ICPSR meets OAIS: applying the OAIS reference model to the social science archive context

This paper reviews the archival process at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), a repository of digital social science data, and maps ICPSR’s Ingest and Access operations to the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model. The paper also assesses ICPSR’s conformance with the archival responsibilities of “trusted” OAIS repositories, with the proviso that audit criteria for archival certification are still under development. The ICPSR to OAIS mapping exercise has benefits for the larger social science archiving community because it provides an interpretation of the reference model in the quantitative social science environment and points to preservation-related issues that may be salient for other social science archives. Building on the archives’ long tradition of shared norms and cooperation, we may ultimately be able to design a federated system of trusted social science repositories that provides access to the global heritage.

Developing Collections of Web-Published Materials

Abstract

Librarians and archivists face challenges when adapting traditional collection development practices to meet the unique characteristics of Web-published materials. Likewise, preservation activities for Web-published materials must be undertaken at the outset of collection development lest they be lost forever. Standards and best practices for Web-collection development are still emerging, and librarians are struggling with the often daunting financial, staffing, and infrastructure challenges posed by collecting and preserving these materials. The results of a needs assessment with librarians, information providers, and academic researchers informed the identification of key collection development activities for Web-published materials. This research was conducted as part of the Web-at-Risk project, a collaborative effort of the California Digital Library, the University of North Texas, and New York University.     

Digitised,digital and static archives and the struggles in the Middle East and North Africa

This paper examines the differences between archived material that was always a digital record and hard-copy archives that were subsequently digitised. It considers the rationales behind the digitisation of archives in established western democracies as digitised collections and ad-hoc files are made available online. It compares this with how the archives of regimes in the Middle East and North Africa that collapsed between 1990 and 2011 were digitised. Overt political expediency determined the circumstances under which documents were released and recalled from public view. It examines the digitisation of archival material after the wars in Iraq in 1991 and 2003 and its political implications . Then it examines material that has always been digital: the record of social media exchanges on the day when Colonel Qaddafi was killed in Libya in October 2011 and how the archived digital form reflects the origins and purposes under which it was produced. In both cases the electronic format is not simply a question of ease of distribution, both have become a record because they were assembled for particular purposes. Like ‘traditional’ archived documents, they were never intended to satisfy the needs of later historians but they became a source by being brought together.     

Hear Greer: voices in the archive

In the 1990s Germaine Greer began recording her audio diaries. At the same time the author was attempting to find a suitable buyer for her archive. While the intention of the audio diaries was to record Greer’s past doings, she was also revealing a more private domestic side of her everyday life. The Germaine Greer Archive sits at the intersection of history and invention and tells the many stories of Germaine Greer, herself stating, ‘The archive will put matters right for posterity… supposing posterity should be interested’.     

Braille preservation: recognising and respecting archival materials produced by and for the blind

There is a noticeable gap in the archival literature concerning the preservation of braille and other tactile print formats that, since the eighteenth century, have been produced by and for blind and visually impaired persons. Based on the insights gained from interviews with information professionals and additional research conducted by the author into the historical usage and production of braille, this paper aims to highlight factors that may affect the preservation and accessibility of braille in archives. While this article will not generate specific preservation guidelines, policies and procedures for braille – measures to be created in a future study – the purpose of this article is to draw an initial awareness to the issues that influence the preservation of and access to these archival records.     

Orbis Cascade Alliance Distributed Print Repository: Organizing Collections at the Consortial Level

Journal print archives or repositories have been in existence for some time. More recently, the academic libraries in the United States Pacific Northwest that belong to the Orbis Cascade Alliance undertook the development of a distributed repository to preserve the print journals from the American Chemical Society and the JSTOR Arts and Sciences I & II collections. The project sought to identify two complete runs of each title held between the members of the consortium and assign responsibility for preserving the titles in perpetuity. The methodology, challenges, and benefits of this project are discussed.     

Affect in the archive: trauma,grief, delight and texts. Some personal reflections

Historians, as users of archives, often discuss the thrill and emotion of their ‘discoveries’. We can form romantic attachments or be repulsed across the decades. Archives containing the physical remains of the past can transport us, we can move beyond the here and now. Before the Museum of Melbourne digitised Alfred Howitt’s correspondence, I once opened a letter written to him on classic nineteenth-century blued paper. As I pulled the missive from its envelope, I could smell tobacco smoke. I was immediately in the room with him. Recently, after completing an article on the topic of frontier violence, my co-author and I both described a feeling of stress and trauma that came from reading colonial records of ‘skirmishes’ and ‘dispersals’. In this paper, I want to reflect on the experience of Affect in the archive.     

The Archival Collection of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America

The author discusses the digitization of the archival collection of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA), the long-term planning of this project, financial support, collaboration with Polish institutions, and several selected collections. Digitized archival documents are available on the PIASA website and are included in the database of the National Archives of Poland.     

长江大保护项目档案资源整合机制的形成与保障

本文以长江大保护项目档案资源整合为例,通过调研长江大保护项目档案资源的建设情况,分析项目档案资源整合困境,阐明项目档案资源整合机制的形成与保障.     

