Category: Digital Archives and Special Collections

"Digital Curation at Work: Modeling Workflows for Digital Archival Materials"

Colin Post et al. have self-archived "Digital Curation at Work: Modeling Workflows for Digital Archival Materials."

Here's an excerpt:

This paper describes and compares digital curation workflows from 12 cultural heritage institutions that vary in size, nature of digital collections, available resources, and level of development of digital curation activities.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

UK: "Digital Description and Metadata at the National Archives. Digital Strategy"

Jone Garmendia has self-archived "Digital Description and Metadata at the National Archives. Digital Strategy."

Here's an excerpt:

Over the last eighteen years, The National Archives of the United Kingdom has delivered a wide range of online catalogues and digital services and is now transforming to deliver an ambitious digital strategy. Our Digital Strategy addresses both the challenge of digital records as well as our goal to become a digital archive by instinct and design. To achieve this goal, we must acknowledge that digital records disrupt archival practice, archival theory and the whole notion of what a professional archivist should be.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Copyright and Digital Collections: A Data Driven Roadmap for Rights Statement Success"

Sara R. Benson and Hannah Stitzlein have published "Copyright and Digital Collections: A Data Driven Roadmap for Rights Statement Success" in ACRL 2019 Proceedings.

Here's an excerpt:

The two questions that ultimately guided this research were: What are the challenges that metadata practitioners face when implementing standardized rights statements? And, for institutions that have implemented standardized rights statements, what made them successful? The authors began the investigation to fill in the practical gaps of the previous studies, and to determine if barriers to implementing standardized rights statements was due to a lack of copyright knowledge and/or access to a copyright professional, or if there were resource barriers limiting the ability to begin implementation.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Open Social Knowledge Creation and Library and Archival Metadata"

Dean Seeman and Heather Dean have published "Open Social Knowledge Creation and Library and Archival Metadata" in KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies.

Here's an excerpt:

While libraries and archives have attempted various ways to allow for open and social contributions to their metadata, these have not generally been effective or employed on a large scale, seemingly undercut by technical barriers, including the lack of broad and unfettered access to descriptive systems and standards. In addition, more open and social metadata creation brings into clearer focus the role and value of professional expertise and, at times, the mistrust in uncontrolled terminology within the profession. More open and social metadata production has the potential to be a disruptor in libraries and archives. While both librarians and archivists have preliminarily explored more social descriptive work, and are in theory open to experimentation, very real practical constraints have limited the realization of radically new approaches to metadata production to date. A profession and practice accustomed to constant change—and the promise and possibilities new technologies enable—will open new paths for metadata within libraries and archives.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Never Best Practices: Born-Digital Audiovisual Preservation"

Julia Kim, Rebecca Fraimow and Erica Titkemeyer have published "Never Best Practices: Born-Digital Audiovisual Preservation" in Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

The sheer conditionality of [born-digital audiovisual file preservation] recommendations leaves practitioners mired in a sea of questions as they struggle to set realistically adhered to policies for their institutions. Should files be accepted as-is, or transcoded to an open and standardized format? When is transcoding to a preservation file specification worth the extra storage space and staff time? If transcoding, what are the ideal target specifications? When developing policies and workflows for batch transcoding a variety of different formats, each with different technical specifications, how do you make sure that preservation files maintain all the perceptible, let alone "significant" characteristics of the original files?

This paper presents case studies from three institutions—a university special collections library, a federal government department, and a public broadcasting station—demonstrating how the factors listed above might lead to 'tiered' processing and decision-making around 'good enough' practices for the preservation of born-digital a/v files.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"The Reconfiguration of the Archive as Data to Be Mined"

Michael Moss et al. have published "The Reconfiguration of the Archive as Data to Be Mined" in Archivaria.

Here's an excerpt:

This article discusses changing practices brought about by the move to online digital records, the impact these are having on the way history is written, and the way in which archivists are responding (and will need to respond in the future). We argue that digital administrative records are surrounded by other sources—online newspapers and social media—and that the huge volume of digital records alters the way historians read material. This will require a shift in approach from archivists, who will need to view archives as collections of data to be mined and not as texts to be read. . . . While grappling with these issues, archivists will also need to recognize that the future record will be as much about sound and vision as about text.

