Digital / Electronic Records, Systems & Metadata
Electronic Records n. ~ Data or information that has been captured and fixed for storage and manipulation in an automated system and that requires the use of the system to render it intelligible by a person. Notes: 'Electronic records' can encompass both analog and digital information formats, although the term principally connotes information stored in digital computer systems. 'Electronic records' most often refers to records created in electronic format (born digital) but is sometimes used to describe scans of records in other formats (reborn digital or born analog).
(InterPARES Authenticity, p. 7) Strictly speaking, it is not possible to preserve an electronic record. It is always necessary to retrieve from storage the binary digits that make up the record and process them through some software for delivery or presentation. Taken From https://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/e/electronic-record
Metadata describes other data. It provides information about a certain item's content. For example, an image may include metadata that describes how large the picture is. A text document's metadata may contain information about who the author is and when the document was written. Web pages often include metadata in the form of meta tags. Most search engines use this data when adding pages to their search index. Taken from TechTerms.com
Digital Curation & Preservation
Glossary | Digital Curation Glossary by DCC
Article | Digital curation by Elizabeth Yakel
Article | Digital Curation: The Emergence of a New Discipline by Sarah Higgins
Article | Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Information by Jeff Rothenberg
Article | Intellectual Preservation: Electronic Preservation of the Third Kind By Peter S. Graham
Article | What to Preserve?: Significant Properties of Digital Objects by Helen Hockx-Yu & Gareth Knight
Article | New Partnerships for Old Sibling Rivals: The Development of Integrated Access Systems for the Holdings of Archives, Libraries, and Museums by Katherine Timms
Article | A Comparison Between Migration and Emulation in Terms of Costs by Erik Oltmans & Nanda Kol
Article | Beyond the Magic to the Mechanism: Computers, Materiality, and What It Means for Records to Be “Born Digital” by Ciaran B. Trace
Article | Moments of Risk: Identifying Threats to Electronic Records by David Bearman
Slides | Born Digital Photographs: Acquisition and Preservation Strategies by AABC Conference 2006
Web | 5 Open Source Digital Preservation Tools by Paragon CGI
Guide | Managing Electronic Records from an Archival Perspective by ICA
Guide | Digital Preservation Formats by Smithsonian Institution Archives
Article | Risk Management of Digital Information: A File Format Investigation by Gregory W. Lawrence, William R. Kehoe, Oya Y. Rieger, William H. Walters & Anne R. Kenney
Manual | Digital Preservation Handbook by DPC
Manual | Handbook For Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access by Maxine K. Sitts NEDCC
Blog | Digital Preservation Matters: This blog contains information related to digital preservation, long term access, digital archiving, digital curation, institutional repositories, and digital or electronic records management.
Blog | MetaArchive Blog
Blog | AMIA @ UofT blog
Blog | Jaime Mears Archive Blog (Tag: Digitization)
Podcasts / iTunes | Digital Preservation Webcasts By Library of Congress
Webcast | Digital Preservation Webcast Recordings by UNESCO
Webinars | Digital Preservation Webinars by OPF
Sample | Digital Preservation at SFU
Digital Curation Tools
Tool | Digital Preservation Management Tutorial Modules: The tutorial will introduce you to the basic tenets of digital preservation. It is particularly geared toward librarians, archivists, curators, managers, and technical specialists.
Tool | Cost of Inaction Calculator by AVPreserve
Tool | Sharing Storage Solutions: This website provides information and tools so that institutions of all types, sizes and resource levels can learn how to create safe and appropriate storage solutions.
Tool | Video Preservation: The purpose of this site is to encourage the preservation of historic video using the mature technology of digital capture.
Tool | Comparing Digital Library Systems by Beanworks
Tool | Checklist for Cloud Service Contracts Intended Audience: Records Managers and Archivists by InterPARES Trust Project
Tool | Digital Preservation Business Case Toolkit by DPC
Tool | Community Owned digital Preservation Tool Registry (COPTR): COPTR is collating the knowledge of the digital preservation community on preservation tools in one place.
Tool | Let's Solve the File Format Problem!: this Wiki will provide a central source for information on all manner of file formats
Tool | Digital Formats by Library of Congress
Tool | DRAMBORA (Digital Repository Audit Method Based On Risk Assessment) originated as a paper-based methodology for helping repository managers to develop a documented understanding of the risks they face, expressed in terms of probability and potential impact.
Tool | The File Information Tool Set (FITS) identifies, validates and extracts technical metadata for a wide range of file formats
Tool | The Apache Tika™ toolkit detects and extracts metadata and text from over a thousand different file types (such as PPT, XLS, and PDF)
Tool | JHOVE is a file format identification, validation and characterisation tool.
Tool | Features of BitCurator include: Pre-imaging data triage, Forensic disk imaging, File system analysis and reporting, Identification of private and individually identifying information, and Export of technical and other metadata
Tool | IrfanView is a fast, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10.
Tool | MediaInfo is a convenient unified display of the most relevant technical and tag data for video and audio files.
Tool | BWF MetaEdit was developed by the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) supported by AudioVisual Preservation Solutions.
Tool | VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use.
Tool | VeraPDF is a purpose-built, open source, file-format validator covering all PDF/A parts and conformance levels. It's designed to meet the needs of digital preservationists
Tool | HxD is a carefully designed and fast hex editor which, additionally to raw disk editing and modifying of main memory (RAM), handles files of any size.
Tool | Archive-It is a subscription web archiving service from the Internet Archive that helps organizations to harvest, build, and preserve collections of digital content.
Tool | WayBack Machine: a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.
Tool | Webrecorder is a web archiving service anyone can use for free to save web pages. Making a capture is as easy as browsing a page like you normally would. It automatically archives the page, along with any additional content triggered by interactions.
Web | Make Use Of: Technology, Simplified Webpage
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Archiving in the Digital Age
Article | Local archives and community collecting in the digital age by Lyndon Ormond-Parker & Robyn Sloggett
Article | Where’s the Archivist in Digital Curation? Exploring the Possibilities through a Matrix of Knowledge and Skills by Christopher Lee & Helen Tibbo
Article | Staffing for Effective Digital Preservation By NDSA
Article | Strategies for Managing Electronic Records: A New Archival Paradigm? An Affirmation of Our Archival Traditions? By Philip C. Bantin
Article | The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records: An Overview of the UBC-MAS Research Project by Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil
Article | Descriptive Practices for Electronic Records: Deciding What is Essential and Imagining What is Possible by Margaret Hedstrom
Article | The Role of Standards in the Archival Management of Electronic Records by Victoria Irons Walch
Metadata / File Naming:
Article | Metadata Requirements for Evidence by David Bearman
Article | Encoded Archival Description & XML reading list by UMBC
Article | Understanding EAD3 and XML by EADiva
Article | Metadata and the Management of Current Records in Digital Form by Hans Hofman
Article | Best Practices and Tools to Create Archival Image Metadata by Elena Toffalori (CoDA)
Blog | Best Practices for File Naming By bethcron (National Archives Records Express Blog)
OAIS:
Article | Reference Model For an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) by CCSDS
Article | Meeting the challenges of digital preservation: The OAIS reference model by Brian Lavoie
Web | OAIS Reference Model by OAIS
Archival Softwares & Systems
Article | The Archivematica Project Meeting Digital Continuity’s Technical Challenges
Web | Comparing Digital Libraries Systems
Slides | DIGITAL ARCHIVES & PRESERVATION SