DLF https://www.diglib.org Digital Library Federation Tue, 31 Jan 2023 22:33:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.diglib.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/09/dlf-logo-150x150.png DLF https://www.diglib.org 32 32 DLF Digest: February 2023 https://www.diglib.org/dlf-digest-february-2023/ Wed, 01 Feb 2023 13:00:10 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=26349 A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation. This month’s news: Friday, February 3, is the deadline to apply for the 2023 GLAM Cross-Pollinator Registration Awards to attend this year’s ARLIS/NA and ER&L conferences. Cross-Pollinator awards can be applied retroactively if previously registered, Read More

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DLF Digest

A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation.


This month’s news:

This month’s DLF group events:

DLF Technology Strategy for Archives Working Group (TS4A) – Quarterly Meeting

Wednesday, February 22, 2 pm ET/11 am PT; register in advance for call-in information

Join DLF’s newest working group, the Technology Strategy for Archives Working Group (TS4A), for our first meeting in the new year. We will discuss potential topics for the group to coalesce around and determine any TS4A affinity groups and/or subgroups to organize in the coming year.

TS4A is a community of practice organized through DLF focused on supporting archives and technology workers, management, and leadership. TS4A is open to anyone interested in these topics regardless of formal role, experience, or institutional affiliation.

This month’s open DLF group meetings:

For the most up-to-date schedule of DLF group meetings and events (plus NDSA meetings, conferences, and more), bookmark the DLF Community Calendar. Can’t find meeting call-in information? Email us at info@diglib.org

DLF groups are open to ALL, regardless of whether or not you’re affiliated with a DLF member institution. Learn more about our working groups and how to get involved on the DLF website. Interested in starting a new working group or reviving an older one? Need to schedule an upcoming working group call? Check out the DLF Organizer’s Toolkit to learn more about how Team DLF supports our working groups, and send us a message at info@diglib.org to let us know how we can help.

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Call for Co-chairs for 2023 Storage Survey https://www.diglib.org/call-for-co-chairs-for-2023-storage-survey/ Wed, 25 Jan 2023 17:11:23 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=26211 NDSA is seeking two volunteers from NDSA member organizations to serve as co-chairs for the next iteration of the Storage Survey. Volunteers should be knowledgeable about, and interested in, digital preservation storage and comfortable with co-leading a group to produce and administer a survey, analyze data, and write and publish a report. Prior experience chairing Read More

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NDSA is seeking two volunteers from NDSA member organizations to serve as co-chairs for the next iteration of the Storage Survey. Volunteers should be knowledgeable about, and interested in, digital preservation storage and comfortable with co-leading a group to produce and administer a survey, analyze data, and write and publish a report. Prior experience chairing an NDSA group is not necessary, and NDSA Leadership will provide guidelines for the co-chairs.

Responsibilities include:

  • Scheduling and leading meetings
  • Organizing and completing work
  • Setting deadlines and tracking progress
  • Attending monthly NDSA Leadership meetings and communicating with Leadership about Working Group progress

The time commitment will vary based on the number of group members and scope of work.

If you’re interested, please fill out this form by February 15, 2023. 

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NDSA 2022 Year in Review https://www.diglib.org/ndsa-2022-year-in-review/ Fri, 20 Jan 2023 16:43:00 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=26206 As we begin 2023 we wanted to take a moment to look back at NDSA activities over the past year.  Please take a look at the things we’ve accomplished and think about how you can participate this year!   NDSA Leadership This summer, NDSA Leadership went through an facilitated exercise to discuss NDSA strategy and how Read More

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As we begin 2023 we wanted to take a moment to look back at NDSA activities over the past year.  Please take a look at the things we’ve accomplished and think about how you can participate this year!  

NDSA Leadership

This summer, NDSA Leadership went through an facilitated exercise to discuss NDSA strategy and how we engage with the marketplace of digital preservation service providers. One result of this exercise is a refreshed NDSA Foundational Strategy, which includes tweaks to our mission and vision statements, adds Transparency and Openness as values, and now includes operating principles based on our values. These new principles will be used as guidestones as we conclude this work on service provider engagement. In October, NDSA sponsored an open conversation on the Ithaka S+R report, The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems. This conversation provided space for the community to react to the report and discuss its implications, you can read a summary on the NDSA News blog.

Membership Updates 

Following our new quarterly membership review process, we welcomed a total of 15 new members, with 5 of those being international members from Africa (3), Iceland, and Mexico. We look forward to working with and learning from our new members.   

As existing members, the new year is a good time to make sure your organization’s  contact information is up to date. A simple form is available to assist with this process.  

Interest Groups

Content Interest Group

  • During 2022 one of our co-chairs, Deb Verhoff stepped down and we welcomed Deon Schutte who now, together with Brenda Burk leads the content interest group.
  • Nathan Tallman spoke to us about appraisal and selection for digital preservation at our first meeting in February. 
  • At our May meeting we officially said goodbye to Deb Verhoff and had an interesting discussion about the new forms of content that are created in news organizations and the implications thereof for digital preservation.
  • Dealing with content that has both cultural and ethical concerns, as well as offensive content was the topic of the presentation and discussion led by the University of Cape Town during the August meeting. Andrea Walker, an archivist from the University of Cape Town spoke to us about an ongoing digital curation project involving the ǂKhomani San.
  • Our last meeting of 2022 was a casual affair with new members to the NDSA (those who joined in 2022) coming to tell us about themselves and their organizations. We look forward to interacting with and learning from them during 2023.

Infrastructure Interest Group

In 2022, the Infrastructure Interest Group met quarterly and focused on exploring topics of common interest through invited presentations, solution sessions where members bring their challenges and questions to the group, article discussions, and an in person event at DigiPres2022. Topics explored included:

  • Oxford Common File Layout (OCFL) and Implementation presented by Andrew Woods, Princeton University
  • Geographic Distribution in Cloud Environments
    • Presentation “Calculating the Costs of Redundant Storage” by Martha Anderson, University of Arkansas
    • Presentation and facilitated discussion on distributed cloud storage by Leslie Johnson, Director of Digital Preservation at NARA
  • Discussion post review of:
    • The Digital Preservation Declaration of Shared Values put forth by the Digital Preservation Services Collaborative
    • Preservica’s Charter for Long-Term Digital Preservation Sustainability
  • Solution Discussion Topics
    • Non-public sharing of digital born materials
    • Potential use of W3C’s Screen Capture for digital preservation
    • Secondary server storage

Standards and Practice Interest Group

  • Standards and Practices welcomed a new co-chair, Ann Hanlon (UWM), who joined continuing co-chair, Felicity Dykas. 
  • The Standards and Practices Interest Group held quarterly meetings, with the following agendas:.
    • January: A presentation by Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig, Digital Archivist at the Smithsonian, on preservation standards for digital video files. It was well attended and provided quite a bit of useful information.
    • April: A working session to identify glossaries that address terminology used in digital preservation. This will be re-reviewed and posted in 2023.
    • July: We discussed staffing for digital preservation, using two slides from the Staffing Survey questionnaire as a jumping off point. Attendees expressed challenges with staffing, and noted different staffing models.
    • October: We ended the year with a presentation on the Digital Preservation Coalition Competency Audit Toolkit (DPC CAT) given by Amy Currie and Sharon McMeekin of DPC. We appreciated the preview on the Toolkit, which was publicly released shortly after the meeting. 

Working Groups

Communication and Publications Working Group

The Communications and Publications group works to support Leadership and co-chairs of the Interest and Working groups through creating documentation, updating the website, and posting to social media and the NDSA blog.  The items below are highlights of completed activities in 2022.

DigiPres Conference Organization Committee

  • The 2022 DigiPres Conference was held October 12-13 in Baltimore, Maryland. Highlights from the conference can be found in this wrap-up post. The opening plenary video will be released soon, keep your eyes open for an announcement.
  • A virtual session to accommodate additional sessions from the 2022 Conference is being planned for February 2023.  
  • The 2023 DigiPres Conference will be held at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri on November 15-16.

Excellence Awards Working Group

  • In line with our new working agreement with the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), only the DPC Digital Preservation Awards were awarded in 2022.  In 2023, the NDSA Excellence Awards will be presented at the annual Digital Preservation conference.  
  • If you are interested in participating in this group, keep your eyes out for a call for participation!

Levels of Digital Preservation

  • The steering group has established a Levels of Preservation ‘office hour’. This is held once every 2 months and provides a forum for members of the community to drop in and discuss the Levels and ask questions. Specific topics covered within these sessions include a focus on community archives and their use of the levels and a discussion about documentation. Do come along to future ‘office hour’ sessions – we would love to see you there! (See the NDSA Calendar of Events for specific dates)
  • We were excited to cheer the Levels of Preservation all the way to the quarter finals of World Cup of Digital Preservation! Unfortunately they were beaten in the semi-finals by PRONOM which then went on to win the tournament! 
  • A Dutch translation of the NDSA Levels has been published. A big thank you to Lotte Wijsman for providing this!
  • The group continues to respond to comment and feedback on the Levels. Do use our feedback form if you would like to share your thoughts on the Levels and associated resources with the steering group.

Membership Working Group

  • A newly formed Membership Working Group grew out of the 2021 Membership Task Force, which conducted a survey on a wide range of membership issues, and published a report on their findings.
  • We will build our work around the findings of the report published by the Membership Task Force. 
  • If you are interested in joining this working group, we are still recruiting participants, please see our call to get involved!

Staffing Survey

  • The 2021 Staffing Survey Report was published in August. The report documents survey responses from 269 individuals, covering topics such as digital preservation activities and staffing qualifications. Additional information for review, including the Survey codebook and data files, are also available in the NDSA OSF.
  • In September, members of the Staffing Survey Working Group presented a peer-reviewed panel presentation at iPres in Glasgow, Scotland. A short paper is available in the conference proceedings (p. 424). An additional presentation at the DigiPres conference in October led to an engaging audience conversation about digital preservation staffing.

Web Archiving Survey

  • The Web Archiving Survey Group was re-established to refresh the survey which was last distributed in 2017
  • 190 survey responses were received — 72.6% from institutions and individuals in the United States, and 27.4% from international institutions and individuals
  • The report is currently being worked on and we are aiming for a Spring 2023 release!

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Legal and Ethical Considerations for Providing Access to Born-Digital Collections: Copyright https://www.diglib.org/legal-and-ethical-considerations-for-providing-access-to-born-digital-collections-copyright/ Fri, 13 Jan 2023 13:00:22 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=26025 This blog is part four of a series comprising a set of primers that address ten complex legal and ethical issues encountered when providing access to born-digital archival records. The guidance is grounded in two foundational beliefs: 1. There is a potential to harm individuals, communities, and institutions if access is not thoughtfully and strategically Read More

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This blog is part four of a series comprising a set of primers that address ten complex legal and ethical issues encountered when providing access to born-digital archival records. The guidance is grounded in two foundational beliefs: 1. There is a potential to harm individuals, communities, and institutions if access is not thoughtfully and strategically viewed through an ethical and legal lens; and 2. It is not ethical to restrict access unnecessarily. For more information see: https://osf.io/ketr7/.


Overview

Copyright in the United States is defined as, “A form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for “original works of authorship”… “Copyright” literally means the right to copy but has come to mean that body of exclusive rights granted by law to copyright owners for protection of their work” (U.S. Copyright Office).

Archives are filled with copyrighted materials, and Archivists have been providing access to them for years. So what is different about born-digital archives, and what do we need to consider when providing access to them? 

The method of access that is unique to digital content. Namely that it must be rendered using a machine, and this machine rendering requires multiple copies to be made. Section 108 of the US Copyright Statute authorizes libraries and archives to make copies for preservation and access purposes, but there are limitations to this provision that have serious legal consequences for born-digital access.

The access affordances that are unique to digital content. It can be reproduced and distributed online more easily than physical material, and therefore has the potential to reach a wide public audience. If made openly available online without clearly articulated access, use, and takedown policies, this level of visibility increases the likelihood that a copyright holder will challenge the repository (Hirtle 2015, 2).

The scope of copyrighted material that is unique to born-digital collections. Like most archival collections, modern born-digital collections often largely comprise unpublished material. Additionally, they are usually sizable, and are likely to contain works by more creators than physical collections, which is particularly true for collections containing email. Donors can only transfer copyright or license use of the email messages they authored, not the messages they received. Thus, it is reasonable to expect an email archive to contain copyrighted materials from hundreds or thousands of authors (Briston 2015, 26). This presents a logistical challenge for institutions seeking to provide online public access to this material.

Most likely to come up in

  • Collections consisting largely of material that was created for commercial intent, such as photography collections, literary papers, and papers of artists, musicians, etc.
  • Collections containing email
  • Corporate archives

Actions for the institution to take

Avoid acquiring collections from donors who impose reproduction and/or use restrictions.

Negotiate open licenses with donors if the donor owns copyright. As the majority of born-digital records were created after 1989, most born-digital collections comprise comparatively “young” materials that are about 30 years old or less (as of the publication of this document). Thus, copyright for these collections may generally begin to expire around 2070 (for earlier digital records), but can extend to 2140 or later (for more recently created records).[1] Traditional donation agreements prompt donors to retain copyright by default. To promote broad use of collections, talk with donors about the implications of retaining copyright, such as increased barriers to access due to Section 108 of the US Copyright Statute (see below), as well as general barriers to diverse use of the material. Pursue one of several avenues:

Ask the donor to transfer or license copyright to the institution upon donation, after a specified period of time after donation (i.e. 20 years), or upon the donor’s death. This could be accomplished either with an exclusive or non-exclusive license. A non-exclusive license gives the institution the rights they need for their educational and/or research mission, and the donor is happy to still have “control of the rights.” This is an especially useful strategy when the donor still wants to benefit commercially from their materials.

Alternatively, ask the donor to license their works under a Creative Commons license, such as a CC BY attribution license (users must credit the creator) or a CC0 dedication (gives copyright to the public domain). (Callahan 2019). Document the terms of license in the deed of gift.

  • Or consider a compromise between the two options above: ask the donor to transfer copyright to the institution, and the institution pledges to release it under a CC-BY attribution license.[2]

Develop and/or update the following policies that impact access to and use of copyrighted born-digital records. Ask for these to be vetted by legal counsel.

  • Reproduction and use policy. This clarifies that it is the user’s responsibility to evaluate fair use and/or obtain permission to use reproductions if their intended use is beyond the scope of fair use.
  • Online access disclaimer on digital collections site. A boilerplate note stating that the institution makes the content available for educational and/or research purposes, and clarifies the user’s responsibilities if they intend to use the content (perhaps linking back to your reproduction and use policy).[3]
  • Deed of gift or an addendum to the deed that specifically addresses born-digital. This should clarify transfer or non-transfer of copyright, include permission to provide online access to born-digital content by default, document any donor-applied access restrictions, and specify that the institution has permission to circumvent encryption and password protections for the purposes of preservation and access. The deed of gift must be completed prior to accessioning.[4]

Support staff responsible for acquisition, processing, and preservation in developing an understanding of Digital Rights Management (DRM), as software subject to technological protection measures may show up in archival collections, and sometimes is preserved to provide access to born-digital material.[5]

Actions for the archivist to take

Document copyright ownership during the acquisition or accessioning phase. While it is not the Archivist’s responsibility to research and identify the copyright holder on behalf of the user and/or determine if their use violates copyright law, documenting the copyright owner supports use of collection material by both the user and the institution.

Undertake a fair use assessment before making born-digital records available online. Does copyright law impact your ability to reproduce and provide access to it under fair use? Maintain documentation of this assessment.

Maintain consistent documentation of the research, reasoning, and justification behind decisions to make born-digital content available in the specific way it is made available, such as via a publicly accessible online platform. Documentation demonstrates diligence of the investigation and helps to support the fair use determination if it is called into question.

Consider your resources and plan strategically. If making born-digital records available online, it is necessary to carefully consider the immense amount of labor typically required to research copyright status and owner, obtain authorization to publish (if necessary), and create item-level metadata as it pertains to copyright.

Technical Infrastructure

See Recommendations For All Collections section in this document.

