Digital Preservation, Archival Science and Methodological Foundations for Digital Libraries

Ross, Seamus

doi:10.1080/13614576.2012.679446

Cited by 69 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…As the scale of digital repository building increases, so too does the need for measurement rigor that may lend itself to the development of computer-assisted quality assessment processes. The point of departure for the research described here is the nascent consensus within an international community of archival and digital preservation scholars that digital surrogacy can communicate archival properties through technological transformation (Ross 2007). Notwithstanding the commitments to supporting understandability by ''designated communities'' that are embedded in emerging digital repository standards (CCSDS 2002, pp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archival quality and long-term preservation: a research framework for validating the usefulness of digital surrogates

Conway

2011

Arch Sci

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Digital archives accept and preserve digital content for long-term use. Increasingly, stakeholders are creating large-scale digital repositories to ingest surrogates of archival resources or digitized books whose intellectual value as surrogates may exceed that of the original sources themselves. Although digital repository developers have expended significant effort to establish the trustworthiness of repository procedures and infrastructures, relatively little attention has been paid to the quality and usefulness of the preserved content itself. In situations where digital content has been created by third-party firms, content quality (or its absence in the form of unacceptable error) may directly influence repository trustworthiness. This article establishes a conceptual foundation for the association of archival quality and information quality research. It outlines a research project that is designed to develop and test measures of quality for digital content preserved in HathiTrust, a large-scale preservation repository. The research establishes methods of measuring error in digitized books at the data, page, and volume level and applies the measures to statistically valid samples of digitized books, adjusting for inter-coder inconsistencies and the effects of sampling strategies. The research findings are then validated with users who conform to one of four use-case scenarios: reading online, printing on demand, data mining, and print collection management. The paper concludes with comments on the implications of assessing archival quality within a digital preservation context.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archival quality and long-term preservation: a research framework for validating the usefulness of digital surrogates

Conway

2011

Arch Sci

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“…Such choices effectively amount to unmanaged, "benign neglect" [22]. As has been noted in digital curation scholarship, however, "benign" means free from intentional damage; unintentional damage is still likely to occur: "[d]igital objects do not, in contrast to many of their analogue counterparts, respond well to benign neglect" [23].…”

Section: Discussion Of Findings 51 Digital Object Creation and Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Performances, Preservation, and Policy Implications: Digital Curation and Preservation Awareness and Strategy in the Performing Arts

Molloy

2015

New Review of Information Networking

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Digital assets in contemporary performing arts practice are vulnerable to damage and disappearance, eroding prospects of a coherent record of contemporary practice and its place in our wider digital cultural heritage. This paper summarises a study that seeks to understand and assess this threat so that appropriate solutions -if necessary -can be scoped and provided in a way accessible both to the practitioner and the research and academic/training communities. A series of case studies was developed examining the digital curation and preservation awareness and practice of a sample of UK-based performing arts professionals. This approach provides a 'practitioner's-eye view' of the types of digital objects used by this community; current curation strategies and activities; and the factors that influence digital curation and preservation decisions.This study establishes that digital objects are highly prized by the professional performance community.Accordingly, expectations of the survival of these digital objects are high, but investigation found that levels of sustainable digital curation and preservation practice are low. These findings support the argument that competent digital curation and preservation practice is relevant to the sustainability of a career in the performing arts, as well as of benefit to the arts researcher or student and cultural heritage more widely. These findings reveal the need for an effective response in order to mitigate the loss of digital cultural heritage in this professional sector.Preservation of the digital cultural objects that are created, shared and sought by performing arts practitioners is subject to the economic realities of professional practice and also constrained by current levels of practitioner digital curation awareness and competence. These skills are not yet routinely taught in practitioner training institutions. There is an urgent need i) to promulgate policies based on a sound knowledge of digital curation and preservation practices in the professional performing arts community; and ii) for a coherent strategy to develop practitioner knowledge and skills, and to deliver such training in language accessible to the community of practice. This paper describes the problem, my research approach, and my findings and recommendations, and is intended to be of interest to all those engaged in policy and skills development in communities of practice beyond the academy, particularly in the creative arts and cultural heritage domains.

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“…The fact that digital curation is regularly mentioned in tandem with digital preservation, the field of research and professional practice from which it originated (Ross 2004;Giaretta and Weaver 2005;Engelhardt 2013), and that many researchers and practitioners are affiliated almost indistinguishably with both topics, raises the question how distinctive might digital curation be from digital preservation as a research field and professional specialization. To add to the ambiguity, diverse disciplinary traditions including archival science (Ross 2012), library and information science (Palmer et al 2008), archaeology and museum studies (Dallas 2007a), and art curating (Wolff et al 2012;Rinehart and Ippolito 2014) lay claim to the intellectual foundations of digital curation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Digital curation beyond the “wild frontier”: a pragmatic approach

Dallas

2015

Arch Sci

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This paper advocates the necessity of developing a pragmatic alternative to the dominant custodial theorization of digital curation as an ''umbrella concept for digital preservation, data curation, electronic records, and digital asset management''. Starting from a historical account and an examination of prevalent definitions, it points to the current dependence of digital curation on a prescriptive approach rooted in its cognate field of digital preservation, aiming to serve the needs of professional stewardship. It demonstrates the disconnect of this theorization with the rich historical traditions of museum curatorship where the notion of curation originated, its inability to act as a framework for understanding the diversity and pervasiveness of contemporary digital curation practices ''in the wild'' (such as content curation, personal archiving, and pro-am digitization), and its dependence on a ''wild frontier'' ideology dissonant with contemporary critical cultural heritage scholarship. The alternative, pragmatic approach views digital curation as a ''contact zone'' practice, routinely performed by a broad range of actors including researchers, artists, users, and communities, on dynamically evolving objects, domain knowledge representations, and interactions, beyond the curation life cycle prescribed for custodial environments. On this basis, this study calls for a formal reconceptualization of digital curation, adequate knowledge representation of its objects, evidence-based research on curation practices, and establishment of curation-enabled digital infrastructures suitable for curation in the continuum. Reaching & Costis Dallas beyond a custodial view, this approach aims to establish digital curation as a field of intellectual inquiry relevant to emerging pervasive curation practices in the digital environment.

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Digital Preservation, Archival Science and Methodological Foundations for Digital Libraries

Cited by 69 publications

References 19 publications

Archival quality and long-term preservation: a research framework for validating the usefulness of digital surrogates

Archival quality and long-term preservation: a research framework for validating the usefulness of digital surrogates

Performances, Preservation, and Policy Implications: Digital Curation and Preservation Awareness and Strategy in the Performing Arts

Digital curation beyond the “wild frontier”: a pragmatic approach

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