Code4libBC Day 2: Archives 101 for digital librarians

Notes from the breakout sessions.

  • Archival Advantage (OCLC report): advantages to working with archivists with information
  • archivists consider the provenance rather than by subject e.g. retaining order
  • the stuff that you find is what was made a long the way rather than the final product
  • material tend to be unique in context, rather than repeatable material
  • meaningful links between creator, activity that created material, why undertake activity, and between related materials
  • materials described in aggregations
  • finding aids just structure for metadata which includes more provenance info than you would typically have in other types of collections
  • fond = stuff you made/got and kept vs. collection that is gathered purposefully
  • standard for description, but not structure, but has best practices
  • may have different standard e.g. top level fond vs. series
  • archives focus on context
  • the things an archivist would describe if they were looking at item level (which is rare): context of creation, related persons -> named access points; “docket style” folding, filing information including date
  • information is divided to describe the specific level: fond, series, sub-series, etc.
  • advantages: issues of custody, ownership, intellectual property, documenting chain of custody for authenticity, copyright/licenses in some circumstances, appraisal (don’t keep everything, don’t digitize everything), context (how/why material was created), thought to significant characteristics of various formats, how to preserve/display them authentically, authenticity (combining integrity and identity), preservation, description and metadata
  • things can help with: OAIS compliant workflows, safe movement of files
  • records manager: more about when in active lifecycle
  • how do you digital collections and archival fonds together?
  • could repeat the series metadata to the item
  • could improve the metadata
  • authorities = something archivists could learn from librarians
  • archivescanada recently relaunched
  • convergence in some areas e.g. around digital preservation, using linked data