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Title Goes HereJuly 29, 2004
AIMS workshop23 August 2011
Born-digital materials at the Ransom Center
• 46 hybrid collections containing digital materials
• 2,200 removable media of various types (60% 3.5-inch disks)
• 8 personal computers
• Partially to fully processed: 8 collections
• Not processed: 38 collections
• Currently available to researchers: 0
Lessons Learned #1
• Providing two separate finding aids, or one finding aid not linked to the repository database, is not helpful.
• Basic digital functionality is expected (e.g., search).
• Advanced functionality and interoperability are desired.
• User feedback is useful, important, and easy to solicit informally.
• Even people who are afraid of technology have valuable insight into how a database, interface, or other system components can be improved.
Example of finding aid for paper materials (David Foster Wallace)
Lesson Learned #2
• Technology is supposed to help.
• If using a particular system increases your workload in ways that don't make sense, reevaluate the situation and your options.
Lesson Learned #3a
• Establishing descriptive standards should be a learning process for staff, not for students and volunteers.
• Once standards are in place, students/volunteers can learn from the choices staff have already made and offer suggestions for improvement.
• Consistency in description and arrangement is vital because metadata needs to be portable between systems (e.g., from DSpace to something else).
Lesson Learned #3b
• Don't let the peculiarities of a particular repository system dictate the arrangement or descriptive standards of your born-digital materials.
• Metadata needs to be portable, robust, and transcendent.
Hybrid inventory
• Hyperlink to corresponding
series on Dspace
• “ER” denoting presence of
electronic records
• Dspace structure mostly corresponds to that of finding aid for paper materials
Lesson Learned #4
• One of the biggest challenges will be to build cataloging practices that privilege and support paper and digital components equally.
• Obstacles: staff training, equipment, expertise, pressure to finish projects and get finding aids online sooner rather than later.
Disk record, ER database
Thank you!
Gabby [email protected]