Conserving Digital Resources: Issues and Future Access
Copyright
The following article explores the issues surrounding digital preservation. Especially when it comes to deciding what should and shouldn’t be preserved. In addition to that, it is important to note the ease in which something published online can be shared. Unlike something that was physically published/printed thus limiting who has access to it. As a result, the design of an archive requires constant though necessary management of activities over a long period of time. However, for that to work, guidelines need to be put in place prior to it being put into practice. As it helps with figuring out what to collect and save because not only does it limit system overload it keeps unnecessary things from getting in. That’s not to say that what wasn’t selected isn’t important, it just that like physical books it’d be really hard to save everything. On the flip side, “Born digital data is too voluminous and too fragile to be left to the caprice of short-term needs and priorities.” So, to help those who might be looking at something in the future saving selectively is key. That way just enough is needed to provide an accurate record, which is why looking at issues in various ways is essential.
Taylor & Francis
July-Sept., 2014
Hannah Baker
Journal Article
Database as Symbolic Form
Web archiving
In his essay, Lev Manovich argues for the database as the key form of expression in digital culture, stating that the new cultural algorithm is a progression of information from reality, to media, to data, to the database. Manovich connects database philosophy to linguist Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotic philosophy, stating that the database reverses the relationship of systemic elements as syntagmatic (in praesentia) or paradigmatic (in absentia); new media turns narrative—once seen as explicit—into a mere series of links, while the database stores the elements themselves. According to Manovich, this leads to both a desire for new and experimental forms of narrative, and a valuation of computer logic by artists and within the culture at large.
Manovich, Lev
Vesna, Victoria
University of Minnesota Press
2007
Sara Raffel
Essay
Digital Archiving In The Age Of Cloud Computing
Archives
This article asks the question "What trace of our accomplishments will endure to be handed over to future generations?". It specifically focuses on the protection and preservation of digital assets. Archiving is not solely an institutional job, but should also take place in the computers of individuals. Everyone should take heed to protect and preserve their digital contributions on the web. This article emphasizes there is no time for complacency. Protection and preservation should take place right away. It also discusses the data security basics; how to use cloud computing to enhance security; cloud computing for the enterprise; knowing the terms of service; and lastly focuses on how to best enable disaster recovery for digital preservation.
Breeding, Marshall
Computers In Libraries
2013
Polk, Victoria
Information Today Inc.
Journal Article
Digital Curation/Digital Archiving: A View from the National Archives of Australia
Archives
This article discusses the importance of differentiating between the terms digital archiving and digital curation and explains how the obfuscation of these phrases can limit the necessary resources that must be given to digital archiving practices. Cunningham expresses a frustration with the way that many use digital archiving and curation interchangeably. According to Cunningham, digital curation is a term that is used to connect different professions relating to the collection or preservation of digital information. These can include data management, digital librarianship, and digital archiving. However, the constant use of this umbrella term undermines the important differences between the fields of work. Digital libraries and museums focus on the acquiring and displaying of digital texts. Whereas, digital archives prioritize the collection of information, providing the context of this information, and documenting the relationships between the material in the collection. Because of these priorities, digital archivists must intervene in the “creation and management” of digital files, rather than just accumulating existing information. Cunningham uses the National Archives of Australia (NAA) to demonstrate the level of intervention that is necessary. The NAA utilized assistance from the Australian government to establish standards for digital archives and provided long-term training for existing archivists in using emerging computer technologies. These all functioned to create a more efficient and effective archiving system.
Cunningham, Adrian
2008
Rahman, Sabiha
Journal Article
Digital Curation: Learning and Legacy in Later Life
Pedagogy
The world population is ageing. In the UK alone, it is projected that by 2035 those aged 65 and over will account for 23 per cent of the total population whilst the number of people aged 85 and over will account for 5 per cent of the total population. At the same time, the digital transformations of the last few decades are leaving behind many older adults who, for reasons ranging from accessibility issues to work biographies to personal preference, are less likely to engage with digital technologies. Research undertaken in this area to date has largely been policy led and concerned with providing hardware access and basic skills
Manchester, Helen
SAGE Publications
2016
Johnson, Richard
Web
Digital Preservation: The Library Perspective
Curation
Colin Meddings of Oxford University Press conducted research within the academic library community on digital preservation and what their opinions were regarding the matter. Specifically focusing on digital preservation in term of “the preservation of electronic scholarly literature with the goal of ensuring materials remain accessible to future scholars, researchers, and students.” As a means of building “on and complement recent research done by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) into publisher strategies for preservation.” That said, the basis of the survey involved librarians from across the world sharing information on what it is their libraries doing “in regard to digital preservation, as well as opinions on digital preservation issues.” As a result of that, findings have shown that the situation around digital preservation is an ongoing evolution, highlighting the need for additional/continuous education on digital preservation issues. Due to the fact that, the number of online journals is equal to or less than the ever-present changes in the journals supply, content licensed in an electronic format among other things. What’s more, “Digital preservation is sometimes a function of libraries, sometimes of publishers, a combination of the two, or done by a third party on behalf of both.”
