Purpose

We will be learning about sustaining text, images, data, sound, and other genres of information using digital technologies for preservation and access. The course will cover digitization of analog materials as part of a preservation program, as well as methods for preserving "born-digital" materials. Particular topics to be explored in depth include selection for preservation, copyright issues, digital longevity, formats and strategies for preservation, metadata to support digital preservation, maintaining the integrity and authenticity of digital materials, management of digitization and digitial preservation programs, risk management, and disaster recovery.

Course Objectives

By the time students complete this course, they should be able to accomplish the following objectives:

• Evaluate and select the media most appropriate for the long-term storage of digital objects and records;
  
• Identify and define the primary considerations in preserving digital media, including:
• Obsolescence of hardware and software formats;
• Complexity of digital objects;
• Encryption and compression schemes;
• Custodial responsibility for digital media;
• Document stability and authenticity;
• Recall standards for the digital imaging of text and still images
• Make the following basic calculations relating to digital imaging of text and still images, as well as sound digitization:
• Resolution (dots per inch), based on bit depth, and document size;
• Bit depth, based on resolution and document size;
• Quality Index score, based on resolution, bit depth, and document size;
  
• File size;
• Storage requirements for digital image files
  
• Compare digitization and other reformatting options, recommending the method most suitable to the preservation goals of a project;
• Reflect upon the various criteria that may affect selection of objects or records for digital reformatting or long-term preservation, including:
• Informational, evidential, and other values of cultural heritage;
• Costs of digitization, including long-term maintenance costs;
• Copyright status of materials being considered as digitization candidates;
• Explain the main functions and structure of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) functional model for a digital archive;
• Identify and define the main types of metadata required for preservation of digital resources;
  
• Compare and discriminate among the different strategies for digital preservation, including refreshing, migration, and emulation;
• Create a pilot repository for maintaining digital resources, whose features reflect a solid knowledge of digital preservation principles;
• Write a sample digital preservation policy for an information organization.
  

Course Policies

The instructor expects students to adhere to the following policies:

• Mandatory class attendance.  Please be aware that students who miss 3 or more class meetings will fail this course.  No exceptions.
• Participation in class discussion and exercises. Please come to class prepared to contribute to the learning process.
• Timely completion of all assignments. Late assignments will be marked down 1/2 grade for each day they are turned in past the due date, unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor.
• In consideration of the instructor and your fellow students ...  Please turn off your cell phone while class is in session.  Use of your cell phone while class is in session (including allowing it to ring) will result in a lowered participation grade for that class session.  Also, if you will be using a laptop to take notes, please adjust the volume setting so that you do not disturb others.  Thank you.

Assignments and Assessments

1. Short Paper on Digital Longevity Issues (15%)--due February 6, 2007
2. Quiz on Digitization Methods and Standards (10%)--February 20, 2007
3. Quiz on the Open Archival Information System and Preservation Metadata (10%)--March 13, 2007
4. Authenticity Issues Reflection Paper (15%)--due April 3, 2007
5. Building Your Own DSpace Repository Project (20%)--due April 17, 2007
6. Digital Preservation Policy Document (15%)--due April 24, 2007
7. Report on Recent Research in Digital Preservation (10%)--in class, April 17 or 24, 2007

Please carefully proofread your assignments for accuracy in spelling and grammatical construction—such errors do play a part in your grade, particularly if they affect the instructor’s ability to understand the content or import of your writing.

Failure to complete any of the three written assignments will result in a failing grade in the course.

Also, please familiarize yourself with the School of Information Science’s Guidelines on Academic Integrity, found at: http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/academics/integrity.html.  It is the student’s responsibility to carefully document his or her work using the appropriate style of citation.  Be aware that plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in a failing grade in this course.

Grading Criteria

Each written assignment has a corresponding rubric, which will provide additional information on how it will be scored.  Quizzes will have a total of ten points each.  Grading for the course is as follows:

A = 94-100 points
A- = 90-93 points
B+ = 87-89 points
B = 84-86 points
B- = 80-83 points
C+ = 77-79 points
C = 74-76 points
F = 73 points or below

The instructor’s policy is to not grant incompletes.  Any exception to this policy is at the instructor’s sole discretion, and it must be entirely due to clearly extraordinary circumstances supported by verifiable documentation.

