preserving digital materials at the smithsonian institution archives
DESCRIPTION
A presentation about the challenges of long term digital preservation of CAD, Digital Audio Tapes, digital videotapes, websites, social media, email, text documents, and images at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. Given by Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig, Electronic Archivist, at the Smithsonian Institution Digitization Fair held in Washington, DC in 2010.TRANSCRIPT
PRESERVING DIGITAL MATERIALS AT THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION ARCHIVES
LYNDA SCHMITZ FUHRIGELECTRONIC RECORDS ARCHIVIST
LONG-TERM DIGITAL PRESERVATION More than 350 accessions contain electronic records in a variety of
types including video, sound, images, databases, applications, websites, and text. These range from exhibit planning documents to unit handbooks to conference images.
One collection can contain thousands of files Files arrive via removable media or file transfer Goal is to ensure authenticity, integrity, and accessibility Use best practices and accepted archival standards Use formats that are open, lossless, and widely accepted.
Proprietary formats, i.e., Microsoft Word and WordPerfect are problematic
Document all processing steps including virus scans and checksums Perform full-level preservation as much as possible. Bit preservation
at minimum for files we cannot convert or emulate. Original files always maintained Images and video are the top types in terms of size Files kept on backed-up SIA servers, LTO tapes
CAD – COMPUTER ASSISTED DESIGN
A 2-D CAD drawing of an aerial view of the plan for the National Museum of the American Indian, 2003. View in AutoCAD proprietary software. SIA Accession 06-012
Same 2-D CAD drawing preserved as a PDF file. SIA Accession 06-012
DIGITAL AUDIO TAPES
Using DAT machine on loan from Smithsonian Folkways to conduct digital-to-digital transfers
Audio files being preserved as WAV/Broadcast WAV
Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra Lena Horne
Jazz Smithsonian Radio Broadcast with Lena Horne, “A Spanish Tinge,” 1997All clips from SIA Accession 04-062
Introduction by David Baker, SMJO
“Manteca” performed by SMJO
DIGITAL VIDEO
“The Colbert Report – National Treasure: Portrait of Stephen” video
SIA Accession 10-111
NASM Udvar-Hazy Center preview video
SIA Accession 04-055
• Digital A/V files are huge and complex• Preservation tools and formats/codecs not as straightforward
as other types. • We also have been digitizing our video histories
SI WEBSITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Archiving SI websites since the late 1990s through a variety of methods
Now using open-source archival crawler Heritrix and other tools for social media captures
EMAIL COLLECTIONS
Conducted three-year grant-funded project to study techniques for long-term preservation of email collections
Resulted in tools and procedures now in use
at SI Archives
IMAGES
Original formats include GIF, JPG, EPS, TIF, PCD, etc.
Accepted preservation format currently is TIF.
Exhibition photograph from the National Portrait Gallery’s “Champions of American Sport.”
SIA Accession 09-066
Roxie C. Laybourne, a pioneering forensic scientist at the Smithsonian Institution,examines aircraft parts.
SIA Accession 04-086
Smithsonian American Art Museum staff paints the “Wall of Expression” in commemoration of Sept. 11, 2001.
SIA Accession 03-127
TEXT DOCUMENTS
Numerous word-processing files and spreadsheets Preservation format is PDF/A or PDF
WordPerfect document from SIA Accession 95-052
MS Word document from SIA Accession 02-094
Rich Text Format (RTF) document from SIA Accession 06-058