Archive for the ‘Archives’ Category

• ‘Smelling the Digital Flowers’

  Date: 2012.02.19 | Category: Archives, Digital Preservation, Reading | Response: 0

  The title from this post came from a talk given by Andrew Featherstone of the Museum of London that was given at  the DPC event ‘Digital Preservation: What I Wish I Knew Before I Started’. The meaning behind this statement was that, when considering digital preservation, it is very easy to get bogged down with solving the immediate problem, without taking the time to read around the subject (project reports/presentations/standards etc).

  I’ve been mulling over what to do for my next blog post, and have even got several half finished posts drafted on my dashboard. I suspect this one might actually make it onto the blog though (perhaps even later today!) as the idea that we should all take time to ‘smell the digital flowers’ really struck a chord with me.

  Earlier this week, I tweeted about needing a day off just to go through some of various links to information on digital preservation that I have found while trawling the net. Today, I’ve finally found the time to sit down and go through a few things and have found some really useful bits and ideas to follow up on.

  Firstly, check out the Digital Preservation Coalition website. They are a key training provider on all things digital preservation and one on the main collaborators who are driving development in this area. They run regular events for all levels of information professional and publish helpful Technology Watch Reports on the challenges of different types of digital material. I was unable to attend their latest event (‘What I Wish I Knew Before I Started’) but have been able to read the slides and ponder the issues raised.

  As well as reading around the subject I’m also planning on attending more events based around the challenges of digital preservation. One of the underlying themes of the subject as a whole seems to be collaboration. Quite often when one reads reports of events, the delegates are initially concerned about whether they will understand the technicalities of digital preservation, but come out of the event feeling empowered once they understand that archivists already have most of the skills required to deal with digital material. I was certainly excited after attending my first event of this type ‘Getting Started in Digital Preservation’ (also run by the Digital Preservation Coalition) – in fact, I think that event is what started me thinking seriously about a possible future as a ‘digital archivist’.

  There is an abundance of really good information out there for anyone interested in digital preservation, and an increasing amount of events to attend and to meet other interested parties. The problem is not one that is going to go away, and it is not something that can wait for the ‘perfect’ solution to come along. Information professionals should be encouraged to experiment as much as possible and to communicate with other interested parties regularly.

  I’m hoping to play around with a few more tools and to write something up here (although I can’t promise anything more coherent than a stream of consciousness!); in the meantime, check out these links and start ‘smelling the digital flowers’!

  http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/jisc-bgdp/ <<JISC Beginners Guide to Digital Preservation

  http://www.dpconline.org << Digital Preservation Coalition

  http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue46/rusbridge/ << ‘Excuse me…some digital preservation fallacies’, by Chris Rushbridge

  http://www.clir.org/pubs/archives/ensuring.pdf << ‘Ensuring the longevity of digital information’ by Jeff Rothenberg

• The Archivist and the Geek

  Date: 2012.01.21 | Category: Archives, Digital Preservation | Response: 0

  I’m a geek. I have been since I was 7 playing Buggy Boy incessantly the family Atari ST 1040. Anything to do with computers, the internet and gadgetry in general and I’m all over it.

  I’m also an Archivist (not an activist or even an anarchist…an Archivist), meaning that I spend my working day cataloguing historical documents, repacking books covered in red rot in acid free paper, answering historical enquiries relating to collections, and anything else that I can find to do with myself.

  I’ve always been interested in history and the idea that documents from the distant past can be preserved for future generations and, after my work experience at 16 when I was taken to a strongroom and shown an anglo-saxon house deed (wow!), I began to realise this was something I could do for a living.

  You would be forgiven for thinking that these two elements of my personality must be entirely independent, after all, how many Latin reading computer programmers do you come across? (Perhaps a little extreme but you get my point!) However, I am increasingly discovering that a lot of what I do in my spare time on a computer has come in very useful in my job as an archivist, and have developed a specific interest in digital preservation (ensuring that digital documents/video/sound files remain accessible for future generations).

  The humble document, the basis of an archivist’s role, no longer means a piece of paper in a folder on a desktop. Indeed, even a ‘folder on a desktop’ has a different meaning in a digital context. The way we create material is changing, and the role of an archivist has to change with it. Job specifications increasingly require ‘good IT skills’, including the occasional ‘familiarity with XML/EAD/METS (plus any number of additional obscure acronyms) and I for one think it could and should be easier for archivists to access simple information of the management and preservation of digital records.

  The aim of this blog then, is to chart my interest in digital preservation, and provide some notes, personal thoughts and links to interesting or otherwise relevant information.

  Current ideas of future posts include open source software, computer science basics for archivists, simple, practical digital preservation solutions and the changing role of the archivist.

  Thanks for reading – new posts should be landing soon!