**NOTE**
Since FY15, we have been experimenting and developing workflows and procedures for working with electronic files. As of now (early FY17) most legacy carriers have been imaged, and digital archivists are making electronic files ready for processing shortly after collections are accessioned. We're still feeling out what to do, why, and how when it comes to working with electronic files. As each collection is worked with, we gain more experience and expertise, which can help to revisit and revise our current guidelines and workflows. Please provide feedback on the process, and suggestions as to how to improve this documentation, to your team lead and/or Jen Weintraub.
What follows are suggestions for approaching appraisal and processing of electronic files removed from carriers.
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.
Do 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:
Are the files restricted in any way?
Can you provide access to them directly out of the finding aid?
Are they complementary to paper files (e.g. are they drafts of a book project that already has a subseries or a number of paper files listed)
Are they arranged in meaningful folders on their carriers? Or are they just put on the carrier as a means of transport?
2. Access considerations. Can these files be linked through the finding aid? (Are there restrictions, has the donor agreed that material can be made available online?)
If yes, determine (with Jen, Pablo, team lead) if there are normalization needs, what are the available ways we can deposit into DRS. E.G. If you have word processing files and plan to create individual links from the finding aid, convert the files to PDF/As, rename individual files with the corresponding E# from the finding aid, and deposit files into the DRS, and link from finding aid. Consult with team lead, Cat Holbrook, and Paula Aloisio on these steps as needed. [Also information to come: how to normalize and provide access to non word processing files such as images etc.]
To create PDFs from documents created on obsolete word processing documents:
In Quickview, choose a file to look at. Then choose Print. You have to print it as a PDF and in Print Setup, when you choose PDF, make sure to go into Properties and then under Adobe PDF settings, look for Default Settings and then choose—PDF/A. ( It doesn’t matter if you use PDF/A-1b RGB or CMYK: those are only printing issues, I checked with the DRS documentation. I’d just choose RGB since it is first, but again, doesn’t matter.)
Then when you print it, the program will ask where you want to save it.
If no, work with Jen to correctly label, restrict, and store files. Work on how to provide in-house access to come in 2016.
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.
EXAMPLE: HRPBA Oral History project: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch01503
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
Some Bunting Institute records are restricted, and can not be linked from the finding aid.
Cat located many disks during processing, some of these disks were unreadable on the first try, and some were identified (after a brief file review) as being not from the Bunting Institute.