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Case Studies

Rather than a formal presentation of the case studies at the colloquium, participants are expected to read the studies before arriving to save valuable "face time" for discussion.

Click on presenters' names for the full case study.

Acquisition (selection and surveys, transfer and ingest)

1. Eliot Wilczek and Kevin Glick.

Changes in Acquisition: A Guide to the Ingest of Electronic Records. This case study focuses on the function of Acquisition, defining it broadly to include appraisal and accessioning activities. The study works under a broad notion of technical skills to include what resources an archives must have as an administrative unit to undertake a trustworthy acquisition (Ingest) process. These resources include policies along with hardware and software in addition to the theoretical and technical knowledge that its staff must have.

The case study is based on an Ingest Guide developed by Yale University and Tufts University as part of its NHPRC electronic records research grant project, Fedora and the Preservation of University Electronic Records (2004-083). A draft of the Guide is available at: http://dca.tufts.edu/features/nhprc/reports/3_1_draftpublic3.pdf.

2. Ann Marie Przybyla and Geof Huth.

Conducting an Inventory of Electronic Records. This case study examines the complexities of conducting an inventory of electronic records and the questions generated during that process. It is based on findings from a collaborative project—still ongoing—between the New York State Archives and Warren County, a local government in upstate New York. What we are discovering during this project is that many of the underlying assumptions and principles that have guided archivists and records managers may no longer hold true because of the dynamic, integrated nature of electronic recordkeeping systems. We already recognize that we have to rethink our concept of records and records series, and evaluate and adapt such fundamental records management functions as appraisal, scheduling, and destruction. The case study addresses the skills, both technical and otherwise, we in the profession need to develop to accommodate electronic records, and concludes with a series of discussion questions.

Processing (arrangement, classification, description)

3. Timothy Pyatt.

Acquisitions: assessment, scheduling, and transfer of public affairs records. Public Affairs operations at institutions of higher education are rapidly abandoning paper as a medium for disseminating press releases, news stories, and campus promotional materials. Archives must develop plans to acquire and preserve these electronic records as paper surrogates are no longer produced. The Duke University Archives has found that while its "traditional" records scheduling and accessioning methods have worked to manage the intake of these records, "traditional" processing and access methodologies have not proved effective. New skills are needed to facilitate the transfer of electronic files and to assess file format longevity and authenticity. Reevaluation of processing procedures and the viability of traditional finding aids for electronic records needs to occur.

4. Catherine Stollar and Thomas Kiehne.

Guarding the Guards: Archiving the Electronic Records of Hypertext Author Michael Joyce. In 2005, the Harry Ransom Center at the University at Austin acquired the fonds of hypertext author Michael Joyce. The major emphasis of the Ransom Center's collections is the study of literature and culture in the late 20th and early 21st century of the United States, Great Britain, and France. Michael Joyce's groundbreaking work in hypertext poetry and fiction make his papers a desirable addition to the Ransom Center holdings.

The Michael Joyce Papers are mostly composed of electronic records with an additional 60 manuscript boxes of paper -based materials This is the first mostly electronic archive the Ransom Center has acquired and new strategies for preserving digital content were employed. This case study discusses the techniques and skills utilized to preserve the electronic records of Michael Joyce as a model for processing future digital manuscripts at the Ransom Center.

Storage and the Digital Stacks

5. Patricia Galloway.

The Eyes of Texas: What can archivists learn from working with a digital institutional repository? Establishing even a small-scale archival digital institutional repository calls on every skill archivists can muster, both inside and out of the (technological tool-) box. In this case study we discuss one category of collections, faculty papers, as acquired and added to the departmental institutional repository created in 2005 for the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. The nature of such collections requires of the digital archivist technical skills ranging from retrospective digital archaeology (presaging migrations and emulations to come) to prospective records creation management (asking archivists to manage an ongoing interaction among creator, records, and repository).

6. Jennifer King.

George Washington University’s Special Collection's transformation into a repository with digital services. This case study discusses the new equipment, new skills and new training program established by Special Collections at George Washington University in an effort to meet the needs of our increasingly technologically sophisticated users and to capitalize on the multiple use capability of digital materials. This challenge is one currently faced by many institutions in this Digital Era namely how to best serve our users and at the same time retain our position as appropriate custodians for the ever increasing amount of digital objects in our possession.

