New Workflows for Born-Digital Assets: Managing Charles E. Bracker's Orchid Photographs Collection

New Workflows for Born-Digital Assets: Managing Charles E. Bracker's Orchid Photographs Collection

Archives

In this article, authors, Hurford and Runyon, describe the series of tasks and types of collaboration needed to create a digital collection. These tasks include strategies for classifying and managing files, developing metadata, establishing criteria for selecting, editing, and exporting items, and enhancing public access. The unique challenges for creating a born-digital collection are illuminated in their detailed case study of the “Charles E. Bracker’s Photographic Digital Collection,” located in Ball State University’s Digital Media Repository.

The authors cite the challenges of archiving Bracker’s digital photographs, including a lack of captions, context clues, and order of creation, as evidence for requiring the collaboration and expertise of various specialists. Archivists, librarians, technology systems administrators, and in this case, an orchid specialist, developed file categories, descriptive metadata fields, and developed a web interface capable of integrating and cross-referencing the data. In addition to the principle of collaboration, the authors defend the rationale for replacing a traditional archival principle, “original order,” with specialized directories--a principle of practicality necessitated by the massive amount of digital data without contextual information.

Traditional archival processing methods and description standards often do not apply to born-digital media, requiring the development of new methods and standards.

Hurford, Amanda A.

Computers in Libraries

2011

Runyon, Carolyn F.

Journal Article

http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ914845

Hurford, Amanda A. “New Workflows for Born-Digital Assets: Managing Charles E. Bracker's Orchid Photographs Collection.” Computers in Libraries 31.1 (2011): 6-10,40.

The article outlines a workflow of tasks and strategies unique to the Charles E. Bracker’s Photographic Digital Collection, but common to the field of digital archiving. Key points, including file management, metadata, designing a web interface, and planning for both preservation and growth of the archive, are critical elements in building a digital archive.