LIS 2674
Spring 2004

Topic due:  March 18th
Final Paper due:  April 15th

For this assignment, you and a fellow classmate, working as a team, will be asked to write a medium-length paper (at least fifteen pages, no more than twenty pages) which looks at either a digitization project or a project aimed at preserving "born-digital" records (or, studies to determine criteria and standards for preserving such records).  In choosing a candidate for your paper, please select one which offers sufficient documentation about planning and implementation of the projects, including technical information, such as how the images were scanned or what metadata standards were used.  Please note that the documentation found at the websites listed below may not be the only source of information on the projects.  You are encouraged to look for supplementary reports and articles from various resources noted in the syllabus (such as the Council on Library and Information Resources site or D-Lib Magazine).

For case studies of digitization projects, please discuss the following issues:

• Planning for digitization, including what scanning standards were used (bit depth, resolution, etc.), what equipment was used for the task, and who would perform the work.
• Selecting material:  what criteria were used to select documents for digitization?
• Producing the images:  how many versions of the image were produced (archival masters and derivatives)?
• Storing the images:  on what media are the images to be stored?  How will images be retrieved (online or near-line access)?
• Cataloging the images:  what sorts of metadata were captured?  How will the metadata be kept?
• Providing access to the images:  who gets access to the images, to what versions do they have access, what sort of manipulations to the images are allowed?  Are there any legal restrictions to access?
• Preservation:  what plans does the institution have for long-term retention of the images?
• Authentication:  does the institution have any sort of procedure for verifying the identity of the user?
• Are there any other issues which are important for understanding how the project was designed and implemented?

• Appraisal:  for the case studies, how were records selected?  For frameworks, what is the suggested criteria for selection?
• Original format of records:  what is the physical media upon which it is currently stored, and what hardware and software are required to access the records?
• Metadata:  how will information about the records be recorded and maintained?
• Authenticity and evidential integrity:  how will the structure and content of the records be maintained?  What constitutes "original order" for the records?  If records will be migrated, how will any changes be documented?
• Access:  how will access to records be maintained?  How will records be made available/displayed?
• Preservation:  what plans does the institution have for long-term retention of the records?
• Are there any other issues which are important for understanding how the project was designed and implemented (or for understanding the framework meant to guide future preservation projects)?

Digitization Projects:

American Memory Project (Library of Congress), http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ftpfiles.html
The Duke Papyrus Archive, http://odyssey.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/
Electronic Beowulf Project, http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/eBeowulf/guide.htm
JSTOR:  The Scholarly Journal Archive, http://www.jstor.org/jstor
Library of Congress Preservation Digital Reformatting Program, http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/prd/presdig/presintro.html
Making of America, http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa/index.html
Oversize Color Images Project, http://www.columbia.edu/dlc/nysmb/reports/phase1.html
Project Open Book, http://www.library.yale.edu/preservation/pobweb.htm

Electronic Records Preservation Initiatives:

CEDARS (CURL Exemplars for Digital Archives), http://www.curl.ac.uk/projects/Elib.pdf
Indiana University Electronic Records Project, http://www.indiana.edu/~libarch/ER/
Victorian Electronic Records Strategy, http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/welcome.htm