Digital Curation

As an in-depth explanation of the entire digital curation lifecycle, from creation to appraisal to preservation to organization/access to transformation, the first edition of this text set a benchmark for both thoroughness and clarity. Boasting the expert guidance of international authorities Oliver and Harvey, this revamped and expanded edition widens the scope to address continuing developments in the strategies, technological approaches, and activities that are part of this rapidly changing field. In addition to current practitioners, those pursuing a career as librarian, archivist, or records manager will find this definitive survey invaluable. Filled with up-to-date best practices, it covers such important topics as the scope and incentives of digital curation, detailing Digital Curation Centre’s (DCC) lifecycle model as well as the Data Curation Continuum; key requirements for digital curation, from description and representation to planning and collaboration;the value and utility of metadata;considering the needs of producers and consumers when creating an appraisal and selection policy for digital objects;the paradigm shift by institutions towards cloud computing and its impact on costs, storage, and other key aspects of digital curation;the quality and security of data;new and emerging data curation resources, including innovative digital repository software and digital forensics tools;mechanisms for sharing and reusing data, with expanded sections on open access, open data, and open standards initiatives; and processes to ensure that data are preserved and remain usable over time.Useful as both a teaching text and day-to-day working guide, this book outlines the essential concepts and techniques that are crucial to preserving the longevity of digital resources.

Archives and special collections departments have a long history of preserving and providing long-term access to organizational records, rare books, and other unique primary sources including manuscripts, photographs, recordings, and artifacts in various formats. The careful curatorial attention to such records has also ensured that such records remain available to researchers and the public as sources of knowledge, memory, and identity. Digital curation presents an important framework for the continued preservation of digitized and born-digital collections, given the ephemeral and device-dependent nature of digital content. With the emergence of analog and digital media formats in close succession (compared to earlier paper- and film-based formats) came new standards, technologies, methods, documentation, and workflows to ensure safe storage and access to content and associated metadata. Researchers in the digital humanities have extensively applied computing to research; for them, continued access to primary data and cultural heritage means both the continuation of humanities scholarship and new methodologies not possible without digital technology. Digital Curation in the Digital Humanities, therefore, comprises a joint framework for preserving, promoting, and accessing digital collections. This book explores at great length the conceptualization of digital curation projects with interdisciplinary approaches that combine the digital humanities and history, information architecture, social networking, and other themes for such a framework. The individual chapters focus on the specifics of each area, but the relationships holding the knowledge architecture and the digital curation lifecycle model together remain an overarching theme throughout the book; thus, each chapter connects to others on a conceptual, theoretical, or practical level. Theoretical and practical perspectives on digital curation in the digital humanities and history In-depth study of the role of social media and a social curation ecosystem The role of hypertextuality and information architecture in digital curation Study of collaboration and organizational dimensions in digital curation Reviews of important web tools in digital humanities

From the practice of a museum institution, six chapters reflect on the challenge of change in the areas of digitization, narrative, inclusivity, and participation.

International authority Ross Harvey's new how-to-do-it manual is the first one-stop resource in digital curation, and guides readers to understand and make the best use of the wide-ranging combinations of strategies, technological approaches, and activities that apply to this rapidly-emerging field. Any information professional who appraises, selects, organizes, or maintains digital resources acts as a digital curator. Whether you are a librarian, archivist, or records manager, you will find useful concepts here for a professional setting. Harvey offers an in-depth, start-to-finish explanation of the digital curation process, and clarifies each step in the Digital Curation Centre's (DCC) lifecycle model, including: create or receive appraise and select ingest preservation action store access, use, and reuse transform. You will learn best practices for improving data access, quality, and protection, and find time-saving tools such as an extensive directory of online resources, tutorials and further references in the area. Book buyers receive exclusive access to a password-protected companion website that offers electronic, customizable versions of planning forms, checklists, and more. This book's essential techniques and expert advice are crucial to ensuring that today's digital resources will be available to and useable by future generations.

