Engineering the Future of the Past » roles and responsibilities

Visualizing PAIMAS and OAIS

Kari R. Smith — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 19:31:29 +0000

Part of the work with implementing a digital archives program is being transparent within the organization and also to external stakeholders. This diagram attempts to convey the PAIMAS and OAIS functions and responsibilities of the Producer and the Archives. In this case, I am focused on the tasks with which the Institute Archives and Special Collections department are primarily engaged.

My goal with this diagram is to illustrate the relationships, obligations, and responsibilities between the Producer and the Archives at Ingest. Concluding the data flow through to archival storage and generate dissemination packages helps to show the full picture.

Those familiar with the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and the Producer-Archives Interface Methodology Abstract Standard (PAIMAS) will note that not all of the OAIS functional areas are included. Notably missing are Common Services, Administration, and Preservation Planning as fully developed entities. These functions at MIT Libraries are primarily managed and coordinated by the Curation and Preservation Services department, headed by Nancy Y. McGovern.

This diagram builds on and is a top-level overlay to the workflow diagrams posted previously to this blog.

Resources we’ve been reading

Kari R. Smith — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 14:37:44 +0000

There have been a lot of really good and relevant publications recently that we’ve been reading and referring to in our on-going development of our digital archives program. In this post, I am calling out a few of the ones I’m referring to most often.

Born Digital: Guidance for Donors, Dealers, and Archival Repositories, released on MediaCommons Press, January 2013. Read the Publication
Born Digital is a great publication that provides guidance and lays out responsibilities for donors, dealers, and archival repositories involved with archiving digital material. The cast of authors is superb and they brought together their accumulated experiences and knowledge into a very useful handbook. The audience for Born Digital includes creators of digital content who are interested in donating material to an archives, third-parties with custody of digital material who are engaging in discussions of archiving material, and archival repositories who are engaged in negotiations and the tasks involved with transferring born digital material.

Digital Preservation Coalition Technology Watch Reports, 2013 issues

13–3: Preservation Metadata (2nd edition) by Richard Gartner & Brian Lavoie
13-02: Preserving Computer-Aided Design (CAD) by Alex Ball
13-01: Web-Archiving by Maureen Pennock

British Library’s Digital Preservation Strategy 2013-2016 here
Mo Pennock is the lead author of the BL’s digital preservation strategy that they’ve made publicly available. As noted on the BL webpage hosting the strategy, “Digital preservation is a lifecycle concern and an organisation’s shared responsibility. Our digital preservation strategy (2013 – 2016) recognises this and implements a cross-directorate governance structure to ensure it can be achieved. This is not a strategy for the digital preservation team alone, but a strategy for the whole library.”

Walk This Way: Detailed Steps for Transferring Born-Digital Content from Media You Can Read In-house, by Julianna Barrera-Gomez and Ricky Erway, OCLC Research Download the report
“The report collects the assembled wisdom of experienced practitioners to help those with less experience make appropriate choices in gaining control of born-digital content. It contains discrete steps with objectives, links to available tools and software, references and resources for further research and paths to engagement with the digital archives community.”

Proceedings from IS&T Archiving2013, Washington, DC April 2013
Volume 9 © 2013 The Society for Imaging Science and Technology

Archiving is one of my favorite conferences and I find the proceedings are very useful for referring back to as well as for looking up additional references and related resources. Excerpts are online and the volume is available for purchase.

What have you been reading that relates to digital archives program development?

Defining the Role of Digital Archivist

Kari R. Smith — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:22:10 +0000

Recently, I was asked to present at the MIT Libraries all-staff meeting on the topic, “Defining the Role of Digital Archivist.” It was a great opportunity to share with colleagues examples of what we have accomplished during the past year and also to speak to the point of defining the role of digital archivist at MIT Libraries. During the 30 minute presentation I talked about what archivists do on a day-to-day basis and how the role of the digital archivist supports and innovates on that work as we deal with digital collections.

Presentation Talking Points:

The Roles and Responsibilities of all archivists also hold true for digital archivists
Prerequisite knowledge and experience for a digital archivist may include additional technology and technical skills
Digital Preservation is likely to be included in the responsibilities of a digital archivist
Defining the role of digital archivist across our profession can differ widely
At MIT the digital archivist’s role includes: increasing the Institute Archives capacity to ingest, appraise, organize, store, protect, and provide access to digital material (digitized and born-digital)
The role is dedicated to implementation, strategic planning, and building a knowledge and skill base for managing digital material specifically within the Institute Archive and Special Collections and for the MIT Libraries generally.
Roles and Responsibilities of the digital archivist include those in the following areas:

Donor Relations
Preparing for Ingest
Manage and Protect
Integrate Digital into Practice
Access and Use

My presentation slides are attached to this posting. Please take a look — I’m glad to hear your comments.