Legal considerations

There are three sections of US copyright law that specifically impact born-digital access: Section 108, Section 107 (Fair Use), and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Section 108: Section 108 of title 17 of the US Copyright Statute went into effect on January 1, 1978. It supplements the exemptions in Section 107, by providing limited exceptions for libraries and archives to reproduce and distribute copyrighted material for the purposes of preservation, replacement, and to fulfill patron requests, without seeking permission from the copyright holder. The purposes and limitations that are most relevant to born-digital access are:

Patron requests: only certain types of works can be reproduced in response to patron requests under Section 108. Most audiovisual works including musical and motion picture works, and pictorial and graphic works are not covered. Theremore, most textual works are allowed to be reproduced for patrons if the other requirements in the section are met (Hirtle, Hudson, Kenyon 2009, 117). For instance, a library may reproduce a section of unpublished emails in a collection for a patron if the following conditions are met: the emails are not available elsewhere “at a reasonable price,” once reproduced they become the “property” of the patron (i.e. they are delivered to them), a copyright notice is included in the reproduction order form, and the patron acknowledges that the reproduction is for private study, scholarship or research purposes.

  • Preservation and replacement: Section 108 also provides exemptions for up to three copies (including digital copies) of a copyrighted work to be made for preservation purposes, and for a replacement copy (including a digital copy) if the work is manifested in an obsolete format. However, digital copies made for preservation and replacement cannot be subsequently distributed in digital format, nor can the digital copy be used “outside the premises” of the institution. Thus, these copies cannot be made available to patrons remotely under provisions of Section 108. (However, this purpose may be exempted under Fair Use. See below.)

Section 108 was not created with digital content in mind, and it leaves a lot to be desired in how copyrighted works are preserved, accessed, and used. By necessity, archivists must make multiple copies of born-digital records, often more than three, in order to acquire, process, preserve, and make them accessible. Furthermore, the exceptions in Section 108 do not cover remote public access to unpublished material in an online environment, such as on a publically accessible digital collections site or virtual reading room.[6] (However, if the institution takes measures to limit remote access to communities that are not considered the public at large (i.e. members of a university community), the exceptions provided in Section 108 may provide safe harbor for online access to such material.) The Library of Congress convened a Section 108 Study Group in 2005 to update the provision for the digital age. The group issued their report in 2008 but their proposed changes were not adopted. In 2017, the US Copyright Office issued a discussion document that restated the need to update Section 108 to more accurately reflect changes in technology and better support libraries, archives and museums.[7]

Section 107: Archivists rely on fair use to support the provision of remote access. Fair use permits the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. It requires consideration of four factors in evaluating a given use case: 1. the purpose and character of the use; 2. the nature of the copyrighted work; 3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used; and 4. the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work (U.S. Copyright Office). In many circumstances, organizations can legally and ethically provide access to copyrighted materials, including born-digital content, under the allowances of fair use. It is important to note that while born-digital collections may contain a larger quantity of copyrighted works than paper collections, the allowances of fair use still apply regardless of format.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA): The DMCA passed in 1998. It criminalizes circumvention of encryption mechanisms that control access to digital content (Briston 2015, 34). In the context of born-digital archives, this means an archivist cannot legally copy or provide access to an encrypted file unless permission or login info is provided by the copyright holder. This presents a problem for archivists seeking to preserve password-protected or encrypted content, which is particularly challenging to the preservation of software (see below).

Special considerations for software: Software preservation is a necessary aspect of digital preservation and access, yet because most software is copyrighted and much of it is commercially produced, almost every part of the software preservation process can potentially infringe copyright. Institutions generally rely on fair use to support preservation efforts as they largely do not negatively impact the market for the copyrighted software, and preservation is considered transformative in that it serves a different use than the original market purpose (Aufderheide, Butler, Cox, Jaszi 2019).

Additionally, software preservation often requires circumvention of “technological protection measures” (such as a password or product key), thereby violating DMCA. However, the Library of Congress has adopted  temporary exemptions for libraries and archives to make these circumventions under certain conditions. These exemptions are reviewed every three years in a rulemaking proceeding. The latest proceeding in 2021 upheld these exemptions until October 21, 2024 (U.S. Copyright Office).

Ethical considerations

“…many of the issues that archivists face in managing rights are not matters of law, but of professional ethics. The financial damage that can accrue from reproducing an unregistered work is likely to be almost nothing, but the possible damage to an institution’s reputation may be great if it acts without due regard for both those who created materials and for those who use them” (Hirtle 2015, 5).

Copyright concerns around access to born-digital archives are complex and uncertain. But this uncertainty should not rationalize conservative access restrictions. Following standards of practice arrived at by consensus in archival and library communities, such as ARL’s Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, and taking a reasonable approach to access supports ethical access to copyrighted born-digital records.

Case study

Google v. Oracle (2020-2021). See Butler, Brandon. “Google v. Oracle: Takeaways for Software Preservation, Cultural Heritage, and Fair Use Generally.” Software Preservation Network, June 3, 2021. Available at https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/google-v-oracle-takeaways-for-software-preservation-cultural-heritage-and-fair-use-generally-2021-reflection/

Works Cited

Aufderheide, Patricia, Bradon Butler, Krista Cox, Peter Jaszi. Code of best practices in fair use for software preservation. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries; 2019

Briston, Heather. “Understanding Copyright Law.” In Rights in the Digital Era, edited by Behrnd-Klodt, Menzi L., and Christopher J. Prom. Chicago: SAA, 2015.

Callahan, Maureen and Heather Briston. “Radical Access—Leveraging Creative Commons Licenses to Open up Archives.” Presentation in OCLC Works In Progress series. OCLC, 2019. Available at https://www.oclc.org/research/events/2019/121019-leveraging-creative-commons-licenses-open-archives.html

Hirtle, Peter B. “Introduction.” In Rights in the Digital Era, edited by Behrnd-Klodt, Menzi L., and Christopher J. Prom. Chicago: SAA, 2015.

Hirtle, Peter B., Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon. Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library, 2009. (Note: chapter 6 provides an excellent overview of Section 108.)

U.S. Copyright Office. “More Information on Fair Use.” Accessed May 4, 2022. Available at https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html

U.S. Copyright Office. “Section 1201 Exemptions to Prohibition Against Circumvention of Technological Measures Protecting Copyrighted Works.” Accessed May 4, 2022. Available at https://www.copyright.gov/1201/2021/?loclr=eanco

U.S. Copyright Office. “U.S. Copyright Office Definitions.” Accessed April 27, 2022. Available at https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/definitions.html

Additional Resources

Copyright and Fair Use

Briston, Heather. “Contracts, Intellectual Property, and Privacy.” In The Digital Archives Handbook, edited by Aaron D. Purcell. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use For Academic and Research Libraries. Association of Research Libraries, 2012. Available at https://publications.arl.org/code-fair-use/

“Copyright 101: Everything You Wanted to Know About Copyright But Were Afraid To Ask.” ALA Office for Information Technology Policy, Copyright Advisory Committee and Copyright Advisory Network Team, and Office of Government Relations Committee on Legislation, Intellectual Property Subcommittee. Available at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/copyright/Section108.pdf

Hirtle, Peter B. “Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States.” Cornell University Library. Available at  https://copyright.cornell.edu/publicdomain

U.S. Copyright Office. “Revising Section 108: Copyright Exceptions for Libraries and Archives.” Accessed May 4, 2022. Available at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/section108/

The National Archives. “Copyright.” Accessed April 27, 2022. Available at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/legal/copyright/

Digital Preservation and Access Workflows

Leventhal, Aliza, Laura Schroffel and Jody Thompson. “Deeds of Gift as a Tool to Facilitate born-digital Design File Processing and Preservation.” Society of American Archivists, April 2019. Available at https://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/Leventhal_Schroffel_Thompson_Deeds%20FINAL.pdf

“Responsible Access Workflows.” University of California Berkeley Library, 2021. Available at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1V66PGpIq9xqXxdvngpD3rkAMoIw2hIyVVDS4Iv4VFOM/edit#slide=id.g7ffa9d7047_0_2

“UCLA Library Special Collection Risk Assessment Guidelines.” University of California Los Angeles Library. Available at https://www.library.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/Guidelines_RiskAssessment.pdf

“Well-intentioned practice for putting digitized collections of unpublished materials online.” OCLC Research, revised May 29, 2010. Available at http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/rights/practice.pdf

Software and DMCA

Albert, Kendra, Daina Bouquin, Farber Alena, and Russell Hoover. “Copyright Guide for Scientific Software.” Software Preservation Network, 2019. Available at https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/copyright-guide-for-scientific-software/

Albert, Kendra and Kee Young Lee. “A Preservationist’s Guide to the DMCA Exemption for Software Preservation.” Software Preservation Network, December 10, 2018. Available at https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/a-preservationists-guide-to-the-dmca-exemption-for-software-preservation/

Enriquez, Ana. (2022, August 15). Section 108 and Software Collections: A Users Guide. Software Preservation Network. https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/section-108-and-software-collections-a-users-guide/

Contributors

Primary Author of this section: Kate Dundon, Supervisory Archivist, University of California, Santa Cruz
Co-Authors: Jessika Drmacich, Jess Farrell, Christina Velazquez Fidler, Hannah Wang, Camille Tyndall Watson

Thank you to the many community contributors for feedback and edits to Legal and Ethical Considerations for Born-Digital Access, from which this post was derived.

DISCLAIMER: This text has been reviewed and feedback incorporated from library professionals with legal expertise, but it was not originally drafted by a lawyer and is not legal advice. Please use this as a starting point to understand the issues, but always consult your local legal counsel or other support system as you make access decisions around born-digital collections.

——

[1] Copyright for born-digital records in the United States will expire according to the following terms most of the time: Unpublished born-digital content: 70 years after the death of author, or 120 years from date of creation if unknown author or work of corporate authorship. Published born-digital content: 70 years after the death of author, or 95 years from publication if work of corporate authorship. Copyright terms may be different in other jurisdictions. Other possibilities exist such as Crown Copyright in the UK, Canada, Australia. For example, in the UK such materials are typically released under the Open Government License.

[2] Licensing options were contributed by Kyle K. Courtney, Copyright Advisor and Program Manager at Harvard University.

[3] See the UCLA digital collections copyright statement for a good example that can be modified for born-digital. Available at: https://digital.library.ucla.edu/copyright_and_collections. Also see pg. 64 in Rights in the Digital Era for another version.

[4] For sample deeds of gift, see pg.116-117 in Rights in the Digital Era. Also see Appendix F: Policies, Templates, Documents, etc. in AIMS Born-Digital Collections: An Inter-Institutional Model for Stewardship. Available at: http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/aims/whitepaper/AIMS_final.pdf

[5] Digital rights management (commonly known as DRM and sometimes called technological protection measures, or TPMs) control access to computer programs by requiring a user to do something before allowing the user to use the program. See Digital Millennium Copyright Act below.

[6] See 17 U.S.C. § 108(b)(2): “any such copy or phonorecord that is reproduced in digital format is not otherwise distributed in that format and is not made available to the public in that format outside the premises of the library or archives.”

[7] Section 108 of Title 17: a discussion document of the register of copyrights. Available at: https://www.copyright.gov/policy/section108/discussion-document.pdf

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NDSA’s Digital Preservation Virtual Event! https://www.diglib.org/ndsas-digital-preservation-virtual-event/ Thu, 12 Jan 2023 18:03:26 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=26009 NDSA will be hosting a virtual event on February 23, 2023, for those presenters who were unable to participate in the in-person conference in Baltimore last fall. The event, held in collaboration with our host organization, CLIR, will consist of panels and presentations and will take place over Zoom Events. The schedule for this event Read More

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NDSA will be hosting a virtual event on February 23, 2023, for those presenters who were unable to participate in the in-person conference in Baltimore last fall. The event, held in collaboration with our host organization, CLIR, will consist of panels and presentations and will take place over Zoom Events. The schedule for this event is available on the website while information regarding registration is forthcoming.  Please mark your calendars and plan to join us for this special online event! All sessions will be free and open to the public.

CLIR will also host virtual presentations in April; more information about that program can be found on the DLF Forum Virtual Sessions web page.

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Call for applications: 2023 DLF GLAM Cross-Pollinator Registration Awards https://www.diglib.org/call-for-applications-2023-dlf-glam-cross-pollinator-registration-awards/ Mon, 09 Jan 2023 14:00:40 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25777 The Digital Library Federation (DLF) is pleased to announce the return of the GLAM Cross-Pollinator Registration Awards in 2023. Initially supported by generous Kress grants from 2015-2017, the DLF Cross-Pollinator program, in partnership with other GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) organizations, endeavors to build bridges among our communities, bring new voices and perspectives to Read More

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GLAM Cross-Pollinators

The Digital Library Federation (DLF) is pleased to announce the return of the GLAM Cross-Pollinator Registration Awards in 2023. Initially supported by generous Kress grants from 2015-2017, the DLF Cross-Pollinator program, in partnership with other GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) organizations, endeavors to build bridges among our communities, bring new voices and perspectives to the DLF Forum, and continue our efforts at “cross-pollination” by sending DLF practitioners to valuable conferences they might not otherwise attend. We are thrilled to welcome a new partner in 2023, the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T), as well as partner once again with Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L).

GLAM Cross-Pollinator awards cover the cost of registration for awardees affiliated with a DLF member organization at one partner conference and can be applied retroactively for a full refund if payment has already been submitted. The 2023 partner conference locations and dates are:

Applications for members of ER&L, ARLIS/NA, and ASIS&T to attend the 2023 DLF Forum will open this spring. Subscribe to the DLF Forum Newsletter for updates as they become available.

Award winners for all opportunities will be selected by CLIR/DLF staff in consultation with partner organizations. You may apply for multiple awards, but preference will be given to applicants who have not yet been a GLAM Cross-Pollinator Fellow.

Application deadline for both the ER&L and ARLIS/NA conferences is Friday, February 3, 2023.

Additional information on awards and eligibility, including a link to the lightweight application form, can be found on the GLAM Cross-Pollinators program page

Questions? Contact us at awards@diglib.org

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[Free Webinar] Learn how to leverage XML for journal discoverability and preservation https://www.diglib.org/free-webinar-learn-how-to-leverage-xml-for-journal-discoverability-and-preservation/ Thu, 05 Jan 2023 13:00:40 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25655 This post was contributed by Scholastica who is co-hosting this webinar with DLF members University of Oregon and George Washington University. Calling all library journal editors and publishing personnel! Are you trying to expand the readership of one or more scholarly journals you work with? There’s an upcoming webinar that can help! On January 19th Read More

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This post was contributed by Scholastica who is co-hosting this webinar with DLF members University of Oregon and George Washington University.


Calling all library journal editors and publishing personnel! Are you trying to expand the readership of one or more scholarly journals you work with? There’s an upcoming webinar that can help!

On January 19th at 4 PM ET / 1 PM PT, Scholastica, UOregon Libraries, and the George Washington University Masters in Publishing program are co-hosting “When XML Marks the Spot: Machine-readable journal articles for discovery and preservation.” The educational webinar will cover why depositing articles into relevant indexes and archives is paramount to journal discoverability and preservation and how XML can support your efforts. This webinar is free and open to anyone interested in attending.

Click here to register for the webinar! Everyone will get a link to the full recording.

 

Webinar overview

Depositing journal articles into relevant academic indexes and archives presents a treasure trove of opportunities to expand their discoverability and reputation while ensuring long-term content preservation. Indexes and archives serve as valuable distribution channels, and inclusion in selective ones (e.g., PubMed Central) signals research quality. You may have heard about Extensible Markup Language (a.k.a. XML), one of the primary machine-readable formats academic databases use to ingest content, and wonder if that’s something you need to reach your journal indexing and archiving goals.

During this webinar, representatives from journal publishing technology provider Scholastica will cover why depositing articles into relevant indexes and archives is paramount to journal discoverability and how XML can help, including:

  • The different types of XML used by indexes and archives (with an overview of Journal Article Tag Suite a.k.a. JATS formatting)
  • How producing article-level metadata and/or full-text XML can help unlock journal discovery and archiving opportunities with examples
  • Additional benefits of XML for journal accessibility as well as publishing program and professional development 
  • When XML is needed and when it may not be the best use of journal resources
  • Ways to produce XML, including an overview of Scholastica’s digital-first production service

Following the presentation, there will be time for live Q&A with the Scholastica team, UOregon librarians, and GWU publishing program faculty, so bring your questions!

