Welcome to the second Q&A blog post for our Everyday Digital Archives campaign, featuring the perspective of Christine Wiseman, Head, Digital Services Unit, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library.

What digital archives-related resources do you read–blogs, social media, articles, journals, listservs, etc.?
I subscribe to ALA’s digital preservation list serv [Digpres] and the Preservation Administrators Discussion Group [Padg], which often features digital preservation related discussions. I religiously read the excellent resources from the Library of Congress including Digital Preservation Newsletter and the blog called The Signal. LC has an entire section of their website devoted to personal digital archiving; all of these resources can be found on their digital preservation home page, http://www.digitalpreservation.gov. 

In addition, I closely follow the work of the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (FADGI). Chris Prom’s blog, Practical E-Records, is extremely useful because as the title implies, he offers practical solutions that are fairly easy to implement. Prom possesses the unique ability to break down complex problems into understandable chunks. Another useful blog is Engineering the Future of the Past by Kari Smith which chronicles the excellent work at MIT in the area of digital archives.

 
What advice would you give to an archivist who is nervous to start tackling digital archives?
It’s quite easy to be intimidated and overwhelmed by digital preservation and managing digital archival collections. However, benign neglect is never a good practice when it comes to digital formats. If you don’t jump in and do something, before long you will be inundated by content. Use the same processes and procedures in place for analog materials, and apply those to digital content. Work incrementally; first begin by following best practices for file organization, naming, and conversion. Make sure you have a robust back-up plan. Talk to colleagues about best practices and attend training such as the SAA Certification workshops or Nancy McGovern’s week-long digital preservation management workshop. In “You‘ve Got to Walk Before You Can Run: First Steps for Managing Born Digital Content Received on Physical Media,” Ricky Erway provides a set of initial steps for managing born digital content. Another good resource is the recently released National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NSDA) levels of digital preservation, which are intended to be easy to use and implemented in a tiered fashion.

Do you actively curate or archive your own personal digital materials? If so, how?
Why is curating or archiving your own personal digital materials important?
Do your personal digital archives exist outside of the virtual/online environment? In what form?
My family digital photographs and videos are probably my most precious digital records followed secondly by my professional files of writings, teaching materials, presentations, and images collected over the past 15 years working in libraries and archives. I was a fairly late adopter of digital photography but after getting my first digital camera in 2007 I never looked back. Now, like most people, I have thousands of digital photographs. For the first few years I tried to have prints made of my favorite photos for preservation purposes, but the volume of photos that digital photography produces soon made that too onerous a task. I try to keep them organized in a logical file system, but I don’t use consistent file names for the individual images. I try to maintain three copies of everything digital–one my computer hard drive, one an external hard drive and a third copy distributed on the internet using cloud storage such as DropBox and Google Drive and Flickr. A major challenge to this distributed model is keeping track of everything. One of my goals is to create an inventory of what is stored where, because as digital content accumulates it’s very easy to lose track.

 
“Won’t personal digital archiving solve itself as the digital generation comes of age?” Your thoughts?
**To give credit where credit is due, this question is taken from Catherine Marshall’s “Rethinking Personal Digital Archiving, Part 1” (http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march08/marshall/03marshall-pt1.html)
No, I don’t think so. I don’t think the digital generation–who tend to want immediate access to information–thinks about future access. They just assume it’s going to be available rather than understanding what is required to make that happen. I think it’s up to us old folks who remember life before the internet to serve as reminders.

Due to the distributed nature of personal digital archives, (i.e. content of an individual all over the web in different arenas: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) how should archivists approach the challenge of acquiring these dispersed digital materials? Are there tools to help?
Tools are emerging.  For example, Google now has a tool where you can download a copy of your data from all of their various products. An interesting area that is emerging is planning for your digital afterlife. Google now has options for what to do with your digital assets when you pass away or no longer use your account. You can have your account made inactive after a period of time or designate someone as your beneficiary. These features could have implications for archives and their work with donors.

 
What can we do as archivists to change the culture of “benign neglect” that people so often have in regards to their personal digital records?
Continue with efforts related to outreach and education. The tricky part is reaching members of the general public when we are more accustomed to talking to others in the library and archives profession.

 
How do you see people accessing personal digital records/archives in the future? 10 years? 20 years?
I think searching will become much more robust, especially of audio and video, and it will become less dependent on metadata and file names.

Thanks to Christine for sharing her insights! Want to volunteer to be interviewed for our Q&A blog posts? Know a digital records steward we should interview? Let us know: outreach [at] soga [dot] org.

–Cathy Miller, SGA Assistant Outreach Manager

The SGA Outreach Managers are excited to bring you the inaugural Q&A blog post for our Everyday Digital Archives campaign. Our first post features the reflections and thoughts of Sheila McAlister, Director of the Digital Library of Georgia.