Process and progress: working with born-digital material in the Wendy Cope Archive at the British Library

This article considers the processing of the born-digital archive of the English poet Wendy Cope, deposited at the British Library in 2011. Using the Cope Archive as a template, the authors set out a six-part workflow to acquire, preserve, process and make it accessible. The Cope Archive, which contains several types of digital media, presented various problems. The authors, however, were able to successfully apply their workflow and outline the various software and methods used at each stage. They conclude that, though each born-digital archive presents a unique set of issues, the proposed workflow is a successful framework that would be applicable to most.     

Participatory archive: towards decentralised curation,radical user orientation,and broader contextualisation of records management

User perspective and user studies have received noticeably little practical attention in archives and archival science. The purpose of this article is to address the issues of communication and user participation in archival contexts. Two action research projects-based digital archives are discussed. The insights gained during the research and development work are used to formulate a new approach to a participatory archive. In spite of the historical nature of the archives discussed, the suggested ways of interacting with an archive are not specific to historical records. The fundamental characteristics of the proposed approach are decentralised curation, radical user orientation, and contextualisation of both records and the entire archival process.

Collecting the easily missed stories: digital participatory microhistory and the South Asian American Digital Archive

This paper defines and delineates the concept of participatory microhistory through an examination of the South Asian American Digital Archive’s First Days Project, a community-based online project that solicits short audio, video and written narratives about South Asians immigrants’ first day in the United States. First, this paper provides a brief overview of the history of the South Asian American Digital Archive and the First Days Project. Next, this paper highlights three important functions filled by participatory microhistory projects: they generate new records that represent perspectives not commonly found in archives, they convey an important sense of emotion and affect, and they effectively solicit community participation in the archival endeavour. Throughout, this paper explores participatory microhistory projects as tools to harness technology for community empowerment and build support for archives.     

Accessing the Old and the New

Summary

The University of Arizona Library's tradition of outreach to the surrounding community is reflected in two examples of projects detailed here. The first project is a series of Web exhibits created by librarians and individuals from the community that explore the history of Tucson and southern Arizona. Some of the Web exhibits detail the experiences of immigrant and Native American cultures in the area while other Web exhibits deal more generally with the history of the area. The second project involves a Federal grant that will make certain parts of library's Special Collections more accessible to the community by building new facilities that are open longer hours, digitizing some of the materials and adding computer workstations for users.     

浅谈数字档案资源长期保存策略

随着网络的迅猛发展,信息的数字化和服务的网络化使得数字信息可以长期保存。同时由于数字档案信息有其自身动态性、技术更新快、开放性以及对载体的依赖性等特点,从而使得数字档案信息保存利用遇到了挑战。本文通过对数字档案信息保存的介绍,分析当前数字档案信息长期保存所存在的主要问题,从而核查出种种弊端,据此进行修改完善,为档案部门的数字档案长期保存工作提供建议和意见,提出合适的保存策略。     

Third party digitisation at State Records New South Wales: a positive approach in a time of change

The need for all archives to move from the paper based to the digital world is very apparent. However, governments and funding entities are unwilling to invest in the back capture of archival materials. State Records NSW overcame this impasse by entering into commercial agreements with 3rd party providers of genealogical data. This article outlines some of the reasons for entering into such agreements and the positive outcomes for State Records NSW and users of digital archival material.     

企业内部控制与企业档案管理的相关性分析——基于《企业内部控制基本规范》的档案话题

《企业内部控制基本规范》是政府针对企业内部控制的实现于2008年出台的管理文本,既体现了政府间接对企业实施监督控制的意愿,也涵盖了企业自我约束和规范的社会责任意识。然而,企业内部控制的有效实现有赖于企业档案管理工作的支持。本文基于《企业内部控制基本规范》,就企业内部控制与企业档案管理的相关性进行分析,意在揭示档案管理在企业内部控制中的重要作用,同时启发企业档案工作者对《企业内部控制基本规范》实施背景的思考。     

整合高校档案资源 实行“大档案”管理研究

文章在分析了高校档案资源管理现状及其存在的问题的基础上,提出实行"大档案"管理是一条适合高校档案工作发展的创新之路.并进一步阐述了在"大档案"管理体制下,整合高校档案资源的措施和途径.     

Reclaiming history: Arthur Schomburg

Focusing on the inter-war period, this article examines the context of the publication of Sir Hilary Jenkinson’s Manual of Archive Administration alongside the less well-known contemporary publication of Arthur Schomburg’s ‘The Negro Digs up his Past’. By placing these publications together, this article raises questions about the production and reproduction of the professional canon, as well as highlighting Schomburg’s contribution to key archival questions on the nature of collecting. This work discusses Schomburg’s articulation of the purpose of archival collecting which offers a radically different conception of the value and use of archives, one that focuses on the concepts of recovery and transformation. This article also places Schomburg within the wider emergence of the Pan-African movement and situates his work within the developing Pan-African ideologies and the networks in which he operated, and argues that Schomburg’s legacy can be found in the development of Black-led archives in London.