 

Register for the webinar

By the end of this webinar, attendees will come away with a solid understanding of what XML is, how it factors into journal archiving and indexing, and when and how to leverage XML to reach different journal archiving and indexing goals.

We invite you to register for the webinar here. Even if you can’t make the live presentation, everyone who signs up will get a link to the full Zoom recording.

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Call for Volunteers for the NDSA DigiPres 2023 Planning Committee https://www.diglib.org/call-for-volunteers-for-the-ndsa-digipres-2023-planning-committee/ Wed, 04 Jan 2023 21:49:37 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25660 The NDSA calls for volunteers to join our Planning Committee for Digital Preservation 2023. Digital Preservation (DigiPres) is the NDSA’s annual conference – open to members and non-members alike – focused on stewardship, curation, and preservation of digital information and cultural heritage. The 2023 meeting will take place on November 15-16, 2023, in St. Louis, Read More

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The NDSA calls for volunteers to join our Planning Committee for Digital Preservation 2023.

Digital Preservation (DigiPres) is the NDSA’s annual conference – open to members and non-members alike – focused on stewardship, curation, and preservation of digital information and cultural heritage. The 2023 meeting will take place on November 15-16, 2023, in St. Louis, Missouri, just after the DLF Forum. 

NDSA is an affiliate of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and the Digital Library Federation (DLF), and the DigiPres conference is held in concert with the annual DLF Forum. 

Planning Committee responsibilities include:

  • Defining a vision for the conference
  • Crafting and distributing a Call for Proposals
  • Reviewing and selecting proposals
  • Identifying a keynote speaker
  • Determining the conference schedule
  • Moderating sessions
  • Supporting membership through recruitment and mentorship efforts
  • Collaborating with the DLF Forum planning committee on community events, equity and inclusion, and sponsorship opportunities

We expect to have monthly group calls from February-December, with some periods being busier than others. For instance, in the months of May-June 2023, there will be an uptick in the work during the period where we create the schedule as it requires concentrated effort.

Join us by completing this form by Friday, January 21st, and please share widely.

We look forward to working with you!

~ Stacey Erdman, 2023 Chair

~ Deirdre Joyce, 2023 Vice-Chair/2024 Chair

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DLF Digest: January 2023 https://www.diglib.org/dlf-digest-january-2023/ Wed, 04 Jan 2023 13:00:33 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25638 A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation. This month’s news: In December, CLIR announced recipients for its Pocket Burgundy publication series. Reports from the publication series will be published in 2024. Read on about the selected projects on CLIR’s website. Congratulations to Read More

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DLF Digest

A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation.


This month’s news:

  • In December, CLIR announced recipients for its Pocket Burgundy publication series. Reports from the publication series will be published in 2024. Read on about the selected projects on CLIR’s website.
  • Congratulations to DLF Digital Library Pedagogy Group and Digital Accessibility Working Group leader Alex Wermer-Colan for being named Technical.ly’s 2022 Tech Community Leader of the Year for his work with Philly Community Wireless, a community-based effort bringing free mesh internet infrastructure to neighborhoods in North Philadelphia.
  • CLIR will be closed Monday, January 16 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

This month’s DLF group events:

DLF Museums Cohort & ARLIS/NA Museum Library Division joint meeting

Tuesday, January 24, 2 pm ET/11 am PT; contact info@diglib.org for call-in information

Join the Museums Cohort and ARLIS/NA’s Museum Library Division as we host a discussion on developing diverse library collections and diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) practices with Jennifer Riestenberg of the Walker Art Center. 

This month’s open DLF group meetings:

For the most up-to-date schedule of DLF group meetings and events (plus NDSA meetings, conferences, and more), bookmark the DLF Community Calendar. Can’t find meeting call-in information? Email us at info@diglib.org

DLF groups are open to ALL, regardless of whether or not you’re affiliated with a DLF member institution. Learn more about our working groups and how to get involved on the DLF website. Interested in starting a new working group or reviving an older one? Need to schedule an upcoming working group call? Check out the DLF Organizer’s Toolkit to learn more about how Team DLF supports our working groups, and send us a message at info@diglib.org to let us know how we can help. 

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NDSA Welcomes Two New Members https://www.diglib.org/ndsa-welcomes-two-new-members-2/ Tue, 20 Dec 2022 14:20:51 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25648 As of 13 December 2022, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome two recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our Read More

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As of 13 December 2022, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome two recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members.

Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University‘s library has been involved in digital preservation work for over a decade, primarily preserving master digitized files and in recent years, accepting more and more born-digital manuscript items and web archives. Their archive currently holds 87 TB and about 2.5 million files, and they currently add between ten and fifteen TB each year. They are growing their Digital Initiatives department, and seeking to better develop policies, workflows, systems, and outreach in order to ensure the longevity of their important digital collections. They are looking forward to engaging with national peers in the conversations, research, collaborations, and initiatives surrounding the art of digital preservation.

KRIA: The Icelandic Constitution Archives

KRIA is a community effort to gather and make openly available the content around the citizen-driven Icelandic constitutional reform process. In 2011, Iceland rewrote its constitution using an historically open approach. This offered an inspiring new way to think about how citizens can participate in policy reform using available technology. What resulted was a draft constitution that was affirmed by a public referendum. Iceland’s proposed constitution has not yet been ratified by Althingi (the Icelandic Parliament), but the initiative is still alive and gaining international attention. However, the ephemeral nature of digital-born content poses a threat to the constitutional process materials safety and public access. The KRIA archive hopes to make this information available as a resource for the community, scholars, and future generations. Among the partners in this effort are the Icelandic Constitutional Society, Icelandic National Archives, the University of Washington, the University of Iceland, and peace building nonprofit Build Up.

 

~ posted by Hannah Wang, Vice Chair of the NDSA Coordinating Committee

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Bethany Scott Elected 2023 NDSA Vice Chair by Coordinating Committee https://www.diglib.org/bethany-scott-elected-2023-ndsa-vice-chair-by-coordinating-committee/ Mon, 19 Dec 2022 14:00:21 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25644 Bethany Scott, recently elected to a 2023-2025 term on the NDSA Coordinating Committee, has been elected by that committee as it’s 2023 Vice Chair and 2024 Chair. The Vice Chair’s duties include: Managing the annual process to elect new CC members Managing and facilitating the new member application process. Conving quarterly meetings for the Co-Chairs Read More

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Bethany Scott, recently elected to a 2023-2025 term on the NDSA Coordinating Committee, has been elected by that committee as it’s 2023 Vice Chair and 2024 Chair. The Vice Chair’s duties include:

  • Managing the annual process to elect new CC members
  • Managing and facilitating the new member application process.
  • Conving quarterly meetings for the Co-Chairs of Working Groups and Interest Groups.
  • Participating in quarterly meetings between NDSA and CLIR.
  • Ensuring the NDSA Code of Conduct is carried out, receives and responds to conduct claims, along with the Chair.

Bethany Scott  is the Head of Preservation & Reformatting at the University of Houston Libraries. In this role she provides strategic leadership for the Libraries’ physical and digital preservation programs, and digitization and reformatting services for the Libraries and its patrons. Bethany also serves as Product Owner of the Libraries’ open-source digital access and preservation ecosystem, which incorporates Avalon, Hyrax, Archivematica, and ArchivesSpace. Her areas of expertise include digital preservation, born-digital archives, scanning and imaging, and reuse of archival metadata.

Please join me in congratulating Bethany on this new role!

 

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Reflections from the Open Conversation on the ITHAKA S+R Report: The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems https://www.diglib.org/reflections-from-the-open-conversation-on-the-ithaka-sr-report-the-effectiveness-and-durability-of-digital-preservation-and-curation-systems/ Fri, 16 Dec 2022 15:45:07 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25641 On October 26, 2022, NDSA hosted an open conversation for the community to discuss the impact of the ITHAKA S+R report, “The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems.” Seventy-four individuals participated in a lively discussion, and notes were recorded in an open Google Doc. Comments from the Zoom chat were also anonymized Read More

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On October 26, 2022, NDSA hosted an open conversation for the community to discuss the impact of the ITHAKA S+R report, “The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems.” Seventy-four individuals participated in a lively discussion, and notes were recorded in an open Google Doc. Comments from the Zoom chat were also anonymized and added to the document after the event.

NDSA Leadership was keen to share some valuable themes and takeaways from this conversation, in hopes that it will surface some of the concerns that practitioners have had with the report, and its current and anticipated impact on the NDSA community.

Limitations in the Scope of the Report

Many participants took issue with the scope of the systems studied for the report. The eight systems studied all perform different functions within the digital preservation landscape (ranging from toolkits for processing digital materials to repository platforms to dark archive storage providers) and are not representative of the full range of systems and service providers that are used by cultural heritage organizations. Participants expressed frustration at the loss of nuance in the report’s treatment of digital preservation as a monolith that is not always treated distinctly from digital archives, while also not discussing the role of appraisal at all. There was also significant pushback against the dichotomy of “for-profit” vs. “not-for-profit” that was used to categorize systems throughout the report. This dichotomy glosses over the nuance that exists in these systems (for example, many not-for-profit service providers incorporate commercial elements in their systems, and many for-profit systems use open-source components). It also fails to recognize these systems’ commitments and motivations that are separate from profit. 

Additionally, participants noted that there was a significant but unacknowledged bias toward the digital preservation needs of U.S.-based academic libraries. Participants also felt that the needs of smaller cultural heritage organizations, as well as the work of government agencies, were completely overlooked by the report, and some felt that the open discussion itself replicated the same biases. 

The following quotes are reflections by participants on these limitations:

On the need to disambiguate between different types of collections and activities (particularly appraisal)

  • “Digital preservation is not a big bucket – it’s tiered and different depending on what content and intention you’re talking about.”
  • “[At iPres 2023, we should discuss] how appraisal can assist efforts to become financially and environmentally sustainable and how to get buy in from those not directly involved with digital preservation activities regarding the immense importance of appraisal.”
  • “​​The report lumps all collections together or is very ambiguous, at times it comes across as library collections. We talk about digipres, but then focus on digital archives. When we have roles on, digital preservation has a trajectory and boundaries (that might overlap) but when we talk about them together, it makes it hard establish who needs to do what.”

Regarding the false dichotomy of “for-profit” and “not-for-profit”

  • “Just because something is ‘for-profit’ it doesn’t necessarily mean it is opaque or not transparent. And just because an organization is nonprofit does not necessarily make it transparent either.”
  • “There was a real missed opportunity in the report to talk about the value of having a diverse mix of systems. A wide array of options helps mitigate risk – the report pushes a false dichotomy.”

On the bias toward U.S.-based academic libraries in the report and the discussion

  • “I received a number of questions because the report seems to suggest it reflects the DP community as a whole but the interviews, results seem to focus mostly on academic libraries mostly in the US and the kinds of collections they have which is confusing and potentially misleading.”
  • “It’s challenging to hear these discussions and blow out to the wider cultural heritage landscape. Many small organizations don’t have infrastructure for anything local, they need turnkey solutions, so there is a place for them. It’s an option, and it’s better to take a risk than do nothing.”

The Role of Transparency

Members of the NDSA community recognized that the concept and practice of transparency plays a multifaceted and key role in the digital preservation space. Transparency can be associated with an organization’s or service provider’s willingness and ability to openly communicate a variety of information, ranging from how preservation policies are implemented, to how they’re applied, to current financial standings and anticipated financial conditions in the future. Furthermore, there was recognition that any such aspect of transparency can be significantly influenced both positively and negatively by characteristics of an organization’s stance in the space. For example, an organization with direct responsibilities to other like-minded institutions that are dependent upon its own operational capacity in a distributed preservation network has a greater incentive to be transparent. And as another example, from any service provider’s perspective, transparency depends on having the capacity to communicate granular information about a preservation software platform’s stability or roadmap and associated planning surrounding its future iterations. All of these thoughts surfaced during the open conversation that was conducted. 

The following quotes are reflections by participants on the role of transparency in digital preservation. In addition to these thoughts, participants also expressed concerns about how data for the report was collected.

On the front of system operations and implementation:

  • “There was no discussion of transparency in the report. That has largely arisen from the findings and the data they are built upon. A system’s transparency should be verifiable by the designated community.”

Regarding collaboration with the community:

  • “This report reinforced for me the lack of transparency with commercial vendors, while open source and collaborative projects work to provide access to what’s “behind the curtain” – whether it’s messy or not.”

From the viewpoint of providing services to the community:

  • “As a digital repository where many of our organizations are public/tax payer institutions, we have to be transparent, so it is just as important that we are utilizing systems that are also doing that, [for-]profit or non-profit.”

And with regard to the approaches taken to gathering data for the report, as well as the crossroads of finances and risk mitigation:

  • “Re: statement about inability to examine for-profit systems financials – a cop out. They do have different structures, publicly-owned companies have different transparency requirements than venture-capital funded companies. Digipres is about risk mitigation, we need to know this info, it factors into the risk.”

The Need for More Advocacy

One of the most prevalent concerns for participants was the effect the report might have on efforts to advocate for digital preservation resources at their own institutions. Of particular concern was the statement in the report that there is little digital preservation work being done – this was surprising to the many people doing this work. Some commenters suggested this statement should be rephrased as “very little digital preservation is happening at many organizations,” or “there are very limited resources to do digital preservation work at cultural heritage organizations.” There was a sense that the report misrepresents the challenges that many face – and are working to surmount – in developing digital preservation programs.

Participants also commented on how the report could negatively impact efforts to advocate for digital preservation resources, especially by casting doubt on open source solutions and community-supported infrastructure. However, not all commenters felt that the report would be a negative in their advocacy efforts; at least two participants, who identified as staff at smaller institutions with nascent digital preservation programs, suggested that the report could help with advocacy efforts within their own institutions. The overwhelming concern expressed by participants, though, was that the report might negatively impact administrative decisions about resources – including staffing – and reinforces misunderstandings about open-source/community-supported platforms versus commercial solutions.

Apart from the Ithaka report itself, participants discussed the need to advocate across different stakeholder groups to improve understanding and support for digital preservation efforts. Several existing reports were highlighted, including the NDSA’s 2021 Staffing Survey and OCLC’s Total Cost of Stewardship report (2021). 

The following quotes are reflections by participants on the need for more advocacy:

Digital preservation is people

  • “A preservation system is not a preservation service. Buying/licensing a system does not make for a local service. This is what is meant by ‘Digital Preservation is people.’”

On the need for top-down advocacy

  • “In a government context, elected officials are very interested in digital preservation. Many state government libraries and archives have been deeply involved in digital preservation for a really long time. It would be nice to hear more from them in NDSA and other communities.”
  • “At one organization who runs a digital preservation service, this report has emphasized the need to put more energy into high-level advocacy for better resourcing digital preservation. The report reinforced misunderstandings of open-source vs commercial solutions. It’s a warning sign that leaders need to step up for digital preservation and its staff.”

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NASIG’s Digital Preservation Committee Creates Model Digital Preservation Policy https://www.diglib.org/nasigs-digital-preservation-committee-creates-model-digital-preservation-policy/ Tue, 13 Dec 2022 15:48:52 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25635 This guest post is from Steve Oberg, Social Media Coordinator at NASIG and Acquisitions and Discovery Services Group Manager at Wheaton College’s Buswell Library. In June of this year, NASIG’s Digital Preservation Committee announced publication of the NASIG Model Digital Preservation Policy, an important new tool designed to help measure, grow, and publicize your organization’s Read More

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This guest post is from Steve Oberg, Social Media Coordinator at NASIG and Acquisitions and Discovery Services Group Manager at Wheaton College’s Buswell Library.

In June of this year, NASIG’s Digital Preservation Committee announced publication of the NASIG Model Digital Preservation Policy, an important new tool designed to help measure, grow, and publicize your organization’s commitment to preserving its scholarship. It includes advice on identifying and taking first steps, as well as more advanced options and activities, and provides opportunities to share and refine professional experiences. Developed in informal collaboration with the Library Publishing Coalition and the Society for Scholarly Publishing, the model policy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License with hopes for wide use or reuse.