The massive increase in digital information in the last decade has created new requirements for institutional and technological structures and workforce skills. Preparing the Workforce for Digital Curation focuses on education and training needs to meet the demands for access to and meaningful use of digital information, now and in the future. This study identifies the various practices and spectrum of skill sets that comprise digital curation, looking in particular at human versus automated tasks. Additionally, the report examines the possible career path demands and options for professionals working in digital curation activities, and analyzes the economic benefits and societal importance of digital curation for competitiveness, innovation, and scientific advancement. Preparing the Workforce for Digital Curation considers the evolving roles and models of digital curation functions in research organizations, and their effects on employment opportunities and requirements. The recommendations of this report will help to advance digital curation and meet the demand for a trained workforce.

The effective use of technology offers numerous benefits in protecting cultural heritage. With the proper implementation of these tools, the management and conservation of artifacts and knowledge are better attained. Digital Curation: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is a critical source of academic knowledge on the preservation, selection, collection, maintenance, and archiving of digital materials. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as electronic resource management, digital preservation, and virtual restoration, this publication is an ideal reference source for digital curators, technology developers, IT professionals, academicians, researchers, and graduate-level students interested in the curation and preservation of digital resources.

An up-to-date examination of the evolving field of digital curation and its important place in libraries, covering the major technical, social, and organizational issues surrounding curation for libraries, archives, and other information-based organizations. This book addresses the evolving field of digital curation and its important place in libraries, covering the myriad issues surrounding curation for libraries, archives, and other information-based organizations. Balancing research, theory, and practice in curation, this book is a valuable resource for students, librarians, and archivists that will help them understand the technology infrastructure that supports curation, develop effective curation plans, and make the best choices when digitizing collections that aid in the long term preservation and curation of their materials. The book can serve as a textbook for graduate courses in digital curation, digital libraries, and informatics as well as be useful to librarians and archivists for individual continuing professional education.

Digital Curation Projects Made Easy: A Step-By-Step Guide for Libraries, Archives, and Museums outlines simple steps for accomplishing practical digitization and digital preservation projects for those with little experience, time, and/or resources. Following a general introduction, instructions for completing these commonplace digital curation projects are covered: Photograph collections Newspaper collection Rare books Art Collections Oral Histories Digital curation does not need to be reserved for big budgets or world-famous collections. In fact, a large part of digitization and digital preservation consists of practical projects that are done every day without much fanfare in libraries and archives around the world.

This new edition of Digital Preservation in Libraries, Archives, and Museums is the most current, complete guide to digital preservation available today. For administrators and practitioners alike, the information in this book is presented readably, focusing on management issues and best practices. Although this book addresses technology, it is not solely focused on technology. After all, technology changes and digital preservation is aimed for the long term. This is not a how-to book giving step-by-step processes for certain materials in a given kind of system. Instead, it addresses a broad group of resources that could be housed in any number of digital preservation systems. Finally, this book is about “things (not technology; not how-to; not theory) I wish I knew before I got started.” Digital preservation is concerned with the life cycle of the digital object in a robust and all-inclusive way. Many Europeans and some North Americans may refer to digital curation to mean the same thing, taking digital preservation to be the very limited steps and processes needed to insure access over the long term. The authors take digital preservation in the broadest sense of the term: looking at all aspects of curating and preserving digital content for long term access. The book is divided into four part: 1.Situating Digital Preservation, 2.Management Aspects, 3.Technology Aspects, and 4.Content-Related Aspects. Digital Preservation will answer questions that you might not have even known you had, leading to more successful digital preservation initiatives.

What is the role of the curator when organizing digital art exhibitions in offline and online spaces? Analyzing the influence and impact of curating digital art, the book focuses on how the experiments of curators, artists and designers opened the possibility to reconfigure traditional models and methods for presenting and accessing digital art. In the process, it addresses how web-based practices challenge certain established museological values and precipitate alternative ways of understanding art's stewardship, curatorial responsibility, public access and art history. Through more than twenty interviews with artists and curators in the course of the last ten years, and flanked by an extensive timeline, the reader of this publication is given an insight into the discourse on digital art and its curation today.