Languages
Pages
Legal
Creating Digital Preservation Plansas a Team Effort
Meg Phillips, External Affairs LiaisonLeslie Johnston, Director of Digital PreservationJana Leighton, Electronic Records Processing ArchivistCriss Austin, Supervisory Motion Picture Preservation Specialist
May 18, 2020Best Practices Exchange Conference
1
2
How Did This Project Come About?Leslie Johnston
● NARA needed to better understand and document the risks associated with its digital holdings in Preservation Action Plans. These plans had to document:
○ Significant preservation properties for each record type (textual, images, A/V, structured data, etc)
○ File format sustainability and current level of preservation risk for NARA
○ Links to specifications/documentation○ Proposed NARA preservation actions○ Proposed tools for processing and preservation used
at NARA
● The Digital Preservation unit had limited resources as a staff of one.
● Deep expertise with the file formats existed in the appraisal and custodial units.
3
Leslie’s Plea for Help: Internal Posting for a Detail
4
Getting Everyone TogetherJana Leighton
“Life Keep GIF.” Giffy, 04/17/2017,
https://media.giphy.com/media/a9wFQSc0oRQGI/giphy.gif.0
p4/17/2
5
OrganizationJana Leighton
6
The ResearchCriss Austin
● What do I do IRL?○ Manage a small staff of five employees responsible for preserving
and digitizing over a million reels of film spread between the Mothership (NARA) and 13 Presidential Libraries
○ Work on equipment○ Serve on standards groups○ Beg for resources○ Really love working on film
● Why did I apply for this detail? - multiple choice1. I am crazy2. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone3. If I didn’t do it no one else would and/ or it might turn out really
badly4. All of the above
● Thoughts Going In?○ Cue “What’s Happening?!?!” by the Byrds○ Followed by the Wonder Woman theme song
7
The ResearchCriss Austin
● Similar work done when transitioning from analog to digital work processes in 2008
○ Creation of a format matrix for dynamic media○ Research established best practices for NARA based on
the equipment we had○ Development of Products and Services
● This work fed into NARA’s File Format Transfer Guidance○ Had a sustainability template
● Within the Matrix I tried to answer each “question” for each file format
○ All The Googling○ Delved into White Papers○ Contacted experts
8
The ResearchCriss Austin
9
The ResearchCriss Austin
10
The ResearchCriss Austin
11
GitHub
● Drafts of Format Action Plans on GitHub were created as PDFs and released September 4, 2019○ https://github.com/usnationalarchives/digital-preservation
● Open for comments for 6 weeks
● We received 27 comments on GitHub and over two dozen in-person comments and questions.
● The feedback covered a wide variety of topics.
12
Next Steps Based on Feedback
● Reviewing the plans for links to appropriate resources
● Adding several dozen formats to the plans
● Breaking format families into individual versions
● Releasing next version in June 2020
● Releasing plans as linked data later in 2020
● Capturing copies of specifications and standards for use in
ongoing format sustainability research
● Continuing on an ongoing basis to:
○ add formats, update our recommendations, introduce new
tools, and identify new community resources
13
How Successful Was This Model?
● The work was completed on time and the scope FAR exceeded
the original scope of the project.
● The team members developed rapport across organizations
and geographical locations.
● This introduced a new workflow for digital preservation
assessment and planning.
● The scope and outcome were key factors in the successful
justification for 1 additional staff member in the Digital
Preservation unit.
● The team received a 2020 Archivist’s Award, the highest award
in the agency.
14
Questions & Discussion
Digital Preservation Strategy:https://www.archives.gov/preservation/electronic-records/digital-preservation-strategy
GitHub:https://github.com/usnationalarchives/digital-preservation
THANK [email protected]@nara.gov
Top Related