“This is a fantastic resource for any organization or institution that wishes to preserve the valuable digital content in its collections and a great example of collaboration between NASIG and its colleagues within the wider information community” said Ted Westervelt, Past President of NASIG.

Jennifer Regala from the American Urological Association said, “Developing a preservation policy is so important for publishers of all kinds. This model policy is the first of its kind. Written with publishers in mind, it is a valuable, accessible tool developed by library preservation experts and library/society/university presses. I applaud NASIG’s leadership in bringing diverse stakeholders together to collaborate in this fruitful way.”

Release of the model policy has generated tremendous interest and stimulated organizations to progress in developing their own policies. The new model policy was featured in well attended sessions at The Charleston Conference in November, as well as at NISO Plus 2022. At the Charleston Conference session, for example, Edinburgh Diamond told attendees how they developed their own policy drawing inspiration from NASIG’s model policy.

NASIG has a strong history of developing resources for the benefit of the broader community. The NASIG Model Digital Preservation Policy complements other publications including its well-regarded Core Competencies for Scholarly Communication Librarians, Core Competencies for Electronic Resources Librarians, and Core Competencies for Print Serials Management.

NASIG is an independent, non-profit organization working to advance and transform the management of information resources. Our ultimate goal is to facilitate and improve the distribution, acquisition, and long-term accessibility of information resources in all formats and business models.

We hope that members of the NDSA community will also find this useful. Questions about the policy can be emailed to info@nasig.org.

~ Posted on behalf of NASIG’s Digital Preservation Committee

 

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Call for Participation: NDSA Membership Working Group https://www.diglib.org/call-for-participation-ndsa-membership-working-group/ Wed, 07 Dec 2022 19:42:01 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25625 Looking to get involved with NDSA in the new year? We’re looking for members who want to be a part of the conversations that shape our membership models going forward. We will discuss: The feasibility of membership fees, such as paid tiers. Affiliate memberships for individuals vs. institutional memberships. Criteria for evaluating new members. Increasing Read More

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Looking to get involved with NDSA in the new year? We’re looking for members who want to be a part of the conversations that shape our membership models going forward.

We will discuss:

  • The feasibility of membership fees, such as paid tiers.
  • Affiliate memberships for individuals vs. institutional memberships.
  • Criteria for evaluating new members.
  • Increasing membership.
  • Early career and student outreach.
  • New member onboarding.

View more about the Membership Working Group here. If you are interested in discussing these issues, please contact Rachel Appel (rappel@upenn.edu) or Stacey Erdman (staceyerdman@arizona.edu). We especially welcome new members. We ask that volunteers remain on this working group for a two-year term. Please let us know by January 17th.

Best,
~Rachel Appel, University of Pennsylvania
~ Stacey Erdman, University of Arizona

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Fellow Reflection: Rolando Rodriguez https://www.diglib.org/fellow-reflection-rolando-rodriguez/ Mon, 05 Dec 2022 13:00:32 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25565 This post was written by Rolando Rodriguez (@bibliothicario), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Student Fellow.  Rolando is pursuing his M.S.I.S. at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill as a Carolina Academic Libraries Associate. Prior to this program, Rolando obtained a master’s degree in philosophy of religion from Yale Divinity School Read More

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Rolando Rodriguez

This post was written by Rolando Rodriguez (@bibliothicario), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Student Fellow

Rolando is pursuing his M.S.I.S. at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill as a Carolina Academic Libraries Associate. Prior to this program, Rolando obtained a master’s degree in philosophy of religion from Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut and worked as an educational coach. Rolando’s professional and research interests primarily revolve around using digital methods and tools to explore the questions pertinent to the humanities and social sciences. He is also passionate about multilingualism and issues of translation within the digital humanities. Rolando serves as an editor for the Programming Historian and the Journal for Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. In his free time, Rolando enjoys reading poetry and philosophy, hiking, and has recently begun building his first cyberdeck computer.


The opportunity to attend the Digital Library Federation’s 2022 Forum provided many highlights. There were serendipitous conversations with individuals I had not expected to see or scholars whose work I have long admired. I cherish the opportunity I had to connect with the other Forum Fellows, share our professional and personal ambitions, and create connections that will hopefully continue years after the conference. The small dance-fest in the Renaissance lounge will also certainly be a long-cherished memory (and hopefully the first of a great DLF Forum tradition!). 

I also think back to one particular session, which has helped me thread many of my thoughts about the conference together: Foundations for Building Community within the Workplace. The three presentations during that session spanned topics such as self care in the workplace, radical interdependence, and institutional knowledge. The teams’ reflections illustrated how each of them had to devise community-based solutions to address institutional needs and issues. Each presentation demonstrated the importance of leaving behind practices that reproduce toxic productivity or individualistic workplace cultures, which tend to produce mass burnout for many involved. I left that session with a reminder that for a community to truly be created in the institutions we find ourselves in, our work and our priorities must center around the very people that are doing that labor: listening, caring, and trusting them. This requires intentional actions of addressing hidden labor, creating networks of trust between colleagues, and transparency. 

Many of us are already aware that it is the communication we share and relationships we establish with faculty, students, or other stakeholders that informs much of the work we do in our institutions: our workshops, digitizing effort, and creation of other resources. Likewise, the only sustainable manner to continue building the future of digital libraries is to honor the rich relationships we share with colleagues, scholars, and collaborators that form the communities we are embedded in. Shouldn’t we then work to include interrogations concerning the equitable distribution of labor or honor colleagues’ expertise (beyond the problematic credential system) when making decisions within our workflows and workplace cultures? I believe our concerns should be on the individuals doing the labor we talk about as much (if not more!) as the labor itself. 

Conferences, like the DLF Forum, provide opportunities to engage in such practices. We carefully listen to the insights of presenters and incorporate their reflections and wisdom into our own work. We often trust the presenters enough to seek further guidance after a session because they inhabit positionalities, experience, or expertise that we don’t. Every now and then, we may seek to challenge thoughts that are potentially harmful to certain populations. Outside of sessions, we may intentionally seek colleagues with whom we wish to to check in and connect. These practices are integral to the formation of a strong scholarly community.

I am thankful for being able to attend the DLF Forum as a Forum Fellow, as I’m left with a series of provocations to guide and form the beginning of my career in digital libraries: What would our workplaces look like if we incorporate just some of these conference practices on a more regular basis? How would our institutions change if our priorities centered people as much as projects? Could we imagine what kind of scholarly community we could create then?


Thank you to Texas Digital Library, sponsor of the 2022 DLF Forum Student Fellowships.

Texas Digital Library

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Fellow Reflection: Robert LaRose https://www.diglib.org/fellow-reflection-robert-larose/ Fri, 02 Dec 2022 13:00:59 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25561 This post was written by Robert LaRose, who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Public Library Fellow. Robert LaRose is a digital curation librarian in The People’s Archive at DC Public Library. Much of his work involves managing the ingest, description, preservation, and access for the library’s digitized and born-digital archival collections. These collections Read More

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Robert LaRoseThis post was written by Robert LaRose, who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Public Library Fellow.

Robert LaRose is a digital curation librarian in The People’s Archive at DC Public Library. Much of his work involves managing the ingest, description, preservation, and access for the library’s digitized and born-digital archival collections. These collections primarily consist of oral histories, photographs, newspapers, audiovisual recordings, and websites related to Washington, DC history and culture. A firm believer in making digitization and digital preservation more accessible to all, Robert has created instructional documents, produced podcasts, and provided public programming on these topics to hundreds of library patrons and staff from across the U.S. Before joining The People’s Archive, he managed DC Public Library’s Memory Lab, a free, publicly available do-it-yourself digitization space. Additionally, he has collaborated with colleagues at DC Public Library and other cultural heritage institutions to train members of the Memory Lab Network on replicating the lab’s model in their own libraries. He holds an MLS from the University of North Texas with a concentration in digital content management and a BA in linguistics from the College of William & Mary. Outside the library, Robert enjoys woodworking, tinkering with obsolete technology, and performing in various musical groups throughout the DC area.


Where will digital objects be in 400 years? This question was on my mind all throughout this year’s DLF Forum, and it highlights two issues that are becoming ever more pressing: The fragility of digital data, and the environmental sustainability of digital preservation (and digital technology more broadly). From the beginning of the week, when a conversation about these topics broke out at the fellows’ breakfast, I could not stop thinking about them for the rest of the conference. Although I started hearing about these issues when I began working in libraries nearly a decade ago, the fellows’ breakfast discussion was particularly influential and set the tone for the rest of my experiences that week. 

Mainstream conversations about humans’ impact on the environment do not typically take into account the carbon footprint made by maintaining storage servers and other infrastructure that supports the digital technology we rely on so heavily. At the breakfast, our discussion about the potential consequences of preserving our digital world drove us to facetiously suggest printing out physical copies of digital material as a more sustainable “preservation” program than backing things up on physical media or in cloud-based systems. Considering the relative stability of paper artifacts compared to that of digital objects (in the absence of adverse climate conditions, at least), this did not seem like such a terrible idea. 

How far will we go to ensure that the files on our hard drives or digital preservation systems last in perpetuity? What are the financial and environmental consequences of utilizing ever greater amounts of cloud storage, which is often maintained by corporations for whom forced obsolescence is profitable and preservation is an afterthought (at best)? As caretakers of digital cultural heritage, we have an obligation to highlight the consumerism that has dominated digital technology, especially cloud-based applications and services. These services are often described as “sustainable”, but they just defer the usage of precious resources from the end user to far-away server farms in an “out of sight, out of mind” fashion. As cloud storage becomes increasingly ubiquitous, it also raises questions about the level of autonomy we have over our data, blurring the line between what is owned by users versus by companies that manage the storage that we use. 

On my last day at the conference, I took the opportunity to visit Baltimore’s iconic Peabody Library during a break. As I admired a 400-year-old book of prayers on display, I thought about what an archived Tweet, a website, a data set, or any other piece of digital history would look like in four centuries. Would it still be as accessible as that book on display? To what lengths will we have to go to make it last that long? What does it really mean to be environmentally sustainable, and how do we balance our sustainability goals with our increasing reliance on digital technology? After our lively chat at the fellows’ breakfast, I found that these issues were only briefly acknowledged during a couple of the conference sessions I attended. I eagerly look forward to further discussion about them at future DLF and NDSA events.

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DLF Digest: December 2022 https://www.diglib.org/dlf-digest-december-2022/ Thu, 01 Dec 2022 13:00:21 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25620 A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation. This month’s news: CLIR and the Software Preservation Network (SPN) recently published Supporting Software Preservation Services in Research and Memory Organizations, a white paper which presents findings from a survey- and interview-based study of software Read More

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DLF Digest
A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation.


This month’s news:

  • CLIR and the Software Preservation Network (SPN) recently published Supporting Software Preservation Services in Research and Memory Organizations, a white paper which presents findings from a survey- and interview-based study of software preservation service providers, including archivists, librarians, preservation specialists, technologists, and other information professionals. Learn more on CLIR’s website.
  • CLIR has announced partnership agreements with the Association of African Universities (AAU), the Réseau francophone numérique (RFN)-AISBL, and the UbuntuNet Alliance to develop Hidden Collections Africa, a new program to advance visibility and access to rare and unique cultural materials held in the continent. Read on for more information about this initiative.
  • Look back at October’s DLF Forum with our series of 2022 Forum Fellow reflections. The final posts in the series will be available this week. Stay tuned to the DLF blog.
  • CLIR offices are closed Thursday, December 22 through Tuesday, January 3.

This month’s DLF group events:

DLF Digital Library Pedagogy Group – #DLFteach Twitter Chat

Tuesday, December 14, 2 pm ET/11 am PT

Join the Digital Library Pedagogy Group for December’s #DLFteach Twitter chat. This month’s topic is TBA, so be on the lookout for updates in group communications and on Twitter from @CLIRDLF

This month’s open DLF group meetings:

For the most up-to-date schedule of DLF group meetings and events (plus NDSA meetings, conferences, and more), bookmark the DLF Community Calendar. Can’t find meeting call-in information? Email us at info@diglib.org

DLF groups are open to ALL, regardless of whether or not you’re affiliated with a DLF member institution. Learn more about our working groups and how to get involved on the DLF website. Interested in starting a new working group or reviving an older one? Need to schedule an upcoming working group call? Check out the DLF Organizer’s Toolkit to learn more about how Team DLF supports our working groups, and send us a message at info@diglib.org to let us know how we can help. 

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Fellow Reflection: Evelynn Cuautle https://www.diglib.org/fellow-reflection-evelynn-cuautle/ Wed, 30 Nov 2022 13:00:58 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25557 This post was written by Evelynn Cuautle (@evelynn_ctle), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Grassroots Archives and Cultural Heritage Organizations Fellow. My name is Evelynn Cuautle and I am a recently graduated (2021) University of California, Irvine, alumna with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Health Policy and a minor in Chicane/Latine Read More

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Evelynn CuautleThis post was written by Evelynn Cuautle (@evelynn_ctle), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Grassroots Archives and Cultural Heritage Organizations Fellow.

My name is Evelynn Cuautle and I am a recently graduated (2021) University of California, Irvine, alumna with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Health Policy and a minor in Chicane/Latine Studies. During my last year as a student, I was an undergraduate Research Fellow for the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School Project (OCS). Since then, I have been a part of the New Visions for Educational Fugitivity Collective, an inter and cross-campus research collective of faculty, graduate and prospective graduate students conducting interdisciplinary educational research on anti-blackness and white supremacist violence in schooling, and alternatives rooted in liberatory models of education. I am also currently an English tutor to international students, aiming to embody the liberatory practices in education I have explored through the OCS archives and the research collective that center students and their own embodied knowledge. Moving forward, I hope to delve further into my growing interests in digital humanities, archives, and public history.


Attending the DLF Forum for the very first time this year was both incredibly memorable and inspiring. All of the presentations I attended struck me in very different ways as a scholar who only relatively recently has had the opportunity to learn about and begin exploring how I would personally like to contribute to digital humanities projects. As a project assistant for the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School Project (O.C.S), a digital humanities project itself, I entered each space of the conference particularly interested in how community involvement and engagement shaped the amazing work of all the speakers.

In this regard, a presentation that particularly moved me was Javier Garibay’s “Choreographing the Archive: rewards and challenges in the Dance Heritage Video Archive”. Garibay’s presentation detailed the expansion and migration of the Dance Heritage Coalition’s dance history video collection to UCS’s Digital Library. In all honesty, my first reaction was more of an emotional one than anything. Listening to Javier’s own participation and commitment to the community of Mexican baile folklórico [folkloric dance] in Southern California, I was reminded of the importance and beauty of representation. Both the concept of representation and accessibility of the collection to these same communities of dance was wonderfully portrayed by Javier’s anecdote in which a community member identified herself as one of the dancers from a dance video from the seventies–if I remember correctly–being shown at an event. In relation to the archival work I have been honored to assist in organizing and the community programming I have contributed to, the same themes of pride, joy, and nostalgia, arise when community members see themselves and reminisce. The potential of the collection as mentioned by Javier includes classroom teaching, pedagogy, and cultural programming. While I made sure to take notes on the challenges in migrating the growing digital collection, the dedication and intentionality with which the community is taken into consideration is a key takeaway of mine from this session.

I also have the DLF Forum to thank for being hosted in Baltimore. It was my first time ever visiting the state of Maryland and I feel grateful to have participated in the conference as a Grassroots Archives and Cultural Heritage Organizations Fellow this year. I loved the group trip with other Forum attendees to Baltimore’s own American Visionary Art Museum on the first day. Though attending museums is always fun, I spent extra time looking at all the brilliant works from self-taught artists with such awe.

Again, I am ever-grateful for the experience of having attended the DLF Forum this year and I hope I attend next year’s conference in St. Louis.

