The Urley Bird Opens in Word: Digital Documentation of Leon Uris and John

Crowley as Authors

Jennifer LindleySidney Tibbetts Jose Javier Garza

INF 392 K5 May 2007

Leon Uris John Crowley

Creator Sketch

Uris (1924-2003)• American historical novelist

and writer of screenplays; great supporter of Ireland and Israel

• Best known for novels Exodus and Trinity and screenplay of the film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

• HRC materials include Trinity screenplays and cash disbursement files

Crowley (1942- )• American novelist, teacher

and writer of documentary films; known for combining science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy in his works

• Best known for Little,Big and his Ægypt tetralogy

• HRC materials include Dæmonomania, The Translator, a documentary about China, and correspondence

Physical Description

Uris• 169 boxes• 43 oversize boxes• 6 galley folders• 20 3.5” diskettes

– (108 linear feet)

– Gifts 1997, 2003-4

Crowley• 21 boxes• 1 print box• 9 3.5” diskettes

(9.24 linear feet)

Purchases: 1992, 1994, 2000

Digital Archaeology

Uris• Worked primarily with

Apple Macintosh OS 8.5 and OSX

• Only 3 of 20 disks mounted properly on OS 8.5

• 1 disk was corrupt• Worked with Quinn Stewart

to attempt to open other disks

Crowley• Worked primarily with

Windows 2000 and Windows XP

• All disks mounted and all files readable

File Formats/Migration

Uris• Microsoft Word files

migrated to RTF and TXT using Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac

• Microsoft Works Spreadsheets (AWSS) would not render

• After many attempts, opened and migrated in Microsoft Word

Crowley• Invalid or unidentified file

formats• WordPerfect 9 files opened• Microsoft Word files would

not open on Win 2000• RTF and Unicode copies were

generated in ABC AmberText Converter or WordPerfect 9 or Word 2003

Checksums

Uris• Integrity calculates three

MD5 hashes: file checksum, data fork, resource fork

• Only some files had resource forks

• One file had differing file checksum and data fork hashes

Crowley• Jacksum calculates MD5

hashes through a command line interface

Cataloging & Metadata

Uris• Used CatFinder to generate

file catalog containing technical metadata

• Searched LOC authorities list for subject headings

Crowley• Used WinCatalog Light to

generate file catalog containing technical metadata

• Searched LOC authorities list for subject headings

• Harvested “Date created” metadata by hand

Finding Aids and File Structure

Uris• DSpace arrangement

reflects HRC finding aid

Crowley• DSpace arrangement

reflects HRC finding aid• Added new series to

incorporate Correspondence files

Uris File Structure

Crowley File Structure

Ingest ProcessStep 2 Dspace repositoryStep 1

Ingest 1:Create submission

Enter metadataVerify checksumUpload bitstream

Ingest 2:Create submission

Enter metadataVerify checksumUpload bitstream

Administrator:Verify metdataAdd additional

metadataAccept/reject submission

Archival Package:

Original fileMigrated files

Metadata

Original fileMigrated files

Metadata

Original fileMigrated files

Metadata

Accept/Reject

Administrative Issues

Uris• How much information

should we provide in Dspace regarding the files we know about only from disk labels?

Crowley• How/whether to represent

the letter Æ (ash) in the metadata

• Should finding aids describe intellectual content or physical location?

• Navigation woes of the ‘mære-weriges mod’

The Bigger Picture

Uris• Try before you buy!• Get hardware/software

configurations from the author

• Process digital materials now; they won’t wait

• Even Tech Gurus fail sometimes

Crowley• Discuss metadata

requirements and levels of service before acquisition

• Pray that authors stick to MS Word until we can get this digital archiving business sorted!