Digital Preservation for Small Archives

Digital Preservation for Small Archives

This workshop series (delivered in two hour sessions over 3 consecutive Wednesdays) will help smaller archives develop a digital preservation policy and plan that is suitable to their budgets and resources. Topics covered will include the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s four levels of preservation, the Canadian Heritage Information Network’s Digital Preservation Toolkit, and The National Heritage Digitization Strategy’s Recommended Preservation File Formats. Example preservation workflows, and the discussions of best practices (including the use of checksums, data migration and refreshing practices, and physical media selection and management) will be covered. The workshop, which will be divided into digital inventory management, preservation policy development, and preservation plan development sections, will include short Q&A sessions and knowledge testing exercises.

Learning Objectives Include:

• Understand what a digital survey / inventory is, and how to conduct one • Know how to use the CHIN digital asset inventory template to identify digital holdings and risks associated with them.

• Identify various forms of physical carriers, understand risks associated with them, and how to care for them.
• Understand the importance of a digital preservation policy, and how to implement one
• Know how to use the Nancy McGovern Digital Preservation Policy Framework Template to produce a digital preservation policy for archival institutions.
• Know how to use the CHIN Digital Preservation Policy Template to produce a digital preservation policy for museums and galleries.
• Understand and know how to use the British National Archives’ Droid and Pronom resources for identifying digital assets. Understand the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s four levels of preservation, and how to assess your own institution’s current status.
• Understand digital preservation best practices, and how to implement these into a digital preservation plan for a small archive.
• Understand the importance of data fixity and how to ensure it using a checksum generator
• Understand recommended file formats for long-term preservation
• Understand key workflow components with a digital preservation plan and procedures for archival institutions.

Ern Bieman has served as a Heritage Information Analyst for the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) since 2007. He has published multiple documents related to information technology in museum environments, and is currently responsible for all matters at CHIN related to digitization and digital preservation. Since 2012, Mr. Bieman has been the curator of the Digital Preservation Toolkit on Canada.ca, and has offered digital preservation training to institutions in the GLAM sector. Prior to this, Mr. Bieman has worked as a systems engineer and technical specialist, and as a funds manager for IT-based R&D projects. He is currently co-chair of the Digitization and Digital Preservation Discussion Group, and sits on the National Heritage Digitization Strategy Steering Committee. Mr. Bieman holds a BSc in computer science, and master’s degrees in business and philosophy.