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Fellow Reflection: Clarissa West-White https://www.diglib.org/fellow-reflection-clarissa-west-white/ Mon, 28 Nov 2022 13:00:15 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25559 This post was written by Dr. Clarissa West-White (@clarissawhite), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Fellow. Dr. Clarissa West-White is the University Archivist, Assistant Professor at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. A native of Quincy, Florida, she has degrees in Creative Writing, Curriculum & Instruction English Read More

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Dr. Clarissa West-WhiteThis post was written by Dr. Clarissa West-White (@clarissawhite), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Fellow.

Dr. Clarissa West-White is the University Archivist, Assistant Professor at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. A native of Quincy, Florida, she has degrees in Creative Writing, Curriculum & Instruction English Education and Information from Florida State University. Dr. West-White has experience as a middle and high school English teacher, program coordinator, adult literacy director, university English department chair, and assistant professor and adjunct at a number of public and private universities in the state of Florida and online. She has completed archival projects and served as an education consultant with the U.S. and Florida Department of Education. She has received fellowships and scholarships, including: Robert Frederick Smith Internship, National Museum of African American History & Culture, Smithsonian Institute; Teacher and Librarian Scholarship Recipient, Key West Literary Seminar; National Information Standard Organization (NISO) Plus Scholarship Recipient; Preserving digital Objects With Restricted Resources Institute Recipient; Fulbright-Hays, Turkey. When not at work, Clarissa enjoys spending time with her family, road trips, downtown strolls, traveling, photography and the beach.


Accession numbers. When I transitioned to the library as a Reference Librarian from serving as Department Chair and Assistant Professor of English in 2018, I recall briefly discussing assigning accession numbers to collections with the Curator and University Archivist. I listened. The information nestled in the far, far recesses of my mind as I moved into my new space absorbing data and information, engaging with students and faculty, and attending countless webinars. I also began an online Master of Information program. I cannot recall the subject of accession in any course, which is okay because why would I, a Reference Librarian, need to know anything about assigning accession numbers? Four years and four months later I found myself appointed as the University’s Archivist. There was so much to do that I did not readily need to know how to assign the numbers. After settling a dozen student workers and an English class of 32 volunteering freshmen, and working with faculty to craft research projects with the Archives as subject, it slowly became apparent when delegating work assignments why I needed to know how to assign accession numbers. For instance, how do you differentiate new additions to a collection? Like any librarian I searched and found a gamut of definitions, anecdotes and theoretical theses. My prediction that there was a scientific spreadsheet was quickly proven false. There was no science to this and examples demonstrated vast differences: some numbers were under 8 characters, others more than 20. Thus, I arrived in Baltimore with many questions to pose to Forum goers; however, I was reticent about asking just anyone. I needed a strategy. I figured I would ask the person who smiled the most or greeted me warmly. Well, that was just about everybody! This is no easy feat as conference attendees can attest. I hesitantly but enthusiastically raised my confusion in what proved to be a very safe space. I was able to breathe and enter deep-probing conversations with people I just happen to sit next to at lunch or in a session; the Forum began to feel like work – in a good way.  The metaphors used to describe the process was really what the literati in me needed. After much thought, what I heard was, “Think of it as a tag you place on items on a shelf. The number needs to tell you the story of the item.” I immediately thought of the items in my home. My grandmother’s living room set, my mother’s vase. I would ‘tag’ different numbers to the rocking chair I inherited from my grandmother compared to the one I ordered from Wayfair a couple of years ago. Thanks to conversations with a fellow Fellow (LOL), a project manager, and a recently minted collections librarian within reach, I realized that my angst was imagined, self-imposed.  I now have a system in place for assigning accession numbers that tell the story of each collection. Collections will live beyond my temporary placement as archivist. My role is to assign numbers that will assist those who follow in figuring out the collection’s how. The number will not say as much as the finding aid, but it should speak to the collection’s internal journey from some roughly stacked boxes or crates to a curated reimagined narrative. 

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Fellow Reflection: Julie Rosier https://www.diglib.org/fellow-reflection-julie-rosier/ Fri, 18 Nov 2022 13:00:08 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25563 This post was written by Julie Rosier (@redthreadtweets), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Public Library Fellow. Julie Rosier (she/her) is an aspiring digital archivist, who will receive an MS in information science with an archival focus from the University at Albany, SUNY in May 2023. She received her BA in history and Read More

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Julie Rosier

This post was written by Julie Rosier (@redthreadtweets), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Public Library Fellow.

Julie Rosier (she/her) is an aspiring digital archivist, who will receive an MS in information science with an archival focus from the University at Albany, SUNY in May 2023. She received her BA in history and Spanish from the University of Michigan. She works as a Circulation Assistant at her local public library in Northfield, MA, where she recently initiated a digital archives project to provide greater access to the library’s special collections. She also volunteers on an oral history project in conjunction with the 350th anniversary of the town. Before her recent pivot into the library field, Julie worked in higher education administration, including roles such as producer at the Juilliard School and associate director at the UMass Labor Center. Her passion for history, archives and technology has been nurtured over the years by her work as a writer, activist and community-accountable scholar. She is a strong believer in the power of stories, and in 2004 founded a company, called Red Thread Commons, to document community history from the ground up.


Re/Membering, Re-presenting, and Magnifying Black History

I am new to library and archives conferences. However, in the six weeks leading up to the DLF Forum, I attended SAA’s annual meeting and a symposium co-hosted by New England Archivists and Simmons in Boston, and Simmons in Boston and was disappointed by the predominance of whiteness in those spaces. Looking around the room at the Forum’s Opening Plenary in Baltimore, I felt grateful for the number of BIPOC colleagues in the room. It felt like a step in the right direction toward a more balanced and just representation of racial diversity.

As the conference continued, I enjoyed content that spotlighted African American history. The talk Magnifying Gwendolyn Brooks featured a team from the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign. They discussed digitizing the papers of the Pulitzer prize-winning poet. They also outlined technical challenges related to converting the pièce de résistance, a scrapbook that the team came to call the Red Album, into appropriate digital surrogates. In the end, they created a composite view to capture the entire album layout, and an item view to browse individual photos. The team mentioned the importance of cultivating a strong relationship with Nora Brooks Blakely, Brooks’ daughter, whose input in describing the photos was indispensable.

Tilting the Lens to Black Lives: Using Public Open Digital Scholarship to Develop Student Skills and Deepen Community Engagement was another presentation that I enjoyed immensely. Willa Tavernier, the Research Impact & Open Scholarship Librarian at Indiana University Bloomington, discussed her project, Land, Wealth, Liberation: The Making & Unmaking of Black Wealth in the United States. This work brings to light stories of how the racialized US socio-economic system affects black communities. Tavernier and her diverse team of students and colleagues used digital placemaking to foster engagement. They built a multi-modal exhibit on Omeka S, leveraging tools like TimelineJS and embedded audio from SoundCloud. With the goal of “re-presenting” history, Tavernier’s team created a timeline with labels such as, “Reconstruction to Tulsa” and “Urban Renewal and the Civil Rights Era” to foreground “how public policies prohibited Black Americans’ ability to own land or homes.” According to the project’s homepage, the team offers this digital resource “as a means of fostering intercultural understanding, in the hopes that it will spur meaningful conversations, and help explore paths and policies to achieve reconciliation.”

On the final day of the Forum, Jennifer Garcon presented her work in Building/Digitizing/Preserving Community Archives. She demonstrated her use of lightweight, inexpensive digital technology and preservation techniques to recover and document the lived experiences of Philadelphia’s Black and African diasporic residents. She also discussed her collaborations with Re/Member Black Philadelphia, a project out of Penn, and the Archives for Black Lives Philadelphia (A4BLiP), a loose association of over 75 information professionals responding to the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. In response to an audience question about grappling with problematic actions taken by the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University regarding the remains of child victims from the 1985 MOVE bombing, Garcon replied that academic institutions must do the work to reckon with their legacies of harm in surrounding communities. Garcon also expressed gratitude for her connection to the A4BLiP network, which allows her to deliver institutional resources directly to Black communities while promoting a post-custodial approach to community archiving.

Overall, I was excited to witness Women of Color practitioners working in opposition to archival silences and institutional erasure of African American history. Whether amplifying the legacy of an influential poet like Gwendolyn Brooks, shining a light on the oppressive impact of centuries of racialized US socio-economic conditions on Black wealth, or operating pop-up digitization sites for community members who have rightly lost faith in institutional repositories, these projects inspired me to the core. I hope to follow in their footsteps as an emerging archival professional committed to walking a path through hard truths.

 

Several 2022 DLF Forum Fellows pose in the Baltimore harbor after a fun night out on the town.
Several 2022 DLF Forum Fellows pose in the Baltimore harbor after a fun night out on the town.

 

Willa Tavernier after presenting on how digital collections focusing on the stories of historically marginalized groups can be an important site for student learning and community engagement.
Willa Tavernier after presenting on how digital collections focusing on the stories of historically marginalized groups can be an important site for student learning and community engagement.

 

Jennifer Garcon (l) shows workshop participant Anne Ray (r) how to use the lightweight, minimal computing digitization station, as 2022 Forum Fellow Kelley Klor observes.
Jennifer Garcon (l) shows workshop participant Anne Ray (r) how to use the lightweight, minimal computing digitization station, as 2022 Forum Fellow Kelley Klor observes.

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Fellow Reflection: Leland Riddlesperger https://www.diglib.org/fellow-reflection-leland-riddlesperger/ Wed, 16 Nov 2022 13:00:51 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25555 This post was written by Leland Riddlesperger, who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Grassroots Archives and Cultural Heritage Organizations Fellow. Leland Riddlesperger is the Associate Archivist at the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library (SBMAL). Since accepting this position in February of 2022, he has implemented the institution’s transition to ArchivesSpace and manages the processing Read More

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Leland Riddlesperger

This post was written by Leland Riddlesperger, who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Grassroots Archives and Cultural Heritage Organizations Fellow.

Leland Riddlesperger is the Associate Archivist at the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library (SBMAL). Since accepting this position in February of 2022, he has implemented the institution’s transition to ArchivesSpace and manages the processing and preservation of born-digital content. He holds his MSLS from Clarion University, and studied History at The College of William & Mary. Leland is an active member of DLF’s Born-Digital Access Working Group, and is currently serving a term as Co-Coordinator.


I would like to say that I am so grateful for the opportunity to attend the DLF 2022 Forum. I am thankful to CLIR for awarding me one of the fellowships to help cover the costs. My institution would have been unable to send me to the Forum without the aid I received. I feel that I greatly benefitted from what I learned at this forum, and, that in turn, my institution and our patrons benefitted as well. I could go on about every detail about this forum and how much I learned and enjoyed my time. Instead, I will focus on the two aspects I appreciated the most: the relevancy of the subject matter presented in each panel that I attended, and connecting with colleagues and fellow members of the Born-Digital Access Working Group (BDAWG). 

This assessment is not a criticism of any other conference; it’s simply that I learned much more relevant information to my job than I ever have before in this setting. The panels at this conference presented information about real-life applications and experiences. There were panels about various tools, skills, and decision-making that I can apply to my own work. 

I would like to shout out to one panel in particular that I felt was extremely informative: What’s in a DAM?: Tackling Digital Asset Management selection, implementation, and beyond. I am one part of the decision for selecting and implementing a Digital Asset Management system at my institution, so the content of this panel was right on the nose for me. I thought the three presentations were from a unique perspective as there were two different types of institutions represented as well as one from the perspective of a vendor. They spoke about their experiences throughout the planning and implementation process. I found the Q&A afterwards was also extremely helpful. I was able to ask all the questions I had, but also learn from the questions that others had who are going through the same process. It gave me a lot to think about, and I certainly feel more prepared to begin planning the DAM software selection and implementation at my institution. 

This was my first conference since before the pandemic, so it felt great to be around so many of my peers in this field. This aspect is always one of my favorite things about attending these conferences. I enjoy seeing people that I used to work with, people with which I am collaborating on projects, and meeting new people that share my interest and passion for information. This was my experience at DLF Forum 2022! I ran into colleagues from past employers. It is always nice catching up with former coworkers and hearing about the projects they are working on. I work closely with the DLF group BDAWG, and the BDAWG subgroup Visioning Access Systems (VAS). I have been virtually meeting with these people for two years in some cases. This was the first time I was able to meet in-person with the members of these groups. 

I am very grateful to DLF and CLIR for giving me the opportunity to have these wonderful experiences at DLF Forum 2022. I learned so much from the panels and all the insightful questions that were asked by the attendees as well. I thought the whole event was a huge success. It was organized well, and featured panels covering a variety of dynamic topics relevant to my field. The venue was an excellent choice for this event. I also enjoyed the location–right on the harbor in Baltimore. I was very impressed by this forum and extremely thrilled that I was able to attend. I hope to see you all at DLF Forum 2023! 

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Fellow Reflection: Jerrell Jones https://www.diglib.org/fellow-reflection-jerrell-jones/ Mon, 14 Nov 2022 13:00:31 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25569 This post was written by Jerrell Jones (@j_digilib), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Student Fellow. Jerrell Jones is a digitization specialist, professional photographer, and fine art creator. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from the University of North Texas and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Read More

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Jerrell Jones

This post was written by Jerrell Jones (@j_digilib), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Student Fellow.

Jerrell Jones is a digitization specialist, professional photographer, and fine art creator. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from the University of North Texas and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Information Science from the University of North Texas. In addition to a decade of academic library service, he has served through roles in the oil and gas sector and mental health rehabilitation field focused on building sustainable partnerships across institutions, companies, and non-profit organizations. Jones is currently contributing to the University of Houston (UH) Libraries as Digitization Lab Manager where he previously served on the Libraries’ Committee on Diversity and Inclusion and currently serves on the USRA Lunar and Planetary Institute IDEA committee. As a recent ALA Spectrum Scholar, Jerrell continues his pursuit of advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in academic libraries, digital preservation, and community archiving. When Jones is not thinking about libraries, he can be found developing a roll of film, salsa dancing, propagating plants, and keeping a close eye on commercial airliners or the next space vehicle launch.


The DLF 2022 Opening Plenary was quite engaging and I’ve returned to considering it on several occasions since the conference. The two-panelist format facilitated a vibrant conversation between the panelists that elicited audible positive reactions from the audience, leading to an active Q&A session that left us wanting more – a fantastic way to start a conference. The recurring idea was that the technologies that we’ve come to rely on, even as early as the traditional keyboard, may need a second look to remain relevant, accessible, and effective for the rapidly-changing information landscape ahead of us. Meredith Broussard highlighted that essential equipment like soap dispensers and medical equipment are often designed for users deemed as “standard” which often ignores skin color, sex, body size, and other ways that make us beautifully different. Environments that struggle to accommodate remain behind the curve and as a result, lose their power to connect. David Nemer reminded the audience that social media giants like Meta authoritatively claim that they “connect the world” when in reality, this is not possible because countless communities remain unconnected with the rest of the world based on political, economic, and algorithm-based exclusion. Communities overlap and share common ground much less often than social media claims. A lot of fascinating ground was covered in this opening plenary but what I took away from this conversation was the reminder that information professionals are not off-of-the-hook when it comes to intervening when technologies do more harm than good. Broussard mentioned that artificial intelligence has a racism problem highlighting that as computers get “smarter” they also gain the potential to harm unless humans intervene, an intervention that was deemed essential as we allow these technologies to touch more areas of our lives. 

Overall, the most memorable moments of the conference were marked by rich conversations, many of which I had in between sessions, that affirmed my work in equity, diversity, and inclusion at the intersection of library service. I valued the level of transparency many conference attendees provided when they talked at length about the challenges at their institutions, something for which I was grateful. I sat at several tables during the conference filled with brilliant individuals that traveled from HBCUs, explaining the nuances and broader impact of their work that made me proud of them, proud to be Black, and even more proud to be a Black man working in the field of libraries. Quite simply, I was affirmed in my work, empowered in my work, by strangers that gave me no indication that we were not already family. Conferences are wonderful catalysts for connection but they often fail to provide this level of peace and unconditional belonging for diverse individuals.  I was grateful that CLIR invited the 2022 Authenticity Project Fellows and provided ample time and space for these individuals to present their work and engage in a series of conversations that could result in important collaboration for years to come. To date, I’ve never been to a conference in which I felt so seen and utterly excited to collaborate with new colleagues and that experience will remain with me. 


