Transcript Digital initiatives

“Digital
intiatives in
archival preservation”
By
Fe Angela M. Verzosa
University Archivist, DLSU
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This presentation…
 Discusses digital archives as an
emerging platform for cooperative
preservation efforts
 Explores local digital initiatives here
and through the Internet to view the
different frameworks and models
 Recommends digital technology as a
means towards preservation of original
archival materials
Digital initiatives in archival preservation - Fe Angela Verzosa
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Defining terms…
 "Digital preservation" or "digital
archiving" means taking steps to
ensure the longevity of electronic
documents.
 documents are either "born digital"
and stored on-line or products of
conversion
-Alison Bullock
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Defining terms…
"digital archives” are materials that
have been converted to machinereadable format, usually for the sake
of preservation or to make them more
accessible to users.
Also refers to information originally
created in electronic format, and
preserved for its archival value.
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Digitization…
 greatly enhances
access (faster and
easier)
 allows remote access (via Internet/cd
networking) by simultaneous users
 generates publicity for institutions
because it gives them the opportunity
to showcase their rare or unique
collections online
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More benefits…
 if digitized materials serve as
surrogates to the originals, it
can enhance preservation
efforts by reducing handling of original
documents, and thereby helps to
protect them from loss/mutilation, etc.
 low cost distribution of huge data
 Reduced long-term storage costs and
reduced document storage space
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Digital Preservation…
 has an inherent appeal
 growing amounts of born digital and
born-again digital material now
require our attention
 primary goal of digital archives is
long-term preservation of information
in a form that guarantees sustained
access and dissemination in the
future
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Digital Preservation…
 longevity of electronic records
 increasing obsolescence of
computer hardware and software
 storage problem for digital media ,
or its ‘shelf life’
 problem of developing a continuing
program to assure access to
preserved information over time
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Digital Preservation issues
 Getting the information




into digital form
Keeping it in digital form
Standards to ensure a high
quality result
Copyright/intellectual property
implications
Maintaining the integrity of
digitized information over time
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more issues…
difficulty and expense of
preserving digital information
 digital preservation is largely experimental
and replete with the risks associated with
untested methods
 digital preservation strategies are shaped by
the needs and constraints of repositories
with little consideration for the
requirements of current and future users of
digital scholarly resources. - Margaret Hedstrom
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More Issues…
 Costs of maintaining digital data
 What form to keep digital data in?
 Technological obsolescence migration or emulation?
 Authenticity
 Additional information
we need to keep
)
(metadata - description
of a digital object or
"data about data")
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More concerns….
 establish as many websites and
encourage cooperation
 the more participants involved,
the better to achieve
efficiency
 the need to integrate technology
and content is evident
 outside funding and the commitment of
volunteers in digital initiatives are critical
to success.
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More concerns….
 Digitization, however, must not
be viewed as a substitute for
other preservation activities.
 Microfilming remains the preferred longterm preservation method in this age of
technology.
 Preserving the original materials increases
the intrinsic value of the original as
evidence
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Internet:
effective means of networking
 value and focus is full
text rather than catalog
of bibliographic
information
 there is a more urgent
need for content on the
Internet
 carefully explore content
as the focus of
cooperative projects
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Five Colleges Consortium
•includes four private, liberal arts colleges and
the Amherst campus of the state university.
•web site provides access to digitized versions
of archival records and manuscript collections
relating to women's history -- particularly
women's education at the Five Colleges.
•among the collections are official college
publications, letters, photographs, articles,
oral histories, diaries, and more.
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Five Colleges Consortium
•encompasses 54 online collections
•38,000 items
•accessible through the website
•electronic finding aids on websites
of each institution
•records in their online catalogs
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Cedars
curl exemplars in digital archives
 began in April 1998 and ended in March 2002.
 objective was to explore digital preservation issues -
acquiring digital objects, their long-term retention,
sufficient description, and eventual access.
 included a number of "test sites" designed to test
different aspects of digital archiving with various types
of digital materials
 test sites include 3 universities in UK (Birmingham,
Exeter, and Univ. College London), the British Library,
and Birmingham Central Library
 Primary funding provided by the Joint Information
Systems Committee (JISC) through its eLib and Digital
Preservation Focus programmes.
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Model digitization framework
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
Charette Digital Project
Online access to Charette magazine
(vols. 1-54, 1920-1974),
Primary stages of activity
 Clarify copyright
 Identify and obtain all issues of Charette
 Scanning to be done by Digital Library Initiatives
 Utilize journal delivery and navigation functionality
using the DIVA system (CMU’s library system)
 Develop web interface
.
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 Managed by a group of volunteers working together
to provide Internet websites for genealogical
research
 also sponsors important Special Projects at the
national level
 One project was developed to present actual
transcriptions of public domain records on the
Internet
 Another project is to make available to genealogists,
useful, readable, high quality maps, where both archival
maps and newly made maps based on scholarly research
are accessible.
