free state highway map to plot a route. In 2021, the Indiana Department of Transportation cited increased GPS usage as a reason to stop printing state roadway maps, instead offering a downloadable copy.

Indiana Social Studies Standards introduce map concepts as early as kindergarten and continue through elementary grades. By fifth grade, students should “use maps and globes to locate states, capitals, major cities, major rivers, the Great Lakes and mountain ranges in the United States.” If their GPS lets them down, will digital natives appreciate having the skillset to read a print map?

As the saying goes, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” It remains unclear whether digital natives will master analog skills, as this depends on their personal interests and the influence of those who value such skills. And with keyboards, digital clocks, and GPS handling many tasks, will future generations even need these skills?

This post was written by Andrea Glenn, Indiana Division librarian and state documents coordinator at the Indiana State Library.

Resources
Ferrante, Ricc. “Is There a Place for Paleography in Archives?” Smithsonian Institution Archives, January 23, 2018. Accessed May 21, 2026.

Indiana Department of Education. Indiana Academic Standards for English/Language Arts (2023). Accessed May 21, 2026.

Indiana Department of Education. Indiana Academic Standards for Mathematics (2023). Accessed May 21, 2026.

Indiana Department of Education. Indiana Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026). Accessed May 21, 2026.

“Reading Old Documents.” The British National Archives. Accessed May 21, 2026.

Thompson, Clive. “From Ptolemy to GPS, the Brief History of Maps.” Smithsonian Magazine, July 4, 2017. Accessed May 21, 2026.

“Transcription Tips.” U.S. National Archives, March 12, 2025. Accessed May 21, 2026.

U.S. Government Publishing Office. U.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual. Government. U.S. Government Publishing Office, January 11, 2017. Accessed May 21, 2026.