the devil is in the details: describing born-digital records using the rules for archival...
TRANSCRIPT
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The devil is in the details: Describing born-digital records using the Rules for Archival Description
Kat TimmsLibrary and Archives Canada
SAA Archives 2013 New Orleans
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Overview
Part I- Introduction to RAD- General issues with RAD- Issues with RAD Ch. 9 for Electronic RecordsPart II- Beyond RAD – metadata/descriptive standards
landscape- What do we need? What do we have? Who
needs which information for what purpose?
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Rules for Archival Description: Introduction
• Original edition published 1990• AACR2/ISBD + archival principles (respect des fonds,
multi-level description moving from general to specific, focus on context)
• ISAD(G) & ISAAR(CPF) vs. RAD• CUSTARD = DACS; RAD2 (2008)• Principles: provide access via descriptions; promote
understanding of archives; establish grounds for presuming authenticity
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Rules for Archival Description: General Issues
• Richard Dancy, “RAD Past, Present, and Future,” Archivaria #74 (2012)
• Bibliographic model that has moved on• ISBD/AACR2-based organization: missing or
packed & buried data• Content standard? Data value standard?• Describing intellectual entities, physical
entities, or both?
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A Peek at Physical Description
• 9.5B1: 6 photographs (tiff)• 9.5B2 (optional): 5 GB of photographs• 9.5B3 (optional): 2 CD-ROMs (textual records)• 9.5B5 (when applicable): 2.4 MB of textual records
and other material• 9.5C1: 1 TB of cartographic material : col.• 9.5C2: 1 computer disk : sd., col., single sided, single
density, soft sectored• 9.5D1: 1 computer disk ; 9 x 9 cm
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What’s all the fuss about? Looking at a Born-Digital Item
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Digital Reality = The Item
• On opposite ends from MPLP? Nesmith’s broader contextual descriptions?
• Existence and visibility of minute details (bit streams, file formats, metadata, structure, content & context) = necessity to manage all of these aspects/components of “recordness”
• Good start: devising a conceptual model for archival records, including items (digital or otherwise)
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Rules for Archival Description: Chapter 9 - Records in Electronic Form• Practical reality: instructions specific to digital
records are needed• Highlighting three issues in Chapter 9
i. Which date of creation is *the* date of creation?ii. Documenting “conservation” activities for
9.8B10b file format migration and digitization via RAD vs. via ANSI/NISO Z39.87 or PREMIS
iii. Fonds/collection – series – file – item: where’s the rest of the arrangement structure?
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What do we need?
• Clearer instructions for intellectual management (metadata for discovery) and physical management (metadata supporting curation over time)
• A conceptual model for archives, including at the item-level
• Build upon and re-use existing standards (e.g., PREMIS, EAD)
• Clearer interpretation and understanding of digital records and their structure
• Building an infrastructure based on the continuum model
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What’s out there?
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Future RAD, considering “Who needs to know what?”
• Conceptual Model for Archives --> Framework of Standards --> Guidelines & Best Practices
• Outstanding theoretical questions for digital records• Information needs of clients: Content, Context (how
much?) and Curation (how much transparency?)• Standards serve both inward facing needs (archival
physical and intellectual management) and outward facing needs (resource discovery and access)
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Final Thoughts
• We’re moving in the right direction…• RAD has a future, but it’ll be different…• Let’s keep on deconstructing digital archives
coming to a better common understanding…
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Thank you!