digital projects in special collections

SUSAN MCELRATH

UNIVERSITY ARCHIVIST

Digital Projects in Special Collections

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

MARCH 7 , 2012

Digital Collections, Exhibits, and Repositories

� What is the difference?

� Repository

�multiple collections or institutions

� Collection

� one collection or theme� one collection or theme

� Exhibit

� one theme – a selection of items

Multi-Institutional Digital Repository

Institutional Digital Repository

Thematic Digital Collection

Digital Exhibit

Digital Exhibit on 1960 San Francisco Fire

Alternate approach to same topic

Digitization Project Planning

� What work needs to be done;

� How it will be done (according to which standards, specifications, best practices);

� Who should do the work (and where);

� How long the work will take;

� How much it will cost, both to "resource" the infrastructure and to do the content conversion

� http://www.ncecho.org/dig/guide_1planning.shtml

� http://www.nyu.edu/its/humanities/ninchguide/II/

Components of Digitization Projects

� Planning and Project Management

� Selection

� File Formats – master & access derivatives

� Conservation Treatment

� Reformatting� Reformatting

� Metadata Design & Creation

� Quality Control

� Web Platform

� Open source vs. proprietary systems

� Preservation

Selection Criteria

� Should they be digitized?

� Research Value

� May they be digitized?

� Copyright status

Can they be digitized?� Can they be digitized?

� Condition

� Format

� http://www.nedcc.org/resources/leaflets/6Reformatting/06PreservationAndSelection.php

� http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september09/ooghe/09ooghe.html

Digitization Standards

� Technical Standards

� Federal Agency Digitization Guidelines Initiative (FADGI)

� http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/

� NARA

� California Digital Library (CDL)� California Digital Library (CDL)

� http://www.cdlib.org/services/dsc/tools/docs/cdl_gdi_v2.pdf

� University of Colorado

� https://www.cu.edu/digitallibrary/cudldigitizationbp.pdf

Metadata Requirements

� Metadata Requirements

� Descriptive Metadata

� Technical & Administrative Metadata

� Element Sets and Standards

Dublin Core� Dublin Core

� http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/

� METS/MODS

� http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/

� http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/

� VRA Core

� http://www.loc.gov/standards/vracore/

Web Platform Options

� Open Source Software

� OMEKA

� Greenstone

� DSpace

� Fedora� Fedora

� Proprietary Software

� Contentdm (OCLC)

� Luna Insight

� Digitool

Web Harvesting involves:

� Identifying and collecting web resources

� Providing search capability for archived web collections

� Managing and preserving web resources

Web Harvesting

� The most common web archiving technique uses web crawlers to automate the process of collecting web pages. Web crawlers typically view web pages in the same manner that users with a browser see the Web, and therefore provide a comparatively simple and therefore provide a comparatively simple method of remotely harvesting web content.

Web Crawling Problems

� Robots exclusion protocol may deny crawlers access to portions of a website.

� Large portions of a web site may be hidden in the deep Web.

Crawler traps may cause a crawler to download an � Crawler traps may cause a crawler to download an infinite number of pages, so crawlers are usually configured to limit the number of dynamic pages they crawl.

� Calendars often cause problems for crawlers.

Web Harvesting Resources

� International Internet Preservation Consortium

� http://netpreserve.org/about/index.php

� Library of Congress

� http://www.loc.gov/webarchiving

Archive-It (Service)� Archive-It (Service)

� www.archive-it.org

American University Digital Collections