What digital archives-related resources do you read–blogs, social media, articles, journals, listservs, etc.?
I subscribe to the Digital Preservation listserv (DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK), ALA’s digipres, and SAA’s preservation listserv. I follow what’s happening with SAA, NDIIPP, the DLF, and the NDSA and read D-Lib. Chris Prom also has a really useful blog, Practical E-Records. It’s always good to keep an eye on what’s going on in New Zealand and Australia; their national archives have made really important progress with digital preservation. For those interested in personal archiving, I strongly recommend LC’s page on Personal Digital Archiving, http://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/

What advice would you give to an archivist who is nervous to start tackling digital archives? 
Dive in! I find that my network of colleagues is incredibly helpful. Don’t be afraid to ask how and what others are doing. No one person can be an expert in everything; what you need to know is who to ask and where to look for guidance.

Do you actively curate or archive your own personal digital materials? If so, how?
Somewhat—surprisingly, I’m a bit of a Luddite; most of what I value personally isn’t in digital form.Of course, professionally it’s a different matter. I am a “digital pack rat,” but do a minimum of appraisal, use meaningful filenames, back up, and use series of meaningful directories.

Do your personal digital archives exist outside of the virtual/online environment? In what form?
Yes, really important documents, I will print out and file. We also back up to hard drives.

“Won’t personal digital archiving solve itself as the digital generation comes of age?” Your thoughts?
[To give credit where credit is due, this question is taken from Catherine Marshall’s “Rethinking Personal Digital Archiving, Part 1”: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march08/marshall/03marshall-pt1.html]
Digital files can’t really support “benign neglect.” We really should be thinking about stewardship as we create digital files.

What can we do as archivists to change the culture of “benign neglect” that people so often have in regards to their personal digital records?
Education and outreach–working with faculty and students at our home institutions (for those who are in academia); public programming.

How do you see people accessing personal digital records/archives in the future? 10 years? 20 years?
I really don’t know. I expect that we’ll be seeing more cloud-based storage, but beyond that my crystal ball is pretty cloudy.

Thanks to Sheila for sharing her insights! Want to volunteer to be interviewed for our Q&A blog posts? Know a digital records steward we should interview? Let us know: outreach [at] soga [dot] org.

–Cathy Miller, SGA Assistant Outreach Manager

• Personal digital archiving posts from The Signal, Library of Congress digital preservation blog: http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/category/personal-archiving/
• Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, Perspectives on Personal Digital Archiving: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/documents/ebookpdf_march18.pdf
• Donald C. Hawkins, Personal Archiving: Preserving our Digital Heritage: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/860712077
• Personal Digital Archiving 2014 Conference: http://visions.indstate.edu/pda2014/index.html
• Cal Lee, I, Digital: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/739914168
• Catherine C. Marshall, “Rethinking Personal Digital Archiving, Part 1”: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march08/marshall/03marshall-pt1.html
• Catherine C. Marshall, “Rethinking Personal Digital Archiving, Part 2”: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march08/marshall/03marshall-pt2.html

The Georgia Archives Month Committee wants to help shine a “spotlight” on our fellow archives. To help promote your programs for Georgia Archives Month, apply for the 2014 Spotlight on Archives Grant. Applications will be accepted through June 1. Apply now: http://ow.ly/vzWEC

The Society of Georgia Archivists’ Program Committee proudly announces the theme for the 2014 annual meeting: Plans and Strategies for the Future of Archives.

The Committee invites you to attend the meeting, to be held at The Classic Center in Athens, Georgia, November 5-7, 2014.

Plans and Strategies for the Future of Archives pushes archives professionals to reflect on the various theories, strategies, and the preparations that go into the new and innovative approaches we take in conducting our work. For the 2014 annual meeting, the Program Committee is seeking presentations on the following topics:

• Unfinished projects or those still in the planning stages, discussing ideas and theories that were or are being discussed, or completed projects in which there was a significant  and interesting strategies and paths that were pursued.
• Plans and ideas on how best to tackle issues that face archives and archivists, thoughts on best practices and reviewing standards whether it be new approaches to processing, offering access, or advocacy. How are archivists being innovative and are there better ways to use our resources.
• Digital projects, virtual reference, changes to meet user needs, new considerations, and thoughts on how to create better ways to interact with users. How are archivists molding technology to our own needs and to those of our users?

This year’s theme, Plans and Strategies for the Future of Archives, reflects the primary steps and considerations that face archivists when proposing new projects and programs.

Click here for SGA Session Proposal Form

Proposals must be submitted no later than Friday, May 2, 2014. Email proposals to: lstarratt [at] gmail.com.

National History Day (NHD) engages K-12 students in history through hands-on experiences, project-based learning activities, presentations, and competitions.

