Digital Practice Guidelines The New Generation
May 17, 2015
Digital Practice Guidelines
The New Generation
Digital landscape : what is changing…..
• Born digital• Digital collecting• Mass digitisation• Digital Preservation• Expectations of access• Metadata – Open data – Linked data
Physical Original Digital Original
Selection &Prioritisation
Copyright Copyright
Create Metadata/
Catalogue record
Create Metadata/
Catalogue record
Optimise and create web and
other derivatives
Link web images to Metadata
Digital Asset Management
Access via web/catalogue
Import best file available as
Archival master
Copyright Legislation / Fair
Use Policy
Metadata Creation Dublin
Core / MARC
Secure storage of Masters – backup
procedures
Digitise – create Archival
Master file
From : Digital practice: guidelines for digitising images in NSW public libraries 2012
Physical preparation & conservation
Digital Practice Guidelines : Update
Born digital
More…….. Metadata
Digital Collecting
More ……….. Digital Preservation
Born Digital
• Digital materials which are not intended to have an analogue equivalent, either as the originating source or as a result of conversion to an analogue form
• Materials that originate in digital form and which, in their original form, require a digital device to be utilised. (NSLA)
• Defining “Born Digital” An Essay by Ricky Erway, OCLC Research http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/hiddencollections/bornditgital.pdf November 2010
Born Digital (2)• Blogs• Computer generated architectural plans• Computer generated maps• Digital art• Digital documents• Digital film footage• Digital media (published)• Digital newspapers • Digital serials• Digital sound recordings• Digital photographs • Dynamic data sets• Static data sets• E-books• Electronic archives and records• Emails• Social media ( facebook , twitter ,tumblr, instagram
etc)• Internet disseminated television• Mobile applications• Oral histories• Web comics• Websites
Implications for:• Collecting, esp. with
legal deposit obligations
• Digital asset management & workflow
• Digital Preservation
Digital Collecting Framework (NSLA 2013)
Purpose– The purpose of this Digital Collecting Framework is to
provide information and guidance on collecting born digital materials.
Scope– The DCF addresses issues associated with born digital
material, that is, material which originates in a born digital form and is not intended to have an analogue equivalent.
– The document includes information on dealing with donors and vendors, acquisition of digital items, legal deposit, and definitions of commonly used terms.
NSLA Digital Collecting Principles
The NSLA libraries commit to the following principles:
1. Digital collections will be acquired in accordance with the libraries’ collection policies
2. Collaboration between NSLA libraries and other collecting institutions is required to build robust digital collections.
3. In digital collecting, time is of the essence.
4. Negotiating appropriate rights management is a critical process of digital collecting.
5. Born digital collections remain vulnerable in the short term while policies, procedures and technologies are being established.
6. The acquisition, storage, preservation, description and provision of digital collections will take place under internationally recognised, best-practice standards and guidelines, enhancing their discoverability, access and use.
7. Confidence in the authenticity and integrity of digital collections will be ensured
NSLA Internal (operational) Principles
The NSLA libraries will:
1. Back up their commitment to digital collecting with adequate and appropriate staffing, training, resources, technology and storage.
2. Ensure the integrity of digital collections is maintained through the adherence to standards, guidelines, policies and procedures which will enable sustainable accessibility and usability.
3. Continue to monitor, and implement where necessary, new and emerging technologies and standards.
4. Consider technological issues when making acquisition decisions, but will not allow technological capabilities of the collecting library to be used as an “it’s too hard” excuse for not collecting digital material.
5. Communicate and promote the libraries’ digital collecting activities to the public, government, other cultural and heritage institutions and potential partners and funding sources.
Digital CollectingDigital Collecting at SLNSW
Digital Collecting – Practical walkthrough• Negotiations with content/copyright holder• Receipt of physical carriers• Analysis of digital content on carrier• Create a receiving directory on “clean” machine• Generate a copy of the disk directory information (Inventory/manifest)• Copy data from physical media to the subdirectory ?as a disk image?• Generate and record a checksum What is this?• Copy the project directory to trustworthy archival storage • Create a readme/txt file, save documentation• Return the original physical media to storage or donor• Create or update an associated finding aid, collection level record, or accession
record with information about the steps that were taken and the location of the files.
• Based on – Erway, R, 2012, You’ve Got to Walk Before You Can Run: First Steps for Managing Born-Digital Content Received
on Physical Media– SLNSW internal policy development
MLMSS Dixon Family Papers 1894-1953
MLMSS Dixon Family Papers 1894-1953
The Technical steps…..
•Virus check •Create Manifest list - contents of original carrier•File format summary and analysis•Copy to computer and verify MD5 Checksum•Save information gathered with files
……………..The Foundations of Digital Preservation
Tools (software) required
•Professional Virus checking•Directory listing•Format validation•Checksum creation and verification
Example of a digital collecting action
Target folder : Amy G Ednie
Virus Check
Inside one of the folders on the CD
Create directory listing
Manifest – Directory Listing
DROID – file format identification tool
DROID – file format identification tool
DROID – file summary
PRONOM – jpg
PRONOM - .db file format
DROID – Incorrect file extension check
Copy and create checksums 1
A Checksum is : A numerical value calculated from the contents of a digital object. By comparing a recently determined checksum with an older one, you can tell if the digital object has changed.
Copy and create checksums 2
Copy and create checksums 2
Summary – what we did
•Checked source for virus•Explored directory structure•Analysed file types in collection•Checked unknown file types•Created full directory listing•Copied files to appraisal folder and generated checksums•Saved documentation with files
Key tools
Anti Virus
File format Identification
File Format Technical registry
Directory listing software
Secure Copy and Checksum verification
Personal Digital Preservation
Library of Congress Personal Archiving
Links to other Guidelines
DOHM
Atlas of Living Australia
Digital Preservation Resources
DROIDPRONOMEXifToolBWFmetaeditShotputProDirectory List ProNSLA Digital CollectingNSLA Digital PreservationLibrary of Congress Personal Digital Archiving pages
Scott WajonManager , Digitisation
March 27th 2014
Any questions?