Preservation

7. Maria Esteva. [REVISED Friday, 19 May]

Text and Bitstreams: Appraisal and Preservation of a Natural Electronic Archive. This case, aimed at appraising and preserving an electronic archive, defines the concepts and the tools and methods needed to approach the study. The attributes characterizing the archive at hand led to the development of the concept of natural electronic archives that would allow transforming the archive into a unit of analysis. Furthermore, the methodology for appraising the archive is also somewhat novel, in that it combines fairly common tools used in the archival discipline, while adding others – such as text mining and social network analysis – taken from other fields. A strategy for preserving the archive combines archival considerations such as transparency of transfer and maintenance of the archive’s integrity with systems administration skills. It also includes research on the technologies.

Reference and Access

8. Beth Yakel and Polly Reynolds.

The Next Generation Finding Aid: The Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections: A Case Study in Reference and Access to Digital Materials. This presentation and paper will address the vision, knowledge, and skills required to reinvent the archival finding aid for the future and the challenges of providing new types of access to digital materials. Our case study focuses on the development of the Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections (http://polarbears.si.umich.edu), an interactive website featuring digitized materials documenting the history of the American military intervention in Northern Russia at the end of World War I. The project, a collaboration between faculty and students at the University of Michigan School of Information and archivists at the Bentley Historical Library, features a website showcasing more than fifty digitized collections of primary sources, including diaries, maps, correspondence, photographs, ephemera, printed materials, oral history interviews, and a motion picture. The site represents the first example of the School of Information’s Next Generation Finding Aids Project, an effort aimed at creating innovative approaches to archival content online.

9. Margaret Adams.

Archival Reference Services for Digital Records: Three and a half years experience with the Access to Archival Databases (AAD) resource. Set within a discussion of NARA’s custodial program for electronic records and the reasons for the development of the Access to Archival Databases (AAD) tool, this case study explores the impact of AAD on NARA’s reference services for electronic records. Has the availability of AAD changed its nature or the nature of reference services in the traditional still picture or textual records units? Has there been a change in the research community served by NARA’s electronic records program or in the types of services expected by the public? In the course of this scenario explication, the case study implicitly considers the evolution in the skills archivists have needed to offer reference services for electronic records. We include a discussion of some “generic” lessons learned from NARA’s reference experiences related to digital records generally, and through AAD in particular. In conclusion, skills are discussed briefly in the context of the digital environment.

Managing Digital Archives: Balancing responsibilities and skills

10. Rich Dymalski and Jerry Kirkpatrick.

One County’s Attempt to Move from 0 to Digital in Record Time. On January 3, 2006, the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records (ASLAPR) forced most government entities in the State of Arizona to grapple with the issue of responsibly managing Email Records when they issued the "Guidelines for Managing Public Records Sent and Received Via Electronic Mail." Our response at Maricopa County was to form a Work Group to research the situation more fully and propose a solution to our County Leadership.

What we learned through the process is that there is a fundamental shift underway in the way public records are managed. What has primarily been a paper-based activity is now quickly becoming an electronic-heavy endeavor. What we needed was a synergetic partnership between Records Management and our IT department. What we found was that we had to forge this partnership almost from scratch, and with great reluctance from some in both departments. We would like to share with you what we have learned from both our research and our undertaking in the hope that our journey will help others facing similar challenges. While the Digital Age may have dawned recently, the practice of records management remains largely, I believe, in the Pre-Plastic Paper Era.

11. Cole Whiteman.

Mapping Processes in Motion: Practical lessons from the experience of discovering, visualizing, analyzing, and redesigning a complex process of digital archiving and dissemination. In this case study we look at one repository’s “process mapping” approach to coping with a large and complex body of technical procedures that change frequently and tend to get out of synchronization with each other. ICPSR has invested effort over the past three years to map its data pipeline process, in order to increase shared understanding among staff about how the process works, and to guide multiple process improvements.

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