Oxford University Press
Jan-June, 2011
Hannah Baker
Journal Article
Digital_Humanities
Digital Humanities
Burdick centers her book on what is digital humanities? Digital humanities is a vague term. As an emerging field, Burdick takes on the challenge in uncovering a more specific definition of what it is. But she also mentions how people use this field through projects. She has a section at the end of the book where she provides various examples of the structure and methodology digital humanities project takes on. Her goal is to give more insight on how this field works within academia and outside as well. It is the duty of the humanists to make something out of this emerging field and sustain its existence. Without taking the time to know what this field consists and contains, then the field will lose its meaning and purpose.
Burdick, Anne
MIT Press
Ortiz, Samuel
Book
ISBN: 0262018470, 9780262018470
From Text to Tags: The Digital Humanities in an Introductory Literature Course
Pedagogy
The class, titled “Introduction to Literary Study,” helps students build the foundational skills commonly used for the study of literature, including close reading, textual analysis, attention to genre and form, and attention to material and historical contexts. These are all skills that experts working in the digital humanities use to produce projects like digital scholarly editions, tools for large-scale analysis, and visual representations of texts and intertextual relationships. However, my students (largely sophomores), needed to work on honing those skills rather than applying them to a large-scale project or series of complex texts. With that in mind, I designed a digital humanities unit made up of a series of small assignments oriented towards experimenting with digitization and text analysis in a fairly low-stakes environment.
The unit starts with identifying key elements of physical texts (rare books from the university library) and how those might translate into a digital environment. It then moves through digitization and into the ways that computers impact our reading and analysis of texts, focusing on some introductory text analysis tools and text markup. Though my assignments revolve around computers and bytes more than paper and highlighters, they share the goal articulated by Paul Fyfe in “Digital Pedagogy Unplugged”: “to keep students’ attention on the critical labor that digital resources seem to dissolve” (par. 12). By introducing my students to the process of creating familiar products like a digitized text or a word cloud, I hoped to demonstrate to them that the act of building a digital product or working tool is always an act of interpretation. (Provided by author)
Ficke, Sarah
John Hopkins University Press
2014-07
Eaddy, Brionna
Journal Article
Integrative Learning: International research and practice
Pedagogy
Current teaching, learning and assessment practices can lead students to believe that courses within a programme are self-sufficient and separate. Integrative Learning explores this issue, and considers how intentional learning helps students become integrative thinkers who can see connections in seemingly disparate information, and draw on a wide range of knowledge to make decisions. Written by international contributors who engaged reflectively with their teaching and their students' learning, the book seeks to develop a shared language of integrative learning, encouraging students to adapt skills learned in one situation to problems encountered in another, and make autonomous connections across courses, between experiences, and throughout their lives.
More informed teachers can help students develop the necessary attributes for intentional learning, which include having a sense of purpose, fitting fragmentary information into a 'learning framework', understanding something of their own learning processes, asking probing questions, reflecting on their own choices, and knowing when to ask for help. Integrative Learning draws on international research and vast studies to provide the reader with the resources to ensure access to a unified learning experience. The book discusses conceptual and technical tools necessary for facilitating integrative learning across a range of disciplines as well as providing learning pedagogies and considers integrative learning in the context of the relevance of higher education in the complexity and uncertainty of the 21st century. It will appeal to academics and researchers in the field of higher education, as well as those generating higher education curriculums- (Provided by publisher)
Blackshields, Daniel
Routledge
2015
Eaddy, Brionna
Book
ISBN: 978-0-415-71107-4
Keeping Archives
Archives
This book provides a comprehensive manual that covers key areas of archiving. Its audience is that of the novice and student archivist. In addition to it textbook format, the material in the book examines the role of the archival profession in the electronic records environment. The first four chapters focus on how to get started with archives. The chapters concentrate on the definition of archives, organization and storage issues, and preservation. They provide practical knowledge on developing frameworks for the establishment of an archive. The next six chapters examine how to manage archives. The chapters explain how to decide what one wants, how to get it, once one obtains it, and finally how to manage it. It looks at appraisal and disposal, acquisition, accessioning, arrangement, documentation programs, and using computers (the tasks for which they can be used). The four chapters in section three discuss promoting archives, which includes public access, security, privacy, confidentiality, cultural sensitivity, and copyright. The last four chapters discuss how to manage non-textual items. Digital recordkeeping is described. The chapters provide guidance on how to use archival principles, process, and services for digital records, maps, objects, sound recordings, moving images, and photographs.
Ellis, Judith
Bettington, Jackie
Eberhard, Kim
Loo, Rowena
Smith, Clive
Australian Society of Archivists
2008
Polk, Victoria
Book
ISBN: 1875589155
978-1875589159