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Thoughts on 4 Years of “Thinking Digital”
Brian Wilson, The Henry FordMichigan Archival Association 2014 Annual Meeting
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Henry Ford Statue. Image by Michelle Andonian. ID THF54681
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Scale, Access, Tools, Workflows
Scale, Access, Tools, Workflows
Henry Ford Statue. Image by Michelle Andonian. ID THF54681
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Explore by looking at: • Institution-wide Collections Digitization Project• New Collection Management System• Online Finding Aid Project
ProjectsProjects
Collections Digitization
Background• Project started 2010• Goal to digitize entirety of holdings
– Museum, Village and Archives
• Multiple departments– Archives, Conservation, Registrars, ITS, Digital
Media– 10-15 staff on full-time basis
• Delivers online object records and images
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Collections Digitization
• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics
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- 500 records in 2010; now +27,000
- 7000 archival items per year21,000 CMS records42,000 image files
- Max 2 week turnaround- Number of staff and
departments involved
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Collections Digitization
• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics
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- Cameras, not flatbeds- Faster computers; dual
monitors- New software- Employing Project Manager
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Collections Digitization
• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics
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- Parallel processes- Imaging before cataloging- Selecting entire folders or
boxes, not just individual items
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Collections Digitization
• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics
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- Aggregate and individual description
- Reduced depth of description- Description tasks occurring
outside of Registrars
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Collections Digitization
• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics
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- Imaging for access not preservation
- Discovery affected by aggregate description
- User interface plays a big role
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Collections Digitization
• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics
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- Digital images are an investment
- Investment needs protection- DVDs aren’t sufficient- Storage needs grow quickly- Storage does not decrease- ITS is your friend- Material does not manage itself
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Collections Digitization
• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics
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- Metrics based solely on objects miss underlying processes
- 1 object = 3 records + 6 image files
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New Collection Management System
Background• Replaced Argus with KE Software EMu• New system put in production in 2011• Serves multiple departments
– Archives, Conservation, Registrars, ITS
• System capable of managing archival collections– Not unlike Archivist Toolkit
• Currently contains +350,000 catalog records
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New Collection Management System
• Description• Workflow• Tools
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- Primary description to be held in CMS
- MARC derived from CMS- Common fields with Registrars- Incomplete or in-process
records are ok
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New Collection Management System
• Description• Workflow• Tools
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- MARC comes second- Tasks split between
departments
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New Collection Management System
• Description• Workflow• Tools
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- Everyone must learn new software
- Complex, enterprise type application
- Not Excel or Access
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Finding Aid Project
Background• DALNET grant 2011-2012
– Scanned +4400 pages = 946 inventories– PT assistant to create finding aids
• PDFs in web-accessible folder– Folder indexed by Google and ArchiveGrid
• +260 finding aids publically available• +1100 finding aids and inventories
available to staff
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Finding Aid Project
• Access• Workflow• Tools
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- EAD not the only way- Cross-document search- Google indexing- Linking to other holdings, forms- Effective for other textual docs
like photo logs, transcriptions
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Finding Aid Project
• Access• Workflow• Tools
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- Publishing and publically distributing
- Create well-defined authoring, review and change process
- No more hand changes to paper copies
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Finding Aid Project
• Access• Workflow• Tools
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- Digital does not have to mean complicated
- Simple tools can be effective- MS Word and PDF- Web folder and static html page
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Henry Ford Statue. Image by Michelle Andonian. ID THF54681
