Born-Digital archives at Hull - Hull History Centre

Born-Digital archives at Hull: 

early steps & early lessons 

Simon Wilson, Senior Archivist

Overview 

Setting the scene 

- born-digital archives 

- the AIMS Project & White Paper 

Steps taken 

- background research 

- practical steps 

- questions asked 

Lessons learnt 

- where are we now? 

Archives and Society | 6th Mar 2012 | 2

Setting the scene

Born-digital archives 

The message and the medium are different 

Both are threatened by obsolescence 

Files are usually copies with creator 

keeping the originals (may still be in use) 

Not talking about digitisation where 

material is converted into digital format 


The AIMS Project 

An inter-Institutional Model for Stewardship funded by The 

Andrew W. Mellon foundation 

Each partner employed a digital archivist for two years to 

process born-digital material in their collections 

Started with traditional archival theory/principles; identify 

commonality - not looking to create a single solution 


AIMS Project – White Paper 

Good-practice, based on the partners shared experiences 

- written by archivists….for archivists 

- starts from ‘paper-based’ archival 

principles 

- not based on specific infrastructure 

or tools 

- technical and professional standards 

- build-upon work of other projects 


AIMS Project – White Paper 

Framework split the workflow into four main areas: 

1. Collection Development 

2. Accessioning 

3. Arrangement & Description 

4. Discovery & Access 

Each section identifies key factors for success, pre-requisites, 

objectives, outcomes, tasks and decision points 

Appendices inc workflows, policies, case studies, templates etc 

http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/aims/whitepaper/ 


Steps taken

Background research 

With no previous experience 

- began to do some background research 

- articles, websites (DCC, DPC roadshows) 

- hardware changes, media formats 

- software updates & backward compatibility 

- workflow, OAIS, tools, other projects etc 

Could easily have continued like this 

......for the entire project! 


Collections survey 

Media already held amongst the paper collections 

– media has been accessioned (but not the contents...) 

Traditional survey skills: 

- identify media & content issues, level of cataloguing etc 

- quantity & range of media formats - inform plans/policies 

Screenshot of survey spreadsheet using MS Excel 


Automatic file lists 

(Karen’s Directory Printer) free tool; retrieves key information 

about each file/folder inc date created, checksum etc 

Archives and/or depositor 

can create a file manifest at 

the time of transfer 

Use retrospectively for 

material already deposited 

Screenshot of Karen’s Directory Printer 


Photography of media 

We have also developed processes for 

taking photographs of the digital media 

– wanted a simple process, that could be 

easily (and quickly) repeated; using a 

transparency sheet proved effective 

– don’t expect to keep the media forever 

– the labels may include important 

information for researchers 


Forensic workstation 

Re-use an old PC 

- we were about to throw out 

- had floppy drive, CD drive and 

USB ports = options 

ICT provided clean disk image 

- also added internal zip drive 


Forensic workstation 

Purchased a new PC 

- needed larger capacity to capture hard 

drives & laptops (both considered to be 

reasonable scenarios in the next 2 years) 

Write-blocker allows safe capture of files 

from media/hard drives; use with FTK 

Imager software 


Dealing with depositors 

Existing skills, but relationship 

is more critical than ever before 

New questions to ask 

- hardware, software, passwords, 

social media, e-mail accounts etc 

Web-form to collect information 

from depositor; worked better as 

a framework for discussions 

Screenshot of web –based survey developed by the AIMS Project 


Arrangement 

How do we arrange born-digital archives? 

New challenges to be faced: 

– material tends to come to us in an order 

do we (or should we) change this? 

– integrate paper and born-digital material 

into single finding aid 

– can you make an appraisal decision on 

a file you can’t view? 

Design for the Toad in the Hull (Larkin with Toads archive) 


Description 

How do we describe born-digital archives? 

New challenges to be faced: 

– volume of material 

– is it practical to describe each file? 

– should you describe a file you can’t view 

Is the archivist’s description as critical as it was? 

- if (via the repository) you can let users search the text of 

the archive itself - not just the archivist’s description of it 

Design for The LarKintoad (Larkin with Toads archive) 


Arrangement and Description – missing tool? 

AIMS digital archivists identified gap relating to A&D of borndigital 

archives in Fedora; functionality shaped and refined by 

our experiences 

Developers at Stanford – 

proof of concept Hypatia tool 

Use drag’n’drop to create the 

intellectual arrangement into 

Fedora sets (objects not moved) 

Assign rights & permissions to 

a file, a series or entire collection 


Lessons learnt

Doing something 

Familiarity with concepts & issues encountered in 

background research - greatly enhanced by practical work 

- items / files identified in the survey was also an easier 

starting point than a new digital-only accession 

- download free tools including DROID, 

Karen, FTK Imager etc 

- create a set of files to play with 

- questions are good 


Make friends 

With ICT colleagues with-in your institution 

- forensic workstation 

- digital repository 

With other archives 

- share/exchange experiences 

- technical capabilities for specific media 

You are not alone 


Depositors awareness and perceptions 

Some were very willing to work with us, allowed us to browse 

their server and identify material of interest (to us) 

Some were keen but then got cold feet; reluctant to help us 

identify current records likely to be of archival interest 

We need to place emphasis on our role 

in managing information (regardless 

of format) 

We must explain why timeframe for 

collecting/action is radically different 


User experience 

Paper archives offer a sense of discovery... 

Notebooks - plot outlines, notes 

of meetings with producers, 

snippets of dialogue etc with 

different work all intermingled 

With born-digital material the same information 

is likely to be dispersed across separate files 


User expectations 

Expectation of access and delivery online 

- confirming a user’s identity? 

- material collected much closer to creation - but issues 

relating to access to sensitive material remain unchanged 

New tools: 

new opportunities 

for access/analysis 

- visualisation 

- word clouds 


Where are we now..? 

We have 7 born-digital collections – 46,576 files (122 GB) 

– manifest (accession receipt list) 

– files are currently stored on interim network storage 

- confidence to ask each depositor about b-d archives 

Institutional practice 

– documented workflow, tools used etc based on “playing” 

– policies include reference to born-digital materials 

Born-digital archives has a much higher profile 

– included in library’s strategic aims and objectives 


Still to tackle...? 

– bulk-ingest import 10,000+ files (ie a single accession) 

– A&D is largely dependant upon Hypatia (in development) 

– roll-out more active collecting of b-d in next few years 

- still looking at options for access 

- still formats we haven’t tackled yet - e-mail & databases ! 

What is being created with-in the University? 

- hope to start working with departments 

- start with Comms & Marketing dept 


Conclusion 

Nature (and format) of archives has changed dramatically, but 

most of our professional skills are still relevant 

Some new tools, new software, new terminology and more 

acronyms to learn (esp OAIS) 

Some material has already been “lost” 

– need to start doing something to minimise the impact 

Confidence to make the transition from paper to digital; 

hands-on learning - play with sample files/media etc 


Contact details 

Simon Wilson 

Senior Archivist 

Hull History Centre 

Tel 01482 317506 

Email s.wilson@hull.ac.uk 

www.hullhistorycentre.org.uk 

AIMS blog: http://born-digital-archives.blogspot.com 

White Paper: http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/aims/whitepaper/ 

Portrait of Claude-Henri Watalet blogging, after Jean-Baptiste Greuze 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/2497196140/in/photostream/

Born-Digital archives at Hull - Hull History Centre

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