Digital Archives You Can Do It! The Collective - March 2016 Paul Kelly - Digital Archivist - The Catholic University of America

Background -Previously worked in transcription, preservation, and reference. -Digital archives were not my initial focus, but ended up being central. -This is not a unique story. This could be you!

Hidden Collections -Digital records often reside within existing manuscript collections. -We have historically treated them like static objects, ignoring the data within. -What about websites? -What about ?

Where to start? - Survey your materials. - Create robust metadata. - Know your goals. - Talk to others. - Know the tools that are available. Create proposals with these points in mind to obtain management buy-in.

Digital Forensics How do we deal with collections containing: - Floppy discs - Thumb drives - Optical media - Hard drives - Entire computers? Is it sufficient to simply place these items in an archival box? Is there anything else we can do?

Hardware -Best practice to have not only data carriers, but also players for most common media types. -Problem: older hardware was not designed with modern systems in mind. -Solution: using external USB drives, and getting creative when USB is not an option.

Software -Increasingly, archivists are using BitCurator. - Suite of open-source tools that let you document, copy, and forensically extract data from any USB- connected source. -Forensically? - Even the act of right-clicking a file can alter its contents. - Solution? Write-blockers.

How Can You Do This? - Never throw away working equipment. - Seek out used equipment. - Create an inventory of your special media. - Download BitCurator, and experiment. - Do it now.

Web Archiving -Why is printing a webpage not sufficient? -Volume. -Multimedia content. -Webpages are not static. How do you decide which version to retain?

Archive-It -Web archiving service. - Started by Internet Archive in Utilizes the Wayback Machine. - Allows librarians and archivists to select content. - Subscription model. -Pilot project in Began actively collecting in Five collections. - Textual and multimedia content. - Social media.

How Can You Do This? -Think realistically. -Convince management that web archiving is important. - Information is sometimes only published online. - Webpages are ephemeral. - Web archiving is a simple process. - Archiving retains functionality, not just content.* -Request a free trial. -Be selective. *

- Office correspondence previously paper- based. - Major shift to in the last few years. - Do you have a work account? - Do you use it? - Do you conduct business over that has no corresponding paper trail? - If so, what are you doing with those s?

Process, Appraise, Discover, and Deliver (ePADD) -Developed by Stanford University Libraries. -Set of software modules to allow appraisal, ingest, processing, and discovery of archives. -Again, open source!

How Can You Do This? -Download ePADD modules. -Experiment with your own webmail account (Gmail, Windows Mail, etc). -Create an.MBOX file, and import it.* -Learn! Then build a case for records management policies at your organization.* - Standard folder structures, purging of non-essential correspondence, retention and deposit schedules. * For Thunderbird users, the ImportExportTool add-on can do this for you. For others, chemy. *

Archivematica -Open source (notice a pattern?) suite of digital preservation tools for the creation of Archival Information Packages (AIPs). -All you need are the digital objects, and a CSV file. -No coding required!

Thank