Conversion of Primary Sources
Curation
Deegan and Tanner explain that primary source materials come in all forms, and to digitally capture these materials, one must carefully consider certain aspects. In the article, they explore numerous materials: documents, visual materials (glass, canvas, film, fabric, etc.), three-dimensional objects, and audio/video recordings. They contend there is more than one method for capturing original source materials, and therefore, careful planning is required, as is the assessment of cost, quality, conservation, and usage. They discuss the advantages and disadvantages of digital capture and conversion. The main piece of advice is to consider the purpose. What is it is that the digitization is aiming to capture? They list numerous digital capture methods (such as OCR) and discuss the pros and cons of each. The last topic discussed is editing that material that is captured, and they explain the different software tools available for this endeavor. Deegan and Tanner conclude with advice: understanding the capture process of primary sources is important even if one never plans to carry out these activities directly because it is vital to understand the various implications and consequences of the decisions that have to be dealt with in any project.
Deegan, Marilyn
Tanner, Simon
Facet
2006
Polk, Victoria
Blackwell Publishing
E-book
http://digitalhumanities.org:3030/companion/view?docId=blackwell/9781405103213/9781405103213.xml&chunk.id=ss1-5-2&toc.depth=1&toc.id=ss1-5-2&brand=9781405103213_brand
Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory: Essays from the Sawyer Seminar
Archives
The Advanced Studies Center of the International Institute of the University of Michigan held a year-long Sawyer Seminar from 2000-2001 to investigate the complicated relationships between archives, forms of documentation, and societies. The program had 100 presentations over 28 sessions with representation from 15 different countries. The focus of the seminar was the role of archives in the production of knowledge. The book is divided into five sections. The first section deals with archives themselves. How does one define an archive? The second section looks at how archives are used in the production of knowledge. The third section is about social memory. These articles explore how archives create knowledge about broader social processes and activities that can be used to explore the past, such as how archives can deliberately limit, shape, or structure certain kinds of social understanding. The fourth section examines archives and political cultures, specifically Canada, the Caribbean, Western Europe, African, and European Colonial Archives. Essays cover the challenge of recovering “memory” in areas of colonialism and postcolonialism, revolutionary events, and evolving stable states. In contrast to section four, the last section covers archives and social understanding in states undergoing rapid transition, such as China, Postwar Japan, Postwar Greece, Russia, Ukraine, and the Balkins. The essays examine the relationship between state archives and governments, and they look at how politics affects archives.
Blouin Jr., Francis
Rosenberg, William R
University of Michigan Press
2006
Polk, Victoria
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license
Book
ISBN-13: 978-0472032709
ISBN-10: 0472032704
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
Copyright Issues Relevant to the Creation of a Digital Archive: A Preliminary Assessment
Copyright
Besek explains how the collecting and preserving of digital content poses challenges to the intellectual property rights that libraries and archives are use to following. A balance between copyright owners and users is an ongoing process; therefore, Besek offers a paper in which she describes the copyright rules and exceptions. She also focuses on issues those involved with libraries and archives might encounter if involved in the creation of a digital archive. Besek explains that numerous factors exist when determining the copyright implications for works being considered for inclusion in an archive. Some of these factors include: the purpose of the archive, its subject matter, the manner in which it will acquire materials, and who will have access to the archive, and from where, and under what conditions. The purpose of Besek’s paper is not to go in-depth about copyright, but to provide the reader and potential archive creator, with information about basic copyright matters, so that the creator might recognize areas of concern as he/she plans the archive.
Besek, June
Council on Library and Information Resources
2003
Polk, Victoria
Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress
Report
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub112/pub112.pdf
Authenticity in a Digital Media Environment
Archives
In January 2000, the Council on Library and Informational Resources (CLIR) assembles a group of professionals who were considered experts from different domains of the information resources communities to address the question: What is an authentic digital object? The article contains five position papers from that gathering, in which the contributors identify the attributes that define authentic digital data over time. The goal was to start a discussion among the different communities that have a commitment to authenticity. The five contributors looked at variety of concepts from a variety of disciplines: definitions of authenticity, case studies, standardization efforts, the historian’s view, interdisciplinary differences and goals, and preservation.
Cullen, Charles
Hirtle, Peter
Levy, David
Lynch, Clifford
Rothenberg, Jeff
Council on Library and Information Resources
2000-05
Polk, Victoria
CLIR
Report
http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract//reports/pub92.
