Beagrie.com

Its still quite rare to see research library webpages covering the issues of how to manage and curate contemporary special collections in digital formats so I would like to flag up two particularly good examples here.
The first is the The Wellcome Trust Library’s Digital Curation webpages I came across recently. It is an excellent ‘how to’ guide and sharing of practical experience in dealing with digital special collections built up over the last couple of years at Wellcome. It includes links to the Library Strategy, a ‘Digital Curation Toolbox’, and useful glossary and links.
The second is the Workbook on Digital Private Papers produced by the Paradigm project. The Personal Archives Accessible in Digital Media (paradigm) project funded by JISC involved the research libraries of the Universities of Oxford and Manchester. The workbook captures the projects experience in accessioning and ingesting digital private papers into their digital repositories, and processing these in line with archival and digital preservation requirements.

Both are highly recommended.

I found the draft Canadian Digital Information Strategy of considerable interest particularly the sections on national digital preservation actions.

The background to the document is as follows: in 2005, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) initiated a dialogue reflecting the range of interests in the digital field, with the goal of framing a Canadian Digital Information Strategy (CDIS). Through a series of meetings, LAC consulted with over 200 stakeholder organizations from a variety of sectors: publishing and media producers, creators, rights bodies, academics, provincial and federal officials, and memory institutions. The consultations culminated in a National Summit in 2006 where a broad consensus on the elements of a national strategy emerged, leading to the development of the Canadian Digital Information Strategy.

It is currently issued in draft form for comment by 23rd November 2007 by any interested person or organization and is available at http://www.collectionscanada.ca/cdis/index-e.html

A chapter is devoted to digital preservation issues and sets a series of national objectives as follows:

2.1 Conduct a national appraisal of digital information priorities for long-term retention and preservation, and accelerate capture accordingly.

2.2 Develop a distributed network of Trusted Digital Repositories (TDRs) with responsibility to capture, manage, preserve and provide access to Canada’s digital information assets

2.3 Foster Canadian R&D that advances the goals of better managing, sustaining and providing access to digital information, and contribute research outcomes to the global effort.

2.4 Develop new workplace skills capacity for digital information management and preservation.

2.5 Raise the public and political profile of digital preservation issues.

Overall an engaging national strategy – I will follow its progress with great interest.

I thought this was an interesting example of national collaboration and advocacy.

Press release available at http://www.nla.gov.au/media/digitalfuture/
Australias Cultural Heritage: A Digital Future

The Australian public has always valued the important role that the national collecting institutions play in keeping the record of our nations intellectual, social, political, administrative, and cultural development.

Cultural expression in Australia is now predominantly in digital form
Digital has become the preferred medium for Australian government agencies, authors, researchers, film makers, musicians and creators. Increasingly, the primary evidence of public administration is created in digital form. The vast majority of film and television works, and virtually all music and recorded sound created in Australia are now released in digital form.

Australia s ability to maintain a permanent and accessible record of these activities is therefore linked to our preparedness to cope with this digital tidal wave of images and sounds. As the Collections Council of Australia noted in its background papers for the 2006 Summit on Digital Collections: ‘ The growth of digital information and the need to store, manage and preserve access is an issue of truly global proportions.’

National collecting institutions are not resourced to cope with this digital tidal wave

The National Film and Sound Archive, National Archives of Australia, and National Library of Australia have the commitment, skills and vision to embrace the digital world. But their resources are largely committed to their traditional collections. To save Australias digital cultural heritage will require significant new funding.

Elsewhere, the Government has recognised the need for support to sustain the role of its agencies in a digital world. Substantial funding has been allocated to digital film, radio and television, and for the management of digital resources by bodies such as the ABC, GeoScience Australia and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Doing nothing is simply not an option

If not for the action of the National Library, the Sydney Olympics web site and the Centenary of Federation web site would no longer be accessible.

If not for the action of the National Archives, Commonwealth records kept on five and a quarter inch disks could have been lost.

If not for the action of the National Film and Sound Archive, early television heritage such as Homicide, Division Four and the Melbourne Cup would have become inaccessible.

Information in digital form is fragile, as it relies on technology that is constantly changing. Our heritage can disappear overnight from the Web, become trapped inside obsolete hardware or software or become unplayable due to obsolete equipment.

Weve already lost many of our important moments and many of our creative ideas and cultural expressions. There is a danger that in ten years time Australians will look back at today as a digital dark-age.

Doing nothing will deprive Australians of their cultural heritage

Australians are embracing the online world and seek their information increasingly in digital form. If Australias national cultural institutions dont collect and preserve the work and inspiration of our researchers and creators in digital form today, it will not be there for the public to access tomorrow.

To maintain our relevance and visibility in the digital world, the National Library of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Archives of Australia are seeking an expansion in the support we receive from Government.

The three agencies are proposing an investment of $90M over four years to address this major issue. The proposed investment has been examined by Access Economics, who have identified benefits exceeding costs by six fold over time. Access Economics commented: ‘ The benefits are significant and in large part accrue to users of the agency’s material. The investments allow more material to be collected or preserved, and that material in digital form is more accessible to potential users.’

Investing in Australias digital heritage is an investment for the future