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Digital Data Archives as Knowledge Infrastructures: Mediating Data Sharing and Reuse"

Christine L. Borgman et al. have self-archived "Digital Data Archives as Knowledge Infrastructures: Mediating Data Sharing and Reuse."

Here's an excerpt:

Digital archives are the preferred means for open access to research data. They play essential roles in knowledge infrastructures—robust networks of people, artifacts, and institutions—but little is known about how they mediate information exchange between stakeholders. We open the "black box" of data archives by studying DANS, the Data Archiving and Networked Services institute of The Netherlands, which manages 50+ years of data from the social sciences, humanities, and other domains. Our interviews, weblogs, ethnography, and document analyses reveal that a few large contributors provide a steady flow of content, but most are academic researchers who submit datasets infrequently and often restrict access to their files. Consumers are a diverse group that overlaps minimally with contributors. Archivists devote about half their time to aiding contributors with curation processes and half to assisting consumers. Given the diversity and infrequency of usage, human assistance in curation and search remains essential. DANS' knowledge infrastructure encompasses public and private stakeholders who contribute, consume, harvest, and serve their data—many of whom did not exist at the time the DANS collections originated—reinforcing the need for continuous investment in digital data archives as their communities, technologies, and services evolve.

Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"ARCHANGEL: Trusted Archives of Digital Public Documents"

John Collomosse, have self-archived "ARCHANGEL: Trusted Archives of Digital Public Documents."

Here's an excerpt:

We present ARCHANGEL; a de-centralised platform for ensuring the long-term integrity of digital documents stored within public archives. Document integrity is fundamental to public trust in archives. Yet currently that trust is built upon institutional reputation—trust at face value in a centralised authority, like a national government archive or University. ARCHANGEL proposes a shift to a technological underscoring of that trust, using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to cryptographically guarantee the provenance, immutability and so the integrity of archived documents. We describe the ARCHANGEL architecture, and report on a prototype of that architecture build over the Ethereum infrastructure. We report early evaluation and feedback of ARCHANGEL from stakeholders in the research data archives space.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Digital Archives as Big Data"

Luis Martinez-Uribe has self-archived "Digital Archives as Big Data."

Here's an excerpt:

Digital archives contribute to Big data. Combining social network analysis, coincidence analysis, data reduction, and visual analytics leads to better characterize topics over time, publishers' main themes and best authors of all times, according to the British newspaper The Guardian and from the 3 million records of the British National Bibliography.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 8 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Massive Newspaper Migration—Moving 22 Million Records from CONTENTdm to Solphal"

Alan Witkowski et al. have published "Massive Newspaper Migration—Moving 22 Million Records from CONTENTdm to Solphal" in D-Lib Magazine.

Utah Digital Newspapers is a pioneering digital newspapers program at the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library. Recently, a small project team completed a successful migration away from CONTENTdm onto a home-grown system called Solphal, built using open-source applications. The migration process is detailed along with examples of scripts used to prepare and enhance metadata. Transitioning away from a limiting vendor-based solution to a home-grown system has enabled the Utah Digital Newspapers program to be more responsive to user requests as well as realizing greater efficiencies in hardware and software. The platform has opened up new possibilities for the future as the collection continues to grow.

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Europeana Photography Launched

Europeana has launched Europeana Photography.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Today, we're proud to launch Europeana Photography, our latest thematic collection. Photography lovers and researchers can explore more than 2 million historical photographs, contributed by over 50 European institutions in 34 countries.

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The ABC Method: A Risk Management Approach to the Preservation of Cultural Heritage

The Canadian Conservation Institute has released The ABC Method: A Risk Management Approach to the Preservation of Cultural Heritage.

Here's an excerpt:

This manual offers a comprehensive understanding of risk management applied to the preservation of heritage assets, whether collections, buildings or sites. It provides a step-by-step procedure and a variety of tools to guide the heritage professional in applying the ABC method to their own context. The method can be applied to a range of situations, from analysis of a single risk to a comprehensive risk assessment of the entire heritage asset.

See also:A Guide to Risk Management of Cultural Heritage.

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"Leveraging Exceptions and Limitations for Digital Curation and Online Collections: The U.S. Case"

Patricia Aufderheide has published "Leveraging Exceptions and Limitations for Digital Curation and Online Collections: The U.S. Case" in Libellarium: Journal for the Research of Writing, Books, and Cultural Heritage Institutions.