Community Archives: The Shaping of Memory
Collective memory
Community Archives is part of a series called Principles and Practices in Records Management and Archives. The series aims to augment the body of professional knowledge and understanding currently available. Each book in the series offers a detailed overview of a specific topic, in this case community archives. This book contains 14 essays, which offer an array of viewpoints from a variety of global contributors (academics, librarians, archivists, etc.) on the interrelationships between archives and communities. The contributors examine the ways in which records reveal community identity and collective memory. The book is split into five sections: case studies in community archives; community and non-traditional recordkeeping; record loss, destruction and recovery; online communities; and, practical suggestions for building a community archive. Numerous themes are examined: the human need for community, recording making, the construction of communities, community identity, empowerment of marginal communities, social justice, and reinforcement of memory. It assesses the recent advances in technology that can contribute to the creation of new virtual communities. The book also discusses the role of archivists in supporting communities and their relationship to community records because the contributors contend that the archivist has a significant role to play in the process of building communities archives.
Bastian, Jeannette
Alexande, Ben
Facet
2009
Polk, Victoria
Book
ISBN: 1856046397
Functionalities of Web Archives
Web archiving
The functionalities that are important to the users of web archives range from basic searching and browsing to advanced personalized and customized services, data mining, and website reconstruction. The author examined ten of the most established English language web archives to determine which functionalities each of the archives supported, and how they compared.
A functionality checklist was designed, based on use cases created by the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC), and the findings of two related user studies. The functionality review was conducted, along with a comprehensive literature review of web archiving methods, in preparation for the development of a web archiving course for Library and Information School students. This paper describes the functionalities used in the checklist, the extent to which those functionalities are implemented by the various archives, and discusses the author's findings.
Niu, Jinfang
D-Lib Magazine
2012-03
Polk, Victoria
2012 Jinfang Niu
Online Journal
http://dlib.org/dlib/march12/niu/03niu2.html
Web Archives for Researchers: Representations, Expectations and Potential Uses
Web archiving
In their online article for D-Lib magazine, authors Stirling, Chevallier, and Illien cover issues important to researchers using the web from problems of legitimacy to the functionality of search engines. The authors discuss the changing perceptions to research on the web and focus particular attention to the use of web archiving as a means of legitimate and practical academic research. Guidelines and suggestions regarding content and selection policy of digital archives are of particular use as well as suggestions on providing adequate and useful descriptions of the archives themselves.
Stirling, Peter
Chevallier, Philippe
Illien, Gildas
D-Lib Magazine
2012
Polk, Victoria
Peter Stirling, Philippe Chevallier and Gildas Illien
Online Journal
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march12/stirling/03stirling.html
Education for Digitization: How Do We Prepare?
Archives
This paper examines the characteristics and variety of digitization training initiatives in North America and to a lesser extent, Europe, and the growing development of credit-bearing courses and programs within higher education relating to digitization, with a specific focus on librarianship. Information was collected in response to an inquiry posted in late July 2004 on the ARLIS, JESSE, and DIGLIB listservs, supplemented by ongoing perusal of these sources, Web searches, and suggestions from colleagues. It also briefly discusses the benefits and challenges associated with the development of digitized library resources, and the need for greater attention to professional development for those working in digitization.
Perry, Claudia A.
The Journal of Academic Librarianship
November 2005
Polk, Victoria
2015 Elsevier B.V.
Journal Article
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0099133305001138
Digital Archiving: What is Involved?
Archives
In this article Dale Flecker, the Associate Director for Planning and Systems at Harvard University Library advocates greater involvement by the nation’s scholarly community in the process of preservation and archiving of material. Flecker warns that “the temptation to ‘let the other guy do it’ will be great” and that the field of archiving is “vulnerable to the free-rider syndrome.” He also points out that while larger national institutions such as the Library of Congress are making significant progress in the field, they will not be able to do it on their own, and in order for proper standards to be met it is up to scholarly institutions to “monitor, encourage, and when possible, participate in this innovative program.” Issues such as institutional funding will greatly affect how our digital archives are maintained and constructed. Flecker urges the higher education community to take initiatives that include model archives to demonstrate feasibility and also to demonstrate to government and educational policy makers the importance of supporting digital archiving projects.
This article presents a clear and concise case for greater involvement of America’s institutions of higher education in the digital archiving process. It also points to the importance of the higher education community’s influence on other decision makers as to the continued importance and support of digital archiving projects.
Flecker, Dale
Educause Review
2003
Polk, Victoria
2003 Dale Flecker
Website
https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0316.pdf