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This is based on Susan Earle's July 2015 work with the Records of the HRPBA Oral History project, and on Cat Holbrook's work with the Mary Bunting Institute records in fall 2015. Every collection is, as we know, DIFFERENT (!) and workflows for different kinds of records and situations will vary. See below for how this workflow worked with different models of collections.
APPRAISAL:
Before viewing the files, you should have already thought through the set of questions the digital archivists have posed.
Determine what kinds of files these are. Are they closely related to the paper files? Are they transcripts, drafts, diary entries?
Do they have an intrinsic arrangement? Did they come on disks or other carriers with clear names? Are documents arranged in folders? Do they have folder titles that make sense?
If you believe these files are possibly exactly the same as paper records in the collection, is there value to keeping them in electronic format? Weigh the possibility of time-consuming matching against access and restriction issues. For example, if the born-digital file will be restricted for 50 years, it may be worth your time to check to see if it is in fact a duplicate, since keeping dark digital files may be complex.
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SURVEY
- Digital archivist Jen Weintraub is in charge of creating disk images/removing data from carriers. She should have completed this work by the time the collection is ready to be processed. Check in with her about where the working files are kept (on the R drive).
- During your survey process, view (as best you can) the born digital files to be processed. Schedule a meeting with Jen and possibly Pablo Morales-Henry to assess the born digital files. They should be able to provide archivists with a list of files that were removed from carriers; and a list of carriers that could not be read. If carriers could not be read on the first try, archivists should assess (in collaboration with Jen and Pablo) whether or not we should pursue other options for reading those files.
- You and Jen may start by looking at the files in FTK (Forensic ToolKit software), especially if it is a big collection. You will be able to mark the ones you definitely want to keep and process, the ones you definitely do not want, and then ones you want or need to look at in more detail and assess further. In the future, we will also be able to note which files have restrictions and what kinds of restrictions using bookmarks in FTK.
- Once you determine which files you want to keep and look at further Jen will export them to the Digital Collections Storage on the R drive. Some files can be viewed using Quickview at your own desk, and some can only be viewed by using FTK Imager on a forensic workstation.
APPRAISEDo you know who created these files? (if not, perhaps that information can be determined from metadata).
If you're fuzzy on what files to keep or what to discard, discuss with your team lead and the digital archivists. Familiarize yourself with some different models of treatment and description that might assist you in figuring out what to keep and how to arrange it.
PROCESS
- Describe electronic files in the finding aid. If they are related to paper files, intermingle them. If it seems more appropriate to have an entire series of electronic records, that's fine too.
Some things to consider when determining how to describe the files:
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If no, work with Jen to correctly label, restrict, and store files. Work on how to provide in-house access to come in 2016.
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MODELS of arrangement and description
MODEL A: Born digital files are closely related to the paper files, and (due to their file uniformity and small number) can easily be transformed into PDF/As, deposited into the DRS, and linked out through the finding aid.
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These born digital files were all word processing documents, and Susan knew from the disk names and the collection materials that they were intimately related to the other records (primarily audiotapes) in the collection. She reviewed the files on R, and determined that each electronic transcript would be a separate "E folder" in the finding aid, listed after the audiotape of the interview. She transformed the word processing files into PDF/A files, Cat deposited those files in the DRS, and links to each file were added into the E folders in the finding aid.
MODEL B: Born digital files from the Mary Bunting Institute Records
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