.
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California Digital Library, Oakland, CA
brings together historical materials from a
variety of California institutions
over 120,000 images; 50,000 pages of
documents, letters, and oral histories; and
8,000 guides to collections are available
offers easy-to-use search and viewing tools
organizes images into thematic and
institutional collections, such as historical
topics, nature, places, and technology.
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Digital Projects
•ALA Archives Digital Collections - includes
photographs of past ALA conferences and images of library
buildings around the country
•Art Museum Image Consortium - contains over
100,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures,
drawings and watercolors, photographs, and more available
only to those with library accounts..
•Digital Cultural Heritage Community - Materials
from East Central Illinois local area museums, archives and
libraries
•Global Cultural memory Project - Integrates
materials from collaborating institutions, focusing on the
past fifty years of cultural history in Champaign County, Ill.
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Digital Projects
Digital Gateway to Cultural Heritage Materials
• 538,485 metadata records from 32 collections of
images, text, sheet music, websites, museums and
archives.
•Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts, a collection of
public domain documents from American and English
literature as well as Western philosophy.
•2820 scanned maps representing rare 18th and 19th
century North and South American cartographic
history from the David Rumsey map collection
• 3127 images of coins and other artifacts
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McGill University
(Montreal, Canada)
Digital Collections
Program (DCP)
digitally captures and provides
electronic access to McGill University's unique rare and special
collections via the World Wide Web
collections include rare books, maps, manuscripts, prints,
photographs, sound recordings, and more.
has produced more than forty digital projects covering a wide
array of subjects including, art, architecture, history and
literature, engineering, medicine, maps, music, and urban design.
collections range from archival inventories to bibliographic
databases which provide access to items in the collection; image
databases, and full-text collections
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National Archives
- Japan
 Asian historical records
are from the Meiji
Restoration in 1868
until end of WWII in
1945
 download and print it
out easily
 6.5 M images scanned
 2 M images every year
will be added
 documents were
microfilmed/ converted
into digital format
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National Archives
- Japan
 spearheaded by Japan
Center for Asian
Historical Records
(JACAR)
 provides image data of
official documents of
relationship between
Japan and its Asian
neighbors
 offers "anyone, anytime,
anywhere" access
 free of charge
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Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive
 results in a single point of access to
digitized archival materials
 on evacuation and internment of
thousands of Japanese Americans
during WWII
 Curatorial and digital collaboration was
made possible through California Digital
Library’s Online Archive of California
 a big contribution to academic
research.
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Early efforts at digitizationInter-institutional Consortium
1998 – Preserving Selected Filipiniana
in Digital Form
Select rare Filipiniana
holdings available in
IIC libraries
Develop search engine
for management of the
digitized information.
To share the digitized collection
with other libraries
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De La Salle University
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460 doctoral dissertations in 40 cds
2,224 masters theses in 76 cds
473 born-digital theses
born-again yearbook (Green and White)
La Salliana articles online
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National Archives (RMAO)
 started
digitization project
in 1998
 13 million ++
historic
documents
 not accessible in
the world wide
web
?
How many
more such
digital
projects are
ongoing but
are not
accessible in
the web?
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…at the RMAO
Records Management
& Archives Office
Consejo Superior
de Investigaciones Cientificas
(RMAO)
(CSIC)
catalogs of centuries old documents
during Spanish colonial period
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UP Diliman Libraries
1-Cumulative Index to
Philippine Periodicals
(1995-2000)
2-Harry Whitfield Harnish
Collection (1898-1907)
3-Board of Regents Minutes
of Meetings (1925-2006)
4-Filipiniana, UP publications,
researches, etc.
5-UP theses and
dissertations
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Philippine eLib Project
 govt-sponsored collaborative project
 Involving core collections from TNL, DOST,
DA, and UP Library System
 aims to make Philippine materials available in
digital format (24M images)
 to provide cooperative acquisition and
sharing of expensive online databases
 to house data center at TNL, with data
recovery site at UP Diliman
 uses open source/standard tools, which can
be replicated
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Supreme Court eLibrary
•Digitization of library collection began April 2004
•Aims to be primary research in the speedy
delivery of justice
•Serves the entire Judiciary
•Available online:
SC Decisions and Resolutions
Rules of Court
Administrative Matters
Circulars and Orders
Manuals of Clerks of Courts
Memorabilia Section
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Collaboration an attractive alternative
for poorer nations
better endowed countries
extend assistance by
providing
 required funds
 needed technical expertise
and training,
 technology infrastructure
or network mechanism
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Collaboration can initiate
creating digital networks
of institutional
repositories,matching
institutions with common
interests,
needs, and
requirements.
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Copyright Concerns one of the most
serious barriers
Solution-
require permission to
the digital contents
Focus on works free
from copyright
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Conclusion
Now is the time…
to initiate
collaborative
programs for
the future
access to preserved digital and
born-again digital materials for the
sake of posterity.
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Thank
you!
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