The NHD Mentoring Program at LaGrange College, in association with the Georgia Humanities Council, is organizing the first ever NHD Round Up in the state of Georgia. They are encouraging archives, museums, local historical societies, and libraries to open their doors to local NHD students during Saturdays in October. On “Round Up Saturdays,” these institutions will introduce NHD students to their facilities and holdings and assist them as they engage in research.

How your archives can get involved:

1) To help students develop topics, the NHD Mentoring Program is asking participating institutions to prepare a list of local and regional history topics relevant to their collections. The 2015 NHD theme, “Leadership and Legacy in History,” is particularly well suited to local and regional history topics. Your list should include both topics and the collections that address those topics.

2) Consider whether, in addition to providing a topic/collection list, your institution would be willing to host a Round Up day for NHD student researchers during the month of October. Saturdays are best, but if your institution isn’t open on Saturdays, you can designate a regular business day for the Round Up.

3) Email your institution’s topic/collections list and chosen Round Up date by July 15 to NHD Mentoring Program coordinator Dr. Kevin Shirley (kshirley [at] lagrange.edu), who will post them on the program’s website: http://www.lagrange.edu/nhd.

___________________________________________________________________________

About the NHD Mentoring Program at LaGrange College:
The NHD Mentoring Program at LaGrange College exists to promote the power and value of historical study, education and research through National History Day.  Our program provides support to students and teachers throughout the process, from topic selection to competition preparation.  We offer teacher and student workshops, serve as a web based clearinghouse for information, resources and ongoing education, answer research and project development queries from students and teachers, host the West Georgia Regional NHD Competition and provide support at the Georgia NHD State and National Competitions.  Our goals are simple:  (1) Help Georgia’s students experience as positive and powerful an experience through NHD as possible, (2) Help Georgia’s Teachers enjoy as much NHD success as possible, and (3) help Georgia become nationally known for the strength of it’s NHD program.  Please visit the program’s website at www.lagrange.edu/nhd. If you have any questions about the program or would like to learn more about NHD and the ways in which you can help, please contact the program coordinator, Dr. Kevin Shirley at kshirley [at] lagrange.edu or by phone at (706) 880-8033.

This one day workshop will introduce archivists to digital archives, explaining the basic concepts of curating and preserving electronic records in terms of traditional archival practice. Participants will learn practical things they can do to acquire, preserve, and provide access to electronic records with limited resources and technical expertise.

Creating and sustaining a robust, trustworthy digital archives is hard work. The problems are complex, and even more perplexing as technology evolves and presents new problems. At the same time, archivists don’t have to build an ideal system. Instead, a “guerrilla approach” looks for short-term tactics – inexpensive, simple steps that can help archivists move in the direction of the strategic ideal. Breaking digital archives into smaller pieces makes the problem manageable.

In this workshop, participants will discuss the core functions of digital archives and how they parallel traditional archives. Which records should be selected and acquired? How should those records be arranged and described? How should they be housed and preserved? And what about access? Participants will learn how their existing knowledge can be adapted to digital archives.

The facilitator, Richard Pearce-Moses, will lead participants through a series of questions, call for possible solutions, and suggest some of his own.

To get the most from the workshop, participants should understand the fundamentals of archival practice – appraisal and selection, arrangement and description, housing and preservation, reference and access. They should have a good computers skills – word processing, browsing the web, email, copying and renaming files, and creating folders. They do not need more advanced knowledge, such as programming, database design, programming, or web design. (Individuals with experience in digital archives or advanced skills are welcome to come and contribute to the conversation!)

Lunch will be provided for all participants!

Registration fee: $25.

Register here.

If you have any questions please contact Education Committee Chair Heather Oswald at hoswald@kennesaw.edu.

Update on Governor Deal’s funding FY2015 funding requests for the Georgia Archives, from GeorgiaArchivesMatters:

“Gov. Nathan Deal recently released his budget requests for Fiscal Year 2015

The governor requested an increase of $476,041 for operating the Archives. The sum includes $460,000 to allow the Archives to open to the public five days a week and to hire six additional employees. The remaining funds would be used for adjustments to employees’ retirement, insurance and salaries.
In addition, the governor recommended an expenditure of $957,910 for maintenance of the Archives building.

[…]

The budget still must go through the legislative process, which generally does not end until near the end of the session.

[…]

Contact your legislators at least once during this session, just to let them know we are still watching. Thank the lawmakers, Gov. Deal and the Board of Regents for their support. They will be watching, too. Now that the Archives will be open five days a week, it is important that researchers use the facility we all have worked so hard to save.”

For details on the Governor’s request, see pages 69-70 of http://www.house.ga.gov/budget/Documents/2015_FiscalYear/FY_2015_Tracking_Govs_Rec.pdf.