Thank you to Texas Digital Library, sponsor of the 2022 DLF Forum Student Fellowships.

Texas Digital Library

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Fellow Reflection: Kelley Klor https://www.diglib.org/fellow-reflection-kelley-klor/ Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:28:08 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25567 This post was written by Kelley Klor (@MsKelleyK), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Student Fellow. Kelley M. Klor is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in library and information science (MLIS) at the University of Missouri School of Information Science & Learning Technologies. She graduated from the Missouri University of Science and Technology Read More

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Kelley KlorThis post was written by Kelley Klor (@MsKelleyK), who attended the 2022 DLF Forum as a Student Fellow.

Kelley M. Klor is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in library and information science (MLIS) at the University of Missouri School of Information Science & Learning Technologies. She graduated from the Missouri University of Science and Technology with a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Science in 2007. As a currently active-duty military spouse, Kelley is a food insecurity consultant with a military service nonprofit organization.

Kelley has an interest in the intersection of quantitative research, creative solutions, education, and informing policy and believes that skills developed in reference and digital library technologies can be used to create a more economically stable environment where military-connected families can thrive.
Kelley and her family live in Northern Virginia, and when she isn’t advocating, she enjoys volunteering, hiking, reading, and learning new skills with her family.


The Heart of Archives: Providing Healing Medicine in the Form of Cultural Preservation

Before library school, archival work was not top of mind. I assumed that archives meant organizing collections of papers into boxes. It took involvement in my university’s student SAA chapter to realize there’s more to archives, and decided on the archives emphasis in my program. After attending the DLF Forum, I realized that archival work is spiritual, healing, and works to capture the experiences that make our human lives meaningful. 

We live in a world of conflict. The destruction of cultural sites, monuments, and libraries is purposeful. Survivors will struggle with loss of identity. In short, when culture is destroyed, identity is destroyed. Once it’s gone, it’s impossible to get it back.

The trauma of severe violence and loss is in my genetic memory. I know the history of my ancestors and recognize the devastation of enduring the Trail of Tears, then establishing a new home. I imagine what it would be like to lose basic rituals – family dinners, movie nights with my kids, our daily walks, our nightly bedtime routine, our holiday and birthday celebrations, our trips to the library, discovering the sites around us as we move to new communities every few years. These rituals may not be super noteworthy to anyone else, but they give me identity as a person, a mother, a wife, a Cherokee woman, a military spouse, and as a library student.

Cultural rituals, practices, and basic routines are wiped away during conflict. Memory of recipes, dances, songs, religious practices are, unfortunately, fragile. The presentation, Community-led Digitization of Archives and Cultural Heritage: The Way Forward in Iraq by Khora Nanno, Helena Rose, and Peter Herdrich, captivated me because of their discussion of the preservation of oral history and intangible cultural heritage. The emphasis on building trust and making decisions jointly with the community highlights the humanity that goes into archival work.

Another presentation, Building/Digitizing/Preserving Community Archives, by Elliott Shore, Jennifer Garcon, and Fenella France, emphasized the importance of working with individuals in community archival work. Even a consideration like choosing an intentional location is a way to build trust and relationships. 

The work of archivists to preserve intangible heritage has a part in revitalizing communities, and gives people an identity and a link to their past. When archivists improve methods allowing the capture and preservation of heritage, a spiritual and psychological medicine is created. Preserving memories can enhance the human experience for people we will likely never meet.

Doing this work is a privilege, and I feel more motivation to dive in deeper. I imagine all of the opportunities that exist to preserve the heritage of Native American communities in a way that is respectful and empowering to the people involved – with their partnership and consent. I imagine the revitalization of culture and healing that could take place with scalable and reproducible workflows. 

I still have another year of library school and so much more to learn. For me, it helps to keep the human experience element in mind as my purpose for doing this work. I’m specifically interested in preserving Indigenous traditional knowledge because so much has been lost already. Thanks to CLIR for giving me the opportunity to attend the DLF Forum as a Forum Fellow, I had the great privilege of meeting so many professionals and fellow students who share this passion and motivation.


Thank you to Texas Digital Library, sponsor of the 2022 DLF Forum Student Fellowships.

Texas Digital Library

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NDSA Leadership Refreshes Foundational Strategy, Now Includes Transparency and Openness https://www.diglib.org/ndsa-leadership-refreshes-foundational-strategy-now-includes-transparency-and-openness/ Thu, 03 Nov 2022 04:00:01 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25552 The NDSA held its 10th annual Digital Preservation conference on October 12-13 in Baltimore, Maryland, you can read some highlights from NDSA Leadership on the NDSA News blog. During the opening ceremony, while sharing my remarks as Chair, I mentioned that NDSA Leadership worked over the summer and fall to refresh our foundational strategy. What Read More

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The NDSA held its 10th annual Digital Preservation conference on October 12-13 in Baltimore, Maryland, you can read some highlights from NDSA Leadership on the NDSA News blog. During the opening ceremony, while sharing my remarks as Chair, I mentioned that NDSA Leadership worked over the summer and fall to refresh our foundational strategy. What better day to talk about our refreshed strategy than World Digital Preservation Day!

Our mission statement now reflects that NDSA fosters and incubates communities of practice who advocate, support, and provide expertise in digital preservation through their work, to benefit practitioners, service providers, and memory organizations, as well as the creators, owners, and users of digital content. These changes reflect a more dynamic and engaged NDSA that supports the community in furthering our collective goals.

The vision statement was revised to make the tone more future-oriented with some small edits for clarity. Although the NDSA mission statement makes it clear that NDSA is an international alliance, the vision statement now also states that NDSA provides national leadership in the United States on digital preservation. NDSA Leadership has long seen NDSA serving in this capacity, but explicitly adding it in our vision statement makes clear to everyone that NDSA wants to serve in that role.

The most significant changes were around the NDSA’s values and principles. Transparency was previously embedded within ethical behavior, but NDSA Leadership felt that it was important enough to stand on its own as a value along with openness. As our values state, “transparency is essential for trust and is needed for fruitful digital preservation partnerships.” In addition to this change, Leadership derived multiple operational principles from each value. The principles are meant to inform digital preservation practices but will also serve as guidestones to NDSA Leaders in their work to carry out the mission and achieve the vision of NDSA.

The goals and strategies & activities sections of our foundational strategy have remained unchanged, as has our 2020 strategic plan. It’s likely that these will also be updated in the next couple of years as NDSA Leadership delves into big topics like how NDSA engages with the digital preservation marketplace of service providers, long term plans for how NDSA hosts conferences, how NDSA engages with members to meet their needs, and finally, the ideal organizational alignment to help us achieve our mission and vision. 

Happy World Digital Preservation Day everyone! How are you celebrating, “data for all, for good, forever”?

~Nathan Tallman
Chair, NDSA Coordinating Committee

 

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DLF Digest: November 2022 https://www.diglib.org/dlf-digest-november-2022/ Wed, 02 Nov 2022 11:00:19 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25549 A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation. This month’s news: In 2023, CLIR and EDUCAUSE plan to take a hiatus to substantively assess the Leading Change Institute and to launch an updated program in summer 2024. We will extensively consult with program Read More

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DLF Digest

A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation.


This month’s news:

This month’s open DLF group meetings:

For the most up-to-date schedule of DLF group meetings and events (plus NDSA meetings, conferences, and more), bookmark the DLF Community Calendar. Can’t find meeting call-in information? Email us at info@diglib.org

DLF groups are open to ALL, regardless of whether or not you’re affiliated with a DLF member institution. Learn more about our working groups and how to get involved on the DLF website. Interested in starting a new working group or reviving an older one? Need to schedule an upcoming working group call? Check out the DLF Organizer’s Toolkit to learn more about how Team DLF supports our working groups, and send us a message at info@diglib.org to let us know how we can help. 

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Highlights from NDSA’s Digital Preservation Conference 2022 https://www.diglib.org/highlights-from-ndsas-digital-preservation-conference-2022/ Tue, 01 Nov 2022 16:18:40 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25530 The 2022 Digital Preservation (aka DigiPres) conference in Baltimore was a huge success and a fantastic opportunity to connect with colleagues. NDSA Leadership is grateful to the Organizing Committee for putting together an engaging program, to Jes Neal and Stacey Erdman for their thoughtful leadership, and to CLIR and DLF for their support and collaboration. Read More

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The 2022 Digital Preservation (aka DigiPres) conference in Baltimore was a huge success and a fantastic opportunity to connect with colleagues. NDSA Leadership is grateful to the Organizing Committee for putting together an engaging program, to Jes Neal and Stacey Erdman for their thoughtful leadership, and to CLIR and DLF for their support and collaboration. We wanted to take a moment to share some of Leadership’s personal highlights from the days’ events:

  • It was really energizing to be in physical space with so many people I’ve only seen on Zoom for the past few years. One of my favorite sessions was Alex Kinnaman’s presentation on recovering from a ransomware attack – it made me think a lot about cybersecurity, its impact on digital preservation, and the importance of preventative measures. I also loved Dorothy Berry’s keynote about the stories that digital preservation tells.  -Hannah Wang
  • I really enjoyed each of the “Emerging Technologies” presentations; Jasmine Mulliken’s work on digital scholarly monographs was an interesting case study of a multi-faceted approach for preserving complex digital objects. With my co-chair Lauren Work, we presented some findings from the recently published NDSA 2021 Staffing Survey Report and had an engaging Q&A with the audience about the survey and resulting report. It was great to catch up with colleagues, including those whom I hadn’t seen in a couple of years and others whom I had never met in-person before but have worked with on NDSA initiatives.  -Elizabeth England
  • Due to a family emergency, I was only able to attend the first half-day of DigiPres 2022. Still, it was an invigorating half-day allowing me to reconnect with many people I have only seen virtually in the past few years and to make new digipres friends. The interactive workshop on Mailbag was a highlight for me, it was the smoothest tech workshop I’ve seen, there were nearly no technical glitches and everyone was able to follow along on their own laptops. You could tell the audience was eager to try it out and see how Mailbag could help them with their own email preservation workflows. I regret having to miss the Fixating on Fixity session and am watching the OSF proceedings repository to see if the slide deck is uploaded.  -Nathan Tallman
  • I’ve been fortunate to befriend many colleagues over the last decade or so, and connecting with them in person for the first time in several years reaffirmed my commitment to values-based practice. Perhaps for that reason, DigiPres sessions that focused on digital preservation staff and their needs and concerns drew my attention most. In particular, Elizabeth England and Lauren Work did an excellent job parsing some of the results of the 2021 Staffing Survey—for me, emphasizing how much top-down advocacy and resource support for digital preservation is needed. That presentation was followed by a detailed discussion of George Blood’s experiments with WGBH’s Raananah Sarid-Segal and Caroline Oliveira Mango on the carbon impact of cryptographic hashes, which further reinforced how valuable the dedicated time and attention of staff is necessary to refine our practices to reduce climate impact.   -Courtney Mumma
  • Like others, I was delighted to be in Baltimore for NDSA and to meet many of my colleagues in person, many for the first time. For me, the most impactful session I attended was “A Digital Preservation Reckoning: If we don’t lead with values, where do we end?” Led by Hannah Wang, Courtney Mumma, Sibyl Schaefer, and Andrew Diamond, the session engaged the audience to consider risk and accountability for the digital preservation services we use. Lots of food for thought and valuable considerations for how we approach digital preservation as a profession. I also enjoyed Jasmine Mulliken’s presentation on digital preservation and publication, “The Story of a Digital Scholarly Publication, as Told by its Preservation Format.” Exciting and extremely useful to see a demonstration and deconstruction of how a multimodal publication might be archived, documented, and stored, and how use is affected by preservation strategies.  -Ann Hanlon

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Metadata During COVID – Part II https://www.diglib.org/metadata-during-covid-part-ii/ Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:32:53 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25538   Mandy Mastrovita, Dana Reijerkerk, and Rebecca Fried of the DLF AIG Metadata Working Group Blog subgroup, and Annamarie Klose of the DLF AIG-MWG Tools subgroup, contributed to this post. Introduction Metadata assessment and remediation continue to be necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the prevalence of remote work opportunities and the loss of Read More

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Mandy Mastrovita, Dana Reijerkerk, and Rebecca Fried of the DLF AIG Metadata Working Group Blog subgroup, and Annamarie Klose of the DLF AIG-MWG Tools subgroup, contributed to this post.


Introduction

Metadata assessment and remediation continue to be necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the prevalence of remote work opportunities and the loss of access to physical collections. Members of the DLF AIG Metadata Working Group engage in ongoing discussions of how their institutions have increased their capacity for metadata work. This post is part two of a series about COVID-19 metadata projects and activities. 

You can find part one of this series at https://www.diglib.org/metadata-during-covid/.

Return to in-library work

In some institutions, metadata has now moved to the back seat as physical collections and in-person service return to top priority. However, the demand for access to online content hasn’t dropped. On the contrary, people want more online content now that they know how to use these resources and have higher expectations for how they will be delivered. 

One metadata librarian (who asked to remain anonymous) notes that, at his institution, “there was certainly an assumption that ‘anyone can do this’ and ‘it will be an easy solution for ‘work from home.’” Kate Flynn, Digital Programs & Metadata Project Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago, adds, “It also caused shifts in workflows as well as new ones. You may have created metadata before but found that you were doing assessment and corrections instead.”

How do we balance these demands and shift resources to support this work?

Dana Reijerkerk, the Knowledge Management and Digital Assets Librarian at Stony Brook University Libraries, says that in March 2020, various members of Resource Management at Stony Brook University Libraries began working together to remediate and create metadata. Previously, metadata work was ad hoc and dependent on reporting lines. Some colleagues picked up this work as a way to continue operations while being remote. Interdepartmental collaboration is now the norm. For example, the digital asset manager, a cataloger, the Director of Special Collections and University Archivist, and library administrators are working to streamline metadata creation and MARC record ingests of electronic theses and dissertations. This workflow was only possible by piloting remote work and opening opportunities for collaborative asynchronous operations. 

Mandy Mastrovita, a digital projects librarian at the Digital Library of Georgia, says that since the COVID era began in 2020, our metadata unit has become much closer, thanks to the countless sidebar meetings we arranged during the pandemic. We love this! 

Building new workflows requires trial and error. Our workflows for metadata are always changing to match the skills of students, classified staff, and librarians. One size does not fit all!

We’ve spent so much time figuring out what our projects need and designing new workflows with tools like the Google suite, Teams, OpenRefine, and GitHub that let us pick up most of our workflows online. With these reinvestigations of our workflows, our metadata team has been able to cross-train in different parts of our processes more effectively. Now, we’re more flexible, and we’ve made our workflows more modular so they can work better. This work has vastly improved our adaptability.

At the beginning of the pandemic, we embarked on a transcription project to involve student workers. The materials included several collections’ worth of sermons and letters from the 19th century, handwritten in cursive. Although our students completed a good chunk of the work, we decided when we returned to the office that the student output yielded FAR less than a vendor would have for the same project. 

Becky Fried, a digital projects and metadata librarian at Union College in Schenectady, New York, discovered that COVID and the New York Pause allowed her organization to take a step back, regroup, and reorganize how digital projects and metadata are managed and captured. Metadata work mostly paused. Instead, a backlog of projects that were digitized and described but not published was the focus for remote work. Opportunities to partner with other institutional departments to support such events as the Annual Steinmetz Symposium in an online forum flourished. Those partnerships have led to rich collections of material now that in-person events have restarted. Library staff completed a transcription project that served as a trial run for an upcoming crowd-sourced transcription project using Omeka with the Scripto plug-in for an NHPRC grant received in 2021 for “Expanding and Enhancing Description and Access to the John Bigelow Papers at Union College.”

Annamarie Klose, Metadata Initiatives Librarian, The Ohio State University Libraries, notes that COVID metadata projects assisted by staff and student employees significantly impacted her work with Digital Collections (DC). Thousands of records were created and updated due to collaboration with employees who don’t typically work on metadata. Successes included ingesting more than 10,000 issues of the university’s student newspaper, The Lantern, and hundreds of audiovisual materials. However, we also learned important lessons. 