Here's an excerpt:

Librarians wanting to use digital affordances for their patron’s and public benefit have increasingly found themselves frustrated by copyright law designed for a pre-digital era. In the U.S., this frustration has driven the nation’s most prestigious library group, the Association of Research Libraries, to explore the utility of the major exception to copyright monopoly rights, fair use, in order to accomplish basic curation and collection goals in a digital era. The ARL's efforts to clarify how libraries can employ fair use has resulted in sometimes-dramatic changes in how work is done, and has permitted innovation at some universities. Its approach demonstrates the power of consensus in a professional field to permit innovation within the law.

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Web Archiving in the United States: A 2016 Survey

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance has released Web Archiving in the United States: A 2016 Survey .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

From January 20 to February 16, 2016, a team representing multiple NDSA member institutions and interest groups conducted a survey of organizations in the United States actively involved in, or planning to start, programs to archive content from the Web. This effort built upon a similar survey undertaken by NDSA in late 2011 and published online in June 2012 and a second survey in late 2013 published online in September 2014.

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"Content-Based Video Retrieval in Historical Collections of the German Broadcasting Archive"

Markus Mühling et al. have self-archived "Content-Based Video Retrieval in Historical Collections of the German Broadcasting Archive."

Here's an excerpt:

The German Broadcasting Archive (DRA) maintains the cultural heritage of radio and television broadcasts of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The uniqueness and importance of the video material stimulates a large scientific interest in the video content. In this paper, we present an automatic video analysis and retrieval system for searching in historical collections of GDR television recordings. It consists of video analysis algorithms for shot boundary detection, concept classification, person recognition, text recognition and similarity search. The performance of the system is evaluated from a technical and an archival perspective on 2,500 hours of GDR television recordings

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"ArchiveSpark: Efficient Web Archive Access, Extraction and Derivation"

Helge Holzmann, Vinay Goel, and Avishek Anand have self-archived "ArchiveSpark: Efficient Web Archive Access, Extraction and Derivation."

Here's an excerpt:

Web archives are a valuable resource for researchers of various disciplines. However, to use them as a scholarly source, researchers require a tool that provides efficient access to Web archive data for extraction and derivation of smaller datasets. Besides efficient access we identify five other objectives based on practical researcher needs such as ease of use, extensibility and reusability.

Towards these objectives we propose ArchiveSpark, a framework for efficient, distributed Web archive processing that builds a research corpus by working on existing and standardized data formats commonly held by Web archiving institutions. Performance optimizations in ArchiveSpark, facilitated by the use of a widely available metadata index, result in significant speed-ups of data processing. Our benchmarks show that ArchiveSpark is faster than alternative approaches without depending on any additional data stores while improving usability by seamlessly integrating queries and derivations with external tools.

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Omeka Classic 2.5 Released

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University has released Omeka Classic 2.5.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The final day of January 2017 brings with it the release of the long awaited version 2.5 of Omeka Classic. While the release includes a long list of minor changes and bug fixes (see the release notes), there are a number of key improvements that were requested by the user community:

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"The Devil’s Shoehorn: A Case Study of EAD to ArchivesSpace Migration at a Large University"

Dave Mayo and Kate Bowers have published "The Devil's Shoehorn: A Case Study of EAD to ArchivesSpace Migration at a Large University" in the Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

A band of archivists and IT professionals at Harvard took on a project to convert nearly two million descriptions of archival collection components from marked-up text into the ArchivesSpace archival metadata management system. Starting in the mid-1990s, Harvard was an alpha implementer of EAD, an SGML (later XML) text markup language for electronic inventories, indexes, and finding aids that archivists use to wend their way through the sometimes quirky filing systems that bureaucracies establish for their records or the utter chaos in which some individuals keep their personal archives. These pathfinder documents, designed to cope with messy reality, can themselves be difficult to classify. Portions of them are rigorously structured, while other parts are narrative. Early documents predate the establishment of the standard; many feature idiosyncratic encoding that had been through several machine conversions, while others were freshly encoded and fairly consistent. In this paper, we will cover the practical and technical challenges involved in preparing a large (900MiB) corpus of XML for ingest into an open-source archival information system (ArchivesSpace). This case study will give an overview of the project, discuss problem discovery and problem solving, and address the technical challenges, analysis, solutions, and decisions and provide information on the tools produced and lessons learned.

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