Required Texts

Ross Harvey, Preserving Digital Materials (K.G. Saur, 2005).  On reserve. Z 701.3.C65 H37 2005 Abbreviated as PDM throughout syllabus.

Maxine K. Sitts, ed., Handbook for Digital Projects:  A Management Tool for Preservation and Access,  1st ed. (Andover, MA:  Northeast Document Conservation Center, 2000).  Abbreviated as HDP throughout syllabus.  Available online at: http://www.nedcc.org/digital/dman.pdf   

Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y. Rieger, Moving Theory into Practice:  Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (Mountain View, CA:  Research Libraries Group, 2000).  Abbreviated as MTP throughout syllabus.  On reserve.  Z 681.3 D53M68 2000
 
All other required and supplementary readings will be found on electronic reserve or online.

Accommodations

Students with disabilities who require special testing accommodations or other classroom modifications should notify the instructor and the office of Disability Resources & Services (DRS) no later than the 3rd week of the term.  Students may be asked to provide documentation of their disability to determine the appropriateness of the request.  DRS is located in 216 William Pitt Union and can be contacted at 412-648-7890 (voice), 412-624-3346 (fax), and (412) 383-7355 (TTY).

Students who must miss an exam or class due to religious observance must notify the instructor ahead of time and make alternative arrangements.

Readings

January 9th

Introduction to the course, including review of syllabus and assignments

This week, please familiarize yourself with the following online resources:

CAMiLEON (Creative Archiving at Michigan and Leeds Emulating the Old on the New), http://www.si.umich.edu/CAMILEON/

Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), http://www.clir.org

D-Lib Magazine, http://www.dlib.org/

Digital Library Federation (DLF), http://www.diglib.org

Digital Preservation Coalition, http://www.dpconline.org

National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/index.html

Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI), http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/

Research Libraries Group, RLG DigiNews, http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/

Glossaries:

Howard Besser and Jennifer Trant, Introduction to Imaging, Revised edition (Glossary), available online at:  http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/introimages/

The CEDARS Project, “Working Definitions of Commonly Used Terms (for the purposes of the Cedars Project),” available online at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/documents/PSW01.htm

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January 16th

• Physical Properties of Digital Media
• Compatibility of Obsolete and Current Hardware and Software Formats
• Keeping the Pieces of Complex Digital Objects Together

Ross Harvey, PDM, Ch. 1 ("What is Preservation in the Digital Age?  Changing Preservation Paradigms"), pp. 1-16, and Ch. 3 ("Why There's a Problem:  Digital Artifacts and Digital Objects"), pp. 35-52..

Howard Besser, "Digital Longevity" (HDP)

Fred R. Byers, Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs:  A Guide for Librarians and Archivists (Washington, D.C.:  Council on Library and Information Resources, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2003).  Available online at:  http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/pub121.pdf

John W.C. Van Bogart, Magnetic Tape Storage and Handling:  A Guide for Libraries and Archives (Commission on Preservation and Access, 1995).  http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub54/

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January 23rd

• Cracking the Code to Digital Encryption and Compression Schemes: Who Keep the Key?
• Who's Responsible for Preserving Digital Material?
• Document Stability and Authenticity

Ross Harvey, PDM, Ch 2 ("Why Do We Preserve?  Who Should Do It?"), pp. 17-33.

James M. O'Toole, "On the Idea of Permanence," American Archivist 52 (1989):  10-25.  On reserve.