Non-metadata employees worked better on carefully structured tasks and included significant documentation to follow. In the case of The Lantern, this meant verifying that metadata spreadsheets and digital files were matched and prepped for ingest and passed quality review after ingest. In terms of assisting with description, Metadata Initiatives (MI) has to review metadata from non-metadata employees to ensure it conforms to national and international best practices. Subject analysis, in particular, requires more training and expertise to create proper metadata that adheres to established standards. 

Non-metadata employees tended to do better with tasks that involved a set list of options, e.g., limited controlled vocabulary terms, to assign related to content. There were also some successful collaborations with catalogers who don’t usually create Dublin Core metadata. For example, one cataloger remediated thousands of digitized comic strips to provide subject analysis and summaries for each. However, traditional catalogers often found working with a customized version of Dublin Core to be a new experience. MI’s work to provide remote work for staff and student employees also required the creation of new workflows and documentation to manage these efforts. 

Managing a large group of people with virtual tools, including BOX, provided challenges. A few less tech-savvy employees found the collaborative tools daunting. But some employees liked working with metadata and thought it was a welcome change of pace. Typically a small unit, MI is still getting through the backlog of work processed during the early phase of the pandemic.

A couple of great places to go if you want to hear from other metadata librarians who are trying to find solutions to their ongoing projects as they endure COVID growing pains are the AIG-MWG Slack channel and the AIG-MWG Google group.

These are both forums to ask your colleagues questions about adapting workflows, sharing resources, and working collaboratively remotely and in person. So many of us have figured out things that work within the environments we have developed at our institutions. Reaching out to other folks who work in similar situations might relieve you of having to recreate the wheel on your own.

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Legal and Ethical Considerations for Providing Access to Born-Digital Collections: Attorney-Client Privilege https://www.diglib.org/legal-and-ethical-considerations-for-providing-access-to-born-digital-collections-attorney-client-privilege/ Thu, 27 Oct 2022 12:00:39 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25515 This blog is part three of a series comprising a set of primers that address ten complex legal and ethical issues encountered when providing access to born-digital archival records. The guidance is grounded in two foundational beliefs: 1. There is a potential to harm individuals, communities, and institutions if access is not thoughtfully and strategically Read More

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This blog is part three of a series comprising a set of primers that address ten complex legal and ethical issues encountered when providing access to born-digital archival records. The guidance is grounded in two foundational beliefs: 1. There is a potential to harm individuals, communities, and institutions if access is not thoughtfully and strategically viewed through an ethical and legal lens; and 2. It is not ethical to restrict access unnecessarily. For more information see: https://osf.io/ketr7/.


The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library of Princeton University in their Guide to the American Civil Liberties Union Records defines attorney-client privilege as “any document reflecting an exchange with a client or a potential client (including but not limited to: written correspondence, memoranda to the file, notes, or any other report of communication to or from a client or potential client) made for the purpose of furnishing or obtaining professional legal advice and assistance” (Seeley J. Mudd Manuscript Library 2020). This common law applies equally to records that are from open or closed cases, but not to any documents filed in court, which are public(1). For attorney-client privilege, the right to the privileged information is exercised by the client. 

In addition to attorney-client privilege, attorney work product is a broader category of records that includes any material prepared for litigation, and not just by the attorney (Briston 2016). For these records, right to access is controlled by the attorney, but usually by the time they make it to an archival repository this right has been transferred to the repository via a deed of gift or similar record. 

There is not a law that defines the duration of attorney-client privilege, thus people in the legal profession dispute its expiration, starting with the question of whether it expires at all. Some have made suggestions for changes in legal ethic codes for reasonable exemptions or better defining when attorney-client privilege ends, since there has been little direction for the courts or ethics committees (Hobbs 1992).

Given the breadth of interpretation and context required to determine when and where attorney-client privilege applies, there is not broad agreement on how to handle attorney-client privilege in archives. In fact, lawyers are often advised to refrain from archival donations, leaving a large gap in the historical record of an important part of our justice system. Many bar associations have ruled against donating files to archives (Hobbs 1992). If lawyers’ papers make it to a special collections repository, it is often because an heir donated them, but some lawyers donate their own papers at their own risk.

Law firms have some common records management practices. Attorneys often return files to clients or destroy closed files on a retention schedule. Other catalysts for review or destruction in the legal records management lifecycle include when the representation terminates, the lawyer retires or dies, or the law firm dissolves.

Collections where an attorney is the donor or main creator of the material are an obvious place to keep an eye out for records under these restrictions, but lawyer’s collections aren’t the only place you’ll find attorney-client privilege or work product. It may apply in any collection of an individual made privy to litigation, or in the institutional records of any business or organization where litigation has ever occurred. In fact, most special collections repositories steer away from lawyers’ collections because attorney-client privilege can make records donated by lawyers questionable on ethical grounds and extremely difficult to manage.

Archivists must approach these types of records within their own institutional and legal contexts. This information sheet will attempt to provide some guidance in determining how to address attorney-client privilege in the collections you manage.

Most likely to come up in

  • Institutional Archives
  • Government Archives
  • Corporate Archives
  • In certain special collections:
    • The collection of an individual made privy to litigation
    • Collections where an attorney is the donor or main creator of the material
    • The collections of a business or organization where litigation has ever occurred
  • Could appear especially in email or word processing files in any of the listed types of archives and collections.

Actions for the institution to take

Offer support in the form of legal counsel to the employee responsible for managing access to the collection. 

Avoid acquiring collections that are likely to be majority attorney-client privilege or work product if your institution and/or the person managing these restrictions do not have access to legal counsel. Instead, help find a new home for them at an appropriate institution.

 

Actions for the archivist to take

How can I look for attorney-client privilege in collections?

The good news is that privileged materials are usually marked. The bad news is that different lawyers use different signals and systems for marking their records as privileged, especially in the born-digital context where the method may vary based on type of record, the software used to flag, and the creator’s personal preference. You may find out that records are privileged from an email sensitivity flag, an email footer, a note at the top of a document, or any number of other digital signals. For example, an email may include disclosure language, such as, “This message, including attachments, is confidential and may contain information protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine.”

You may find some consistencies from collection to collection that help efficiently process records subject to attorney-client privilege, but overall archivists should take a risk management approach in terms of what can be reasonably found, interpreted to be privileged, and restricted appropriately. 

What should I do if I come across privileged information in a collection?

If surveying a collection not yet donated, work with the donor to identify where it likely resides, if possible. Define your organization’s role, and its expectations of the donor, in identifying and responding to information subject to attorney-client privilege. This can be included in your donor agreement or in a separate policy. Discuss this policy with donors.

If found in a collection that has already been donated:

  • Deaccession and dispose of or return to donor, following terms of donor agreement.
  • If you decide to retain material with attorney-client privilege intentionally, decide on a lengthy (50-75 year) closed period. (2)
  • Describe at least the restriction type in your finding aid so researchers are made aware that items they request may end up being privileged and inaccessible  (Seeley J. Mudd Manuscript Library 2020).
  • Bonus: Search for files with similar flags to see if you can identify patterns to process. Note that flagging privileged material, while common practice, is not standardized in terms of technology or vocabulary used. What works for one collection (or one series/box/file of a collection) based on consistent practices of one lawyer will not likely apply in another collection or record grouping.

Document what you and other stakeholders at your organization consider to be due diligence for this task in your own institutional context. Documenting these cases, especially if they are uncommon at your organization, will help reveal a pattern of practices to make future decisions easier, and help future archivists at your organization understand past actions. In addition, documenting these decisions will help if the organization comes under any scrutiny for its decision in the future. Document what you did, why you did it, the dates of any meetings or conversations, and the people involved in decision making. Store this information with the collection consistent with your organization’s practices, which may include adding an electronic document/readme file in the collection’s Archival Information Package (AIP), storing a physical copy of the information with the collection’s control/donor file, or some other local method of maintaining administrative collection information.

 

Technical Infrastructure

Defining your needs

The ideal way to manage attorney-client privilege is pre-acquisition discussions with the donor or transferring department to determine a long-term plan for restrictions and release of material. This will help determine the technical infrastructure the organization needs to provide access to these records later. 

It is important to keep a thorough donor file that documents the decisions made and context around any attorney-client relationships identified prior to the donation. This doesn’t necessitate special digital infrastructure, and the donor file could be paper. Having the data in a digital format may allow the archivist to more quickly re-use key information on restriction types or time periods in description repositories/finding aids. An electronic format for administrative collection information can facilitate tasks as low-tech as copying and pasting information into a descriptive system, or as high-tech as automating portions of the organization’s review and release process.

Restrictions = infrastructure

The technical infrastructure you need will vary according to how long the restriction is. Accepting material implies the infrastructure exists or will be built to steward it. To manage very long-term (50-75 year) restrictions, your organization should have a long-term strategy to develop the technical infrastructure expected to preserve digital material for at least as long as the duration of the restriction. Consider this if you are intentionally taking on a collection that contains records subject to attorney-client privilege.

As noted in the section above, methods for flagging privileged material or language that identifies it is not standardized across the legal profession. Thus, it will depend from collection to collection whether an indexing tool such as BulkExtractor (also available in the BitCurator environment) is helpful for processing. If you are successful in finding patterns for restrictions, you can use Bulk Reviewer to take further steps using the data output from Bulk Extractor.

Additional technical infrastructure required to provide access to born-digital records protected by attorney-client privilege:

  • If you have a legal department at your organization and work with legal records often, consider exploring ways to gain access to legal case management software. Legal case management software (or “eDiscovery” software) in use at most law firms and institutional legal departments typically includes all the functionality needed to arrange and describe born-digital documents for long-term preservation, but the cost of this software usually makes it out of reach for archives departments to afford their own license. 
  • At the University of California-San Francisco, for example, a department that does significant work with legal records purchased a subscription to legal discovery and case-management software. After the usefulness of the software became clear, the department was able to work within their funding structure to write the program into a one-year grant budget. 
  • Workflows for transferring sensitive material to digital preservation repositor(ies)
  • A workflow or process for digital destruction of deaccessioned sensitive archival materials
  • A descriptive repository, especially one that can connect to other applications for workflow processes, or one with built-in notification methods.

Legal considerations

Who is liable if an archivist unknowingly provides access to records protected by attorney-client privilege? It depends heavily on your institutional context.

Manuscript and Special Collection Repositories

In a manuscript or special collections repository where a donor places custody of records with the repository via an agreement or instrument of gift, archives are not automatically liable for a breach of attorney-client privilege, particularly if the archivist had no knowledge of the confidential material (Briston 2016). However, it could still harm the reputation of the repository.

It is important to gather information during the donation negotiation. The key to proper handling of potentially privileged records is knowing the nature of the legal representation and the intent of the parties. If the donor is the creator of the collection, hopefully they will be able to share this information.

Institutional and Government Archives

Most institutional records are scheduled for either transfer or destruction. In institutional, business, and government archives, records transfers are based on retention schedules and most material transferred to the archive is legally obligated to be transferred.

Whether or not the archivist would be responsible for any violations of attorney-client privilege may depend on the public records law that the archives is subject to (which varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction) and their legal counsel. Consult with legal counsel in your area to understand exactly what you are liable for in your jurisdiction.

For records protected under attorney-client privilege, the client is the only one who can assert or waive the privilege to protect or disclose information.

  • For corporate entities, the “client” is the corporate entity, not an individual
  • “The privilege continues after an entity or business is dissolved, sold, merged, or bankrupt and applies to successor entities, as well as former top management, directors, and lawyers” (Behrnd-Klodt 2015, 152).
  • If the lawyer dies or the law firm dissolves, any files they have not destroyed may be considered abandoned. Abandoned files may be retained by any successor attorney or destroyed

Ethical considerations

Ethical considerations are different between the professions of the law and archives. While we focus here on the perspective of the archivists, it is important to keep in mind that “the interests of archivists and historians are difficult to reconcile with the lawyer’s ethical duty in light of the legal framework surrounding confidentiality” (Hobbs 1992).

The best way to respect the needs of the archivist, the donor, and the donor’s clients is to get a donor agreement into place at the time of donation that requires removal or another specific agreed-upon plan for these files; or an addendum to the agreement in place if the files are discovered at a later date and the donor can still be contacted. More information on donor agreements and examples of addendums may be found in this publication’s section on Donor Agreements.

 

Examples

Princeton University ACLU records. Collection guide available at: https://libguides.princeton.edu/c.php?g=330597&p=3174253 

Williams College restricts material subject to attorney-client privilege to the originating office for 50 years from the date of creation.

 

(1) This does not include drafts, investigative reports, research and other work that went into the documents filed in court; these types of documents could be privileged even if they are directly related to something that was filed in court. In Behrnd-Klodt, M. L., & In Prom, C. J. (2015). Rights in the digital era. Page 152.
(2) In Behrnd-Klodt, M. L., & In Prom, C. J. (2015). Rights in the digital era. Page 153.

 

Works Cited and Further Reading

Behrnd-Klodt, Menzi L. “Archival Access to Lawyers’ Papers: The Effect of Legal Privileges” in Privacy and Confidentiality Perspectives: Archivists and Archival Records, ed. M. L. Behrnd-Klodt and P. J. Wosh (Society of American Archivists, 2005), 175-180.

Behrnd-Klodt, Menzi L. “Balancing Confidentiality Concerns and Legal Privileges With Access to Lawyers’ Papers” in Navigating Legal Issues in Archives (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2008),  125-131.

Behrnd-Klodt, M. L. and Prom, C. J., eds., Rights in the Digital Era (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2015). 

Briston, Heather. 2016. “Rights and Confidentiality.” Society of American Archivists Arrangement and Description Certificate Program. More information: https://www2.archivists.org/prof-education/course-catalog/rights-and-confidentiality 

Hobbs, Bonnie. 1992. “Lawyers’ Papers: Confidentiality versus the Claims of History.” Washington and Lee Law Review 49 (1): 179. https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol49/iss1/13/. (This article covers the steps a lawyer should take when donating papers to a repository, and includes a review of legal ethic codes and known interpretations of those codes.)

Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library. “Research Guides: Guide to the American Civil Liberties Union Records: Types of Access Restrictions.” Princeton University. Libguides.princeton.edu. Accessed March 2, 2021. Available at: https://libguides.princeton.edu/c.php?g=330597&p=3174253 

Shilling, Patrick. 2001. “Attorney Papers, History and Confidentiality: A Proposed Amendment to Model Rule 1.6.” Fordham Law Review 69 (6): 2741. Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol69/iss6/13 

Contributors

Primary Author of this section: Jess Farrell, Community Facilitator, Educopia Institute
Co-Authors: Jessika Drmacich, Kate Dundon, Christina Velazquez Fidler, Hannah Wang, Camille Tyndall Watson

Thank you to Elvia Arroyo-Ramírez, Heather Briston, Sarah Demb, Charlie Macquarie, and the many other community contributors for feedback and edits to this portion of Legal and Ethical Considerations for Born-Digital Access.

 

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It’s Here: the 2022-2023 NDSA Web Archiving Survey! https://www.diglib.org/its-here-the-2022-2023-ndsa-web-archiving-survey/ Tue, 25 Oct 2022 21:49:02 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25513 Does your organization have a web archiving program? If so, we’d love to hear more about your web archiving work! The 2022 – 2023 NDSA Web Archiving Survey aims to track the evolution of web archiving programs around the world, and help us better understand what individuals and institutions are collecting (and the kinds of infrastructure Read More

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Does your organization have a web archiving program? If so, we’d love to hear more about your web archiving work! The 2022 – 2023 NDSA Web Archiving Survey aims to track the evolution of web archiving programs around the world, and help us better understand what individuals and institutions are collecting (and the kinds of infrastructure needed to help support these collecting efforts). The 2022 – 2023 Survey builds upon surveys previously conducted in 2017, 2016, 2013, and 2011 — and though previous surveys were focused on the United States, the 2022 – 2023 version is open to our international audiences as well.

The 2022 – 2023 Survey is meant to be answered by individuals, and there is no limit on the number of individual responses per organization. You (and your organization) do not need to be a member of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance to answer this survey.

