The devil is in the details Describing borndigital
The devil is in the details: Describing born-digital records using the Rules for Archival Description Kat Timms Library and Archives Canada SAA Archives 2013 New Orleans
Overview Part I - Introduction to RAD - General issues with RAD - Issues with RAD Ch. 9 for Electronic Records Part II - Beyond RAD – metadata/descriptive standards landscape - What do we need? What do we have? Who needs which information for what purpose?
Rules for Archival Description: Introduction • Original edition published 1990 • AACR 2/ISBD + archival principles (respect des fonds, multi-level description moving from general to specific, focus on context) • ISAD(G) & ISAAR(CPF) vs. RAD • CUSTARD = DACS; RAD 2 (2008) • Principles: provide access via descriptions; promote understanding of archives; establish grounds for presuming authenticity
Rules for Archival Description: General Issues • Richard Dancy, “RAD Past, Present, and Future, ” Archivaria #74 (2012) • Bibliographic model that has moved on • ISBD/AACR 2 -based organization: missing or packed & buried data • Content standard? Data value standard? • Describing intellectual entities, physical entities, or both?
A Peek at Physical Description 9. 5 B 1: 6 photographs (tiff) 9. 5 B 2 (optional): 5 GB of photographs 9. 5 B 3 (optional): 2 CD-ROMs (textual records) 9. 5 B 5 (when applicable): 2. 4 MB of textual records and other material • 9. 5 C 1: 1 TB of cartographic material : col. • 9. 5 C 2: 1 computer disk : sd. , col. , single sided, single density, soft sectored • 9. 5 D 1: 1 computer disk ; 9 x 9 cm • •
What’s all the fuss about? Looking at a Born-Digital Item
Digital Reality = The Item • On opposite ends from MPLP? Nesmith’s broader contextual descriptions? • Existence and visibility of minute details (bit streams, file formats, metadata, structure, content & context) = necessity to manage all of these aspects/components of “recordness” • Good start: devising a conceptual model for archival records, including items (digital or otherwise)
Rules for Archival Description: Chapter 9 - Records in Electronic Form • Practical reality: instructions specific to digital records are needed • Highlighting three issues in Chapter 9 i. Which date of creation is *the* date of creation? ii. Documenting “conservation” activities for 9. 8 B 10 b file format migration and digitization via RAD vs. via ANSI/NISO Z 39. 87 or PREMIS iii. Fonds/collection – series – file – item: where’s the rest of the arrangement structure?
What do we need? • Clearer instructions for intellectual management (metadata for discovery) and physical management (metadata supporting curation over time) • A conceptual model for archives, including at the item-level • Build upon and re-use existing standards (e. g. , PREMIS, EAD) • Clearer interpretation and understanding of digital records and their structure • Building an infrastructure based on the continuum model
What’s out there?
Future RAD, considering “Who needs to know what? ” • Conceptual Model for Archives --> Framework of Standards --> Guidelines & Best Practices • Outstanding theoretical questions for digital records • Information needs of clients: Content, Context (how much? ) and Curation (how much transparency? ) • Standards serve both inward facing needs (archival physical and intellectual management) and outward facing needs (resource discovery and access)
Final Thoughts • We’re moving in the right direction… • RAD has a future, but it’ll be different… • Let’s keep on deconstructing digital archives coming to a better common understanding…
Thank you!
- Slides: 13