Born-Digital Records at UAlbany

Gregory Wiedeman

University Archivist

University at Albany, SUNY

GWiedeman@albany.edu

@gregwiedeman

Born-Digital Records at UAlbany

• Overview of UAlbany’s born digital records
• First attempt and maintenance issues
• Building Born-Digital infrastructure
• Making Access Familiar

The University Archives

• University Records
  • Office of the President
  • University Senate
  • University Council
  • Provost and Academic Affairs
    • Records of Schools and Colleges
    • Records of Academic Departments
  • Research Centers and Institutes
• Student Groups and Manuscripts
  • Student Association
  • Albany Student Press
  • Faculty and Alumni Papers

Traditional Practices

• Driven by physical space

• Collecting during office moves, when storage areas get crowded

• Call the University Archivist for information

• This model no longer works

Need to Demonstrate Value to Creators

• Today most permanent records are created digitally
• Digital space is less of a barrier
• Creators want near-immediate access
• Chicken and Egg resources problem

Born-Digital Records Collecting in Practice

• Files On the Live Web
  • Web crawling
• Files dispersed around the University
  • Local Computers
  • Network Shares
  • Cloud Storage (OneDrive)
  • Different Software Applications
  • Private Computers

Ben Goldman, “Outfitting a Born-Digital Archives Program”
Practical Technology for Archives   Issue 2 (June 2014)

Establishing a Collecting Program

• Network Folder Share
  • Archives and creator has access
  • Python script run on task scheduler
  • Weekly checks for new files
  • CSV log files of files transferred
  • Creates XML accession metadata file
  • Runs createSIP.py command line tool
  • Enters line in accessions.xlsx
• Custom scripts for SmugMug and other systems with APIs
• Manual collecting over GoogleDrive

Current Storage

• \\romeo\SPE\ua200-7VsAhYXbfYg3EKXaypCJeD

Establishing a Collecting Program

• Transfer Script

Establishing a Collecting Program

Establishing a Collecting Program

Establishing a Collecting Program

Current Access System

• University Senate Records
• Luna DAMS
• Digital Media Department

Maintenance

• Scripts break over time
  • No more ad-hoc approaches
  • No more XML data stores
• Network of well-maintained interoperable tools
  • APIs connections
  • Data Models

Introduction to APIs

• Wayback Machine

• Wayback Machine API

• Archive-It
• Page for Crawl
• API for Crawl

ArchivesSpace is the Key

What can you do with ASpace API?

• Fully exploit archival description
• Automate any changes at any scale
  • Data Model makes sure its consistent
• Connect with other systems
• Rely on the community for sustainable code
• ArchivesSnake makes it easier

Separation of Concerns: Smaller Tools

• Find-it
  • \\libstaff\wwwroot\find-it
• asInventory
  • \\LINCOLN\Library\SPE Staff\Greg\asInventory
• Box uploader

Data Models!

An Interoperable Repository with APIs

• ArchivesSpace for Managing Metadata
  • Spreadsheet tool
  • Find-it
• Archive-It for Web Archives
• Hyrax Repository for Digital Storage
• Arclight for Access
• Make Automatic Connections!

API Access Allows Maintainable Workflows

Make Access Familiar

• Discoverable alongside paper records
• In context with upper level Archival Description
• Purpose of website is to access paper and digital records
• Demonstrate value to campus and outside donors

An Interoperable Repository with APIs

Things I don’t really care about

• File formats
  • identification
  • validation
  • migration for preservation
• Literal interpretation of OAIS
• Compression
• Any micro preservation activity

Things I do care about

• Automation/scale
• Description/content standards
• Maintenance
• Documentation
• Access

Challenges

• Administering Hyrax Sustainably
• Advocacy and legwork with creators
• Updating
• Maintenance

Born-Digital Records at UAlbany

Gregory Wiedeman

University Archivist

University at Albany, SUNY

GWiedeman@albany.edu

@gregwiedeman