David M. Levy, Scrolling Forward:  Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age, 1st ed. (New York:  Arcade, 2001). Chapter 3, 8 (pp. 39-58, 137-157).  On reserve.  P 214 .L48 2001

William Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye:  Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era (Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press, 1992).  pp. 1-85.  On reserve.  TA 1632 M55 1992

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January 30th

• Why Digitize? A Rationale for Digitization as a Tool for Preservation and Access
• Digitization vs. Other Reformatting Options: Picking the Right Tool for Preservation

Paul Conway, “Overview:  Rationale for Digitization and Preservation” (HDP)

Abby Smith, Why Digitize? (CLIR Report, Feb. 1999).  Available online at:  http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub80-smith/pub80.html

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February 6th

Short Paper on Digital Longevity Issues Due

• Reformatting for Access with Preservation in Mind
• Digital Imaging of Text and Photographic Images

Steven Puglia, "Technical Primer" (HDP)

Anne R. Kenney and Stephen Chapman, Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (Ithaca, NY: Dept. of Preservation and Conservation, Cornell University Library, 1996).  Chapter 1.  On reserve.  Z 681.3 D53K36 1996

Stephen Chapman and Anne R. Kenney, "Digital Conversion of Research Library Materials:  A Case for Full Informational Capture," (CLIR Report, Oct. 1996).  Available online at:  http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october96/cornell/10chapman.html.

Franziska Frey and James M. Reilly, Digital Imaging for Photographic Collections: Foundations for Technical Standards (Image Permanence Institute, 1999).  Available online at: http://www.rit.edu/~661www1/sub_pages/digibook.pdf

Council on Library and Information Resources and Digital Library Foundation, Guides to Quality in Visual Resource Imaging (July 2000), available online at: http://www.rlg.org/visguides/

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February 13th

• Digitizing Graphic Materials
• Digitizing Temporal Media (Sound, Film, and Video)

Stephen E. Ostrow, Digitizing Historical Pictorial Collections for the Internet (CLIR Report, Feb. 1998), http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/ostrow/pub71.html

Colorado Digitization Project, Digital Audio Best Practices, Version 2.0 (November 2005), http://www.cdpheritage.org/digital/audio/documents/CDPDABP_1-2.pdf

Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes (CLIR Report, Mar. 2006), http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub137/pub137.pdf

The NINCH Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of Cultural Heritage Materials, Section VII (Audio/Video Capture and Management), http://www.nyu.edu/its/humanities/ninchguide/VII/

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February 20th

Quiz on Digitization Methods and Standards

• Selecting Material for Digitization
• Determining Value of Materials;
• Costs of Digitization;
• Copyright Status

Ross Harvey, PDM, Ch. 4 ("Selection for Preservation—The Critical Decision"), pp. 53-74.

James O’Toole, “On the Idea of Uniqueness,” American Archivist 57 (Fall 1994):  632-58.  On reserve.

Paula de Stefano, “Selection for Digital Conversion” (MTP)

Diane Voigt-O’Connor, “Selection of Materials for Scanning” (HDP)

Melissa Smith Levine, “Overview of Legal Issues for Digitization” (HDP)

Steven Puglia, "The Costs of Digital Imaging Projects," RLG DigiNews 3.5 (1999), http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews3-5.html#feature

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February 27th

• Documenting Decisions through the Use of Preservation Metadata:
• Early Developers of Preservation Metadata Data Dictionaries
• Open Archival Information System (OAIS)
• Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies (PREMIS)
• Other metadata schemas supporting preservation, including Metadata Encoding Transmission System (METS) and format-specific metadata

Ross Harvey, PDM, Ch 5 ("What Attributes of Digital Materials Do We Preserve?"), pp. 75-98.

Carl Lagoze and Sandra Payette, “Metadata:  Principles, Practices, and Challenges,” (MTP)

Ann Green, JoAnn Dionne, and Martin Dennis, Preserving the Whole:  A Two-Track Approach to Rescuing Social Science Data and Metadata (CLIR Report, June 1999).  Available online at:  http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub83/contents.html

Brian Lavoie, "Meeting the Challenges of Digital Preservation:  The OAIS Reference Model," OCLC Newsletter (Jan./Feb. 2000):  26-30.  Available online at:   http://www2.oclc.org/oclc/pdf/news243.pdf

PREMIS Final Report (May 2005), http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/premis-report.pdf

Use of the Data Dictionary: PREMIS Examples (May 2005), http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/premis-examples.pdf

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March 6th

Spring Break!