Follow this link to access the survey: https://forms.gle/axWqYoP5ziYix3RP7. It will remain open until Friday, November 4, 2022 and should take no more than fifteen minutes to complete. We will make our best effort to protect your individual responses so that no one will be able to connect your responses with you or your organization. Any personal information that could identify you or your organization will be removed or changed before survey results are made public. We will combine your responses along with the responses of others and make the aggregated results public in early 2023.

Please contact ndsa-web-archiving@googlegroups.com with questions. Thank you for your participation!

Samantha Abrams
Zakiya Collier
Elena Colon-Marrero
keondra bills freemyn
Nick Krabbenhoeft
Melissa Wertheimer
Amy Wicker

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DLF Forum Featured Sponsor: TIND https://www.diglib.org/dlf-forum-featured-sponsor-tind/ Fri, 07 Oct 2022 14:12:37 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25500 Featured post from 2022 DLF Forum sponsor TIND. Learn more about this year’s sponsors on the Forum website. Introducing the TIND Digital Archive 2022 is TIND’s first time attending DLF Forum and we’re excited to take this opportunity to introduce you to the TIND Digital Archive! In short, TIND DA is a digital collection software used Read More

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Featured post from 2022 DLF Forum sponsor TIND. Learn more about this year’s sponsors on the Forum website.


Introducing the TIND Digital Archive

TIND

2022 is TIND’s first time attending DLF Forum and we’re excited to take this opportunity to introduce you to the TIND Digital Archive!

In short, TIND DA is a digital collection software used to showcase and preserve any digital collection, including photographs, books, manuscripts, newspapers, and audiovisual material.

Users include large institutions such as UC Berkeley or the United Nations, managing millions of files in TIND DA and with established, ongoing digitization workflows to continuously load new material into TIND DA.

At the same time, TIND DA also proves to be a highly efficient system for smaller institutions and collections, including users such as Skidmore College and Millersville University.

 

Curious to learn more about TIND DA? Come hear our VP of Product, Andrew French, speak about TIND DA in our conference presentation on Tuesday at 10:15 am.

The presentation will provide an overview of TIND DA and our unique metadata structure, as well as cover why the UC Berkeley Library is excited to be using TIND DA.

You’ll also find us at our booth throughout the whole conference if you’d like to chat more. We look forward to seeing everyone!

Join us in Baltimore October 9-13, 2022; October 9: Learn@DLF; October 10-12: 2022 DLF Forum, October 12-13: NDSA Digital Preservation/Digitizing Hidden Collections symposium

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DLF Forum Featured Sponsor: Analogue Imaging https://www.diglib.org/dlf-forum-featured-sponsor-analogue-imaging/ Tue, 04 Oct 2022 12:00:49 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25477 Featured post from 2022 DLF Forum sponsor Analogue Imaging. Learn more about this year’s sponsors on the Forum website. Analogue Imaging is the primary North and South American distributor and service center for the entire SMA product line of Large Format Flatbed Scanners, Book Scanners, Fully Robotic Page Turning Book Scanners and Digital to Film Archive Read More

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Featured post from 2022 DLF Forum sponsor Analogue Imaging. Learn more about this year’s sponsors on the Forum website.


SMA Analogue Imaging

Analogue Imaging is the primary North and South American distributor and service center for the entire SMA product line of Large Format Flatbed Scanners, Book Scanners, Fully Robotic Page Turning Book Scanners and Digital to Film Archive Writers.

Analogue Imaging equips industry specialists with state-of-the-art technology to create a meaningful impact on the world – both past and present. Authentic historic preservation is the guiding principle behind our work. We believe that the past should always have the opportunity to accurately present itself in the future. Whether you are looking to purchase one of our products, seeking guidance with a project, or looking to connect with our growing community of users, let our team provide you with the resolution.

One of the most important specifications of the entire SMA scanner product line is the ability to achieve a 600 dpi x 1200 dpi TRUE Optical scan in very little time – this is the highest optical capture of any large format capture equipment on the market today. The SMA product line is ideal for any bound or flat original that is large, rare, fragile, structured, highly detailed, requires safe and accurate digitization, and has depth and dimension (V3D). The high optical resolution eliminates the time or need of post processing software manipulation – making the SMA product line also the most productive on the market today.

At this year’s DLF Forum, we’re going to be asking:

  1. When digitizing valuable collections, what is the most important thing to consider in regards to the equipment used?

 

Please visit www.analogueimaging.com for more information about our company, what our customers are saying, and videos of our products in use. We have hundreds willing to speak towards the quality of our machines, their ease of use and our top-tier technical support. Our references include: Libraries, Universities, Art Reproduction Studios, Décor/Flooring Manufacturer’s, National Laboratories, Nuclear Facilities, Service Bureaus and many, many more (including Federal, State and County archives). In over 20 years of business, and 1000’s of installations later in North and South America, Analogue Imaging has 100% customer satisfaction in quality of the SMA equipment and the technical service provided. We have set ourselves apart from our competitors as the service leader in the scanning and micrographics industry.

Join us in Baltimore October 9-13, 2022; October 9: Learn@DLF; October 10-12: 2022 DLF Forum, October 12-13: NDSA Digital Preservation/Digitizing Hidden Collections symposium

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NDSA Welcomes Six New Members https://www.diglib.org/ndsa-welcomes-six-new-members/ Mon, 03 Oct 2022 16:47:30 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25482 As of 13 September 2022, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its six most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in Read More

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As of 13 September 2022, the NDSA Leadership unanimously voted to welcome its six most recent applicants into the membership. Each new member brings a host of skills and experience to our group. Keep an eye out for them on your calls and be sure to give them a shout out. Please join me in welcoming our new members.

 ~ Hannah Wang, Vice Chair of the NDSA Coordinating Committee

Africa Media Online

Africa Media Online operates a digital trade route enabling the custodians of African collections to get those collections from the cupboard to the audience they want to reach while maintaining custodianship over those collections. Their vision is to enable Africans to tell Africa’s story. The digital trade route includes: training, consulting, digitization service, digital preservation, and licensing.

Archives of the American Jewish Left in the Digital Age

The Archives of the American Jewish Left in the Digital Age, which will be linked to the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History at New York University, takes as its subject the emerging publications, organizations, and activities initiated by a new generation of young American Jews who on their own responded to the cultural trends, political concerns, and technology of the twenty-first century. Because of the nature of digital technology, this project offers an opportunity to show that what will be history in the future can be captured in the present with historical consciousness. 

Botswana International University of Science and Technology Library 

Botswana International University of Science and Technology is a relatively young university having started operating ten years ago. The university library is therefore still developing and is interested in participating in any endeavor that ensures that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable to its users. As a growing library that has to make do with a shrinking budget, digital preservation is very important to them in ensuring that whatever valuable information they have is preserved for continued access and use. The library has started a project called “Presidential collection @BIUST” that seeks to preserve the legacy of the sitting and former presidents of Botswana through digitization of such content.

El Colegio de México

El Colegio de México is a Mexican institute of higher education, specializing in teaching and research in social sciences and humanities. The library is actively creating a digital preservation unit.

Milwaukee County Historical Society

As one of, if not the, largest repository for Milwaukee County history, the Milwaukee County Historical Society is committed to improving their digital preservation and accessibility efforts. With over a million photos in the collection along with thousands of manuscript collections, documents, and other assorted records, MCHS is embarking on efforts to digitize and make available as much material as possible. As part of this effort, they strive to learn, implement, and collaborate on the best possible practices for a repository of our size and nature. Digitization projects for both preservation and accessibility include photos, naturalization records, manuscripts, and books and ledgers of historical importance.

Tuskegee University

The Tuskegee University Archives includes material documenting the history and growth of Tuskegee University, the Civil Rights movement, and general history of Afro-Americana. Books (including faculty publications), manuscripts, Tuskegee University periodicals and newspapers, ephemera, photographic images, disc and tape recordings, and other archival items are available for research under supervised conditions.

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NDSA to Hold Open Conversations on Ithaka S+R Report: The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems https://www.diglib.org/ndsa-to-hold-open-conversations-on-ithaka-sr-report-the-effectiveness-and-durability-of-digital-preservation-and-curation-systems/ Mon, 03 Oct 2022 12:00:04 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25473 In July of this year, Ithaka S+R researchers published a long-awaited IMLS funded report on digital preservation and curation systems. This report has generated much discussion and some controversy within the digital preservation community. NDSA sees and appreciates practitioners’ hard work in preserving our collective cultural heritage, work that is apparent not only in community Read More

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In July of this year, Ithaka S+R researchers published a long-awaited IMLS funded report on digital preservation and curation systems. This report has generated much discussion and some controversy within the digital preservation community. NDSA sees and appreciates practitioners’ hard work in preserving our collective cultural heritage, work that is apparent not only in community discussions but was also recently studied in the 2019 Storage Infrastructure Survey and the 2021 Staffing Survey.

NDSA would like to host an open conversation for the community to discuss this report and its impact. This will take two forms: an open Google Doc for asynchronous participation and an online meeting. Both of these venues will be governed by the NDSA Code of Conduct. The Google Doc will be open from the publication time of this blog post until the online meeting, which will use a similar structure. The open session will take place over Zoom on October 26, 12:30-1:30pm Eastern, the passcode is the acronym of our organization.

~Nathan Tallman, NDSA Coordinating Committee Chair

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DLF Digest: October 2022 https://www.diglib.org/dlf-digest-october-2022/ Mon, 03 Oct 2022 11:00:24 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25466 A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation. This month’s news: The DLF Forum, Learn@DLF preconference workshops, NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2022: Preserving Legacy, and CLIR’s Digitizing Hidden Collections Symposium take place in Baltimore, Maryland from Sunday, October 9 through Thursday, October 13. During Read More

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DLF Digest

A monthly round-up of news, upcoming working group meetings and events, and CLIR program updates from the Digital Library Federation.


This month’s news:

This month’s DLF group events:

DLF Digital Library Pedagogy Group – #DLFteach Twitter Chat
Monday, October 17, 2 pm ET/11 am PT

Join the Digital Library Pedagogy Group for October’s #DLFteach Twitter chat, Supporting and Sustaining Instruction. Follow along and participate using the #DLFteach hashtag. Details on this month’s conversation can be found at https://wiki.diglib.org/2022.10.17_Digital_Library_Pedagogy_Twitter_Chat  

This month’s open DLF group meetings:

For the most up-to-date schedule of DLF group meetings and events (plus NDSA meetings, conferences, and more), bookmark the DLF Community Calendar. Can’t find meeting call-in information? Email us at info@diglib.org

DLF groups are open to ALL, regardless of whether or not you’re affiliated with a DLF member institution. Learn more about our working groups and how to get involved on the DLF website. Interested in starting a new working group or reviving an older one? Need to schedule an upcoming working group call? Check out the DLF Organizer’s Toolkit to learn more about how Team DLF supports our working groups, and send us a message at info@diglib.org to let us know how we can help. 

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Announcing Incoming NDSA Coordinating Committee Members for 2023-2025 https://www.diglib.org/announcing-incoming-ndsa-coordinating-committee-members-for-2023-2025/ Wed, 28 Sep 2022 12:00:58 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25464 Please join me in welcoming the three newly elected Coordinating Committee members Shira Peltzman, Deon Schutte, and Bethany Scott. Their terms begin January 1, 2023 and run through December 31, 2025.  Shira Peltzman is the Digital Archivist for UCLA Library Special Collections where she works with stakeholders on an enterprise-wide basis to preserve and make Read More

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Please join me in welcoming the three newly elected Coordinating Committee members Shira Peltzman, Deon Schutte, and Bethany Scott. Their terms begin January 1, 2023 and run through December 31, 2025. 

Shira Peltzman is the Digital Archivist for UCLA Library Special Collections where she works with stakeholders on an enterprise-wide basis to preserve and make LSC’s born-digital material accessible to the widest possible audience. As a current member of the NDSA Staffing Survey Working Group, she has seen firsthand the importance of undertaking this work collectively and the impact that it has on the field. Shira is interested in serving as a member of the NDSA Coordinating Committee because she would like to help guide and coordinate this work to maximize the quality, relevance, consistency, and overall effectiveness of the publications that come out of all Interest and Working Groups.

Deon Schutte worked as a freelance typesetter in the educational publishing industry in South Africa for many years. In 2018 he completed his B.INF (Bachelor of Information Science) through the University of South Africa and his B.INF Honours in 2019. Deon is a MPhil (Master of Philosophy, specializing in Digital Curation) candidate at the University of Cape Town. His research interests are hermeneutics, heuristics, and sensemaking as cognitive processes that support the curation of archival arrangements. Deon serves as the Chair of the Association of Southern African Indexers and Bibliographers, and he is a Fellow of the South African Chefs Association. He works at Africa Media Online as the project manager of a team that is tasked with the organizing and arrangement, prior to digitisation, of the extensive personal archive of one of the prominent politicians of the anti-Apartheid struggle.

Bethany Scott is the Head of Preservation & Reformatting at the University of Houston Libraries. In this role she provides strategic leadership for the Libraries’ physical and digital preservation programs, and digitization and reformatting services for the Libraries and its patrons. Bethany also serves as Product Owner of the Libraries’ open-source digital access and preservation ecosystem, which incorporates Avalon, Hyrax, Archivematica, and ArchivesSpace. Her areas of expertise include digital preservation, born-digital archives, scanning and imaging, and reuse of archival metadata.

We are also grateful to the very talented, qualified individuals who participated in this election.

We are indebted to our outgoing Coordinating Committee members, Courtney Mumma, Dan Noonan, and Nathan Tallman, for their service and many contributions. To sustain a vibrant, robust community of practice, we rely on and deeply value the contributions of all members, including those who took part in voting.

 

Hannah Wang, Vice Chair

On behalf of the NDSA Coordinating Committee

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DLF Forum Featured Sponsor: George Blood LP https://www.diglib.org/dlf-forum-featured-sponsor-george-blood-lp/ Tue, 27 Sep 2022 13:00:34 +0000 https://www.diglib.org/?p=25449 Featured post from 2022 DLF Forum sponsor George Blood LP. Learn more about this year’s sponsors on the Forum website. Committed to Exceptional Quality and Service for Your Historic Media For more than 20 years, the Open Archival Information System reference model has been the guide for long-term digital preservation. Likewise, NDSA’s Levels of Digital Preservation Read More

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Featured post from 2022 DLF Forum sponsor George Blood LP. Learn more about this year’s sponsors on the Forum website.


Committed to Exceptional Quality and Service for Your Historic Media

George Blood LP logoFor more than 20 years, the Open Archival Information System reference model has been the guide for long-term digital preservation. Likewise, NDSA’s Levels of Digital Preservation has helped institutions assess where they are and plan their next steps. For over 30 years, George Blood LP has been working with archives that are ready to move past planning and into the production stage. In that time, we have helped large and small institutions preserve over 1.25 million machine dependent audiovisual records on obsolete media. Our unique experience with antiquated data carriers helps us understand what can go wrong with digital storage over time. From metadata to checksums, we have worked to ensure that content, now preserved through digital surrogates, will remain accessible for future generations.

A/V lab equipmentWe offer:

  • door-to-door pick-up in Boston, New York City, Washington, DC and surrounding areas
  • climate-controlled storage with fire protection, PEM loggers, and secure access
  • laboratory for conservation treatments with fume hoods, temperature-controlled ovens, and every known format of tape cleaner
  • playback of over 200 audiovisual formats and over 50 data formats
  • world class Engineers with over 50 Grammy nominations and two dozen Grammy awards
  • full-time Quality Control staff checking every deliverable
  • library and archives professionals throughout the organization, including Collections Care and Project Management

 

Our ongoing in-house research and development explores factors affecting the entire lifecycle of preservation. We widely share our findings through conference presentations and scholarly publications. Be sure to attend George’s presentation on our study of the carbon footprint of checksum verification, presented with our colleagues from WGBH, at 11:15am on Thursday, October 13th.

To discuss how George Blood LP can help you with your collection survey or digitization needs, visit our teamturntable in the Baltimore Foyer of the conference hotel.

https://www.georgeblood.com

FacebookInstagramLinkedIn

 

 

See what we’ve been doing lately

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