Resources for the Teacher
General
Building a National Strategy for Preservation: Issues in Digital Media Archiving. Commissioned for and sponsored by the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, Library of Congress, April 2002.
A report of findings from a study commissioned by the Library of Congress (LC) on how digital information is being managed and preserved in key industries and how this will affect collection management issues for LC. The studies focused on six key areas: large Web sites, electronic books, electronic journals, digitally recorded sound, digital film, and digital television. Findings focused on four digital preservation issues: digital vs. born-digital, defining the scope of digital preservation, technical issues and long-term storage, and access rights.
Conway, Paul. Preservation in a Digital World.
A core reading that presents the challenges and dilemmas of digital preservation and “provides an intellectual rationale for maintaining the centrality of preservation concepts and ethics in an increasingly digital information environment.” Conway sets out a framework for digital preservation that remains as relevant today as it was when it was written in 1996.
Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII), University of Glasgow, and the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH). The NINCH Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of Cultural Heritage Materials. National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage, 2002.
A step-by-step guide to planning and executing a digital project. Offers a wide array of links to best practices and covers all aspects of digital project management, including planning, intellectual property, digitization and encoding, capture and management, quality control, sustainability, and assessment.
Kenney, Anne R., and Oya Y. Rieger. Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives. Mountain View, Calif.: Research Libraries Group, 2000.
An RLG-sponsored publication on digitization and digital preservation designed to assist in creating integrated digital imaging projects. Topics discussed include digital conversion, benchmarking, quality control, metadata, access and retrieval, image management and Web delivery, digital preservation, and the development and sustainability of digital imaging initiatives. It includes extra commentary from more than 50 experts in their fields and numerous additional reference sources.
Lavoie, Brian F. The Incentives to Preserve Digital Materials: Roles, Scenarios, and Economic Decision-Making. OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., Office of Research, 2003.
Addresses the sustainability of digital objects in terms of the economic stakeholders: the holders of the copyright, the archives maintaining and providing access to the objects, and the user. Offers several scenarios in which these stakeholders might work together and, through the incentives for each stakeholder, makes the case for sustaining and preserving digital objects.
NISO Framework Advisory Group. A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections. 2nd ed. Bethesda, Md.: National Information Standards Organization, 2004.
Excellent overall teaching guide to this lesson. Covers the three critical areas of digital collections and selection criteria, digital objects, and metadata. Articulates principles in each of these areas, walks the reader through several examples, and points to extensive additional resources.
Copyright
Creative Commons is an alternative approach to intellectual property and copyright, first proposed by Lawrence Lessig. Creative Commons suggests a less restrictive, more inclusive copyright specifically designed for digital creations. The Web site offers two videos that explain Creative Commons in an engaging and accessible way.
Levine, Melissa Smith. “Overview of Copyright Issues.” In Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access, edited by Maxine K. Sitts. Andover, Mass.: Northeast Document Conservation Center, 2000.
Moves from a discussion of basic copyright law to copyright in a digital environment with reference to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as well as case law that has evolved in this area. Suggests strategies for approaching intellectual property issues when planning a digital project.
National Academy of Sciences, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. Chapters 4–6, in The Digital Dilemma, Intellectual Property in the Digital Age. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 1999.
The digital dilemma is the dilemma presented by access to information in digital form. The information infrastructure presents a “technology that can enormously improve access to information, yet can inhibit access in ways that were never before practical. It has the potential to be a vast leveler, bringing access to the world’s information resources to millions who had little or no prior access, and the potential to be a stratifier, deepening the division between the information ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’” This article surveys and explores a wide variety of issues related to information access in an electronic environment. Chapters 4 through 6 focus on issues around intellectual property.
“Purdue Library Guide to Copyright
“This is a graphically appealing beginner’s guide to copyright. It covers topics like copyright ownership, management strategies, copyright in cyberspace, and fair use.”
Defining Digital Objects
The Evidence in Hand: Report of the Task Force on the Artifacts in Library Collections. Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, November 2001.
Findings of a task force of scholars convened by CLIR in 1999 and tasked with investigating the “role of artifacts — original, unreformatted materials — in library and archival collections, and the value of those materials for scholarship and teaching.” The task force found that despite a number of challenges to original materials (i.e., unstable formats, preservation economics), the original had scholarly value and should be preserved. They considered traditional criteria for selecting for preservation and found them still valid, and presented several strategies for preserving artifactual material.
Indiana University Digital Library Program and the Archives of Traditional Music. Hoagy Carmichael Collection Web site.
Metadata
Baca, Murtha ed. Introduction to Metadata. Getty Conservation Institute, 1998.
Even though published in 1998, this is still a standard introduction to metadata. The first chapter, “Setting the Stage,” is essential reading for any understanding of metadata. It provides a clear but detailed explanation of what metadata is, the different types of metadata, and the applicability of metadata to digital preservation. The two subsequent chapters on metadata and the World Wide Web and on crosswalks are somewhat dated but provide excellent background information and overviews of both of these important issues.
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.
Encoded Archival Description Version 2 Official Site.
Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS).
Morrison, Alan, Michael Popham, and Karen Wikander. “Chapter 6: Documentation and Metadata.” In Creating and Documenting Electronic Texts: A Guide to Good Practice.
A concise definition of metadata in the context of digital resources and the need for metadata models to document data on the Web. Helpful discussion of metadata and search engines. Presents two metadata models, Dublin Core and Text Encoding Initiative (TEI).
Text Encoding Initiative Consortium. TEI Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange.
Selection for Digitization
Cook, Terry. “Electronic Records, Paper Minds: The Revolution in Information Management and Archives in the Post-custodial and Post-modern Era.” In Archives and Manuscripts 22 (Nov. 1994): 300–329.
A seminal article on archives appraisal that recasts traditional paper-based appraisal and selection in terms of records created in electronic environments. Emphasis is on archival principles and appraisal theory and how these can be approached. A good introduction to appraisal and selection issues.
Presents criteria for digital preservation based on technology (can it be preserved) and content (should it be preserved). Discusses all the factors (i.e., cost, capture, value, demand, intellectual property rights) that go into making that decision.
Hazen, Dan, Jeffrey Horrell, and Jan Merrill-Oldham. Selecting Research Collections for Digitization. Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, August 1998.
Offers a strategic approach to the selection of resources for digitization that interrogates the materials to be digitized in six core areas: intellectual property, current and anticipated use, format, delivery and retention, relationship to other digital materials, and cost. Presents a useful decision-making matrix. Although geared to research materials, it is applicable to a wide spectrum of digital collections.
Library of Congress. Selection Criteria for Preservation Digital Reformatting.
Libraries of the Claremont Colleges. Digital Projects Plan.
Massachusetts Historical Society. "The Atkins Family in Cuba: A Photograph Exhibit."
University of California. Selection Criteria for Digitization.