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March 13th

Quiz on OAIS and Preservation Metadata

• Quality Control
• Project Management
• Sustaining Digital Initiatives for the Long-Term

Stephen Chapman, “Considerations for Project Management” (HDP)

Janet Gertz. “Vendor Relations,” (HDP)

Stephen Chapman, “Developing Best Practices:  Guidelines from Case Studies,” (HDP)

Oya Rieger, “Establishing a Quality Control Program,” (MTP)

"The Persistence of Vision:  Images and Imaging at the William Blake Archive," RLG DigiNews 4.1 (2000), http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews4-1.html#feature1

Anne Kenney, “Projects to Programs:  Mainstreaming Digital Imaging Initiatives,” (MTP)

Stephen Chapman, "Counting the Costs of Digitization:  Is Repository Storage Affordable?" Journal of Digital Information 4.2 (2003), http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v04/i02/Chapman/chapman-final.pdf

Shelby Sanett, "Toward Developing a Framework of Cost Elements for Preserving Authentic Electronic Records into Perpetuity," College & Research Libraries (Sept. 2002), http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crljournal/backissues2002b/september02/sanett.pdf

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March 20th

• Strategies for Digital Preservation:
• Refreshing
• Migration
• Encapsulation
• Emulation
• Digital Archaeology

Ross Harvey, PDM, Ch. 6-8 ("Overview of Digital Preservation Strategies," "'Preserve Technology' Approaches:  Tried and Tested Methods," and "'Preserve Objects' Approaches:  New Frontiers"), pp. 99-156.

David Bearman, “Reality and Chimeras in the Preservation of Electronic Records,” D-Lib Magazine (Apr. 1999).  Available online at: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april99/bearman/04bearman.html

Jeff Rothenberg, Avoiding Technological Quicksand:  Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital Preservation (CLIR Report, Jan. 1998).  Available online at:  http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/rothenberg/contents.html

Margaret Hedstrom and Clifford Lampe, "Emulation Vs. Migration:  Do Users Care?" RLG DigiNews 5.6 (2001), http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews5-6.html#feature1

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March 27th

Maintaining Authenticity of Digital Objects and Records

Authenticity in a Digital Environment (CLIR Report, May 2000).  Available online at:  http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub92/contents.html

G. Thomas Tanselle, “Reproductions and Scholarship,” Studies in Bibliography 42 (Sept. 1989):  25-54.  On reserve.

Luciana Duranti, "Reliability and Authenticity:  The Concepts and Their Implications," Archivaria 39 (1995):  5-10.  On reserve.

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April 3rd

Authenticity Reflection Paper Due

• Building Institutional Repositories to Support Digital Preservation Activities
• Open Source Software: dSpace, Fedora, ePrints

MacKenzie Smith, et al., "DSpace:  An Open Source Dynamic Digital Repository," D-Lib Magazine 9.1 (2003), http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/smith/01smith.html

Thornton Staples, et al., "The Fedora Project:  An Open-source Digital Object Repository Management System," D-Lib Magazine 9.4 (2003), http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april03/staples/04staples.html

Maureen Pennock, "EPrints Digital Repository Software," http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/technology-watch/eprints/

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April 10th

• Digital Preservation and Risk Management
• Trusted Digital Repositories

OCLC/RLG, "Trusted Digital Repositories:  Attributes and Responsibilities," (RLG, 2002), available online at:   http://www.rlg.org/longterm/repositories.pdf

Laura Price and Abby Smith, Managing Cultural Assets from a Business Perspective, (CLIR report, Mar. 2000), available online at:  http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub90/contents.html

Anne R. Kenney, et al., "Preservation Risk Management for Web Resources" D-Lib Magazine (January 2002), http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january02/kenney/01kenney.html

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April 17th

Developing Digital Preservation Policy for Your Institution

Building Your Own DSpace Repository Project Due

Reports on Recent Research in Digital Preservation

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April 24th

Policy Document Due

Reports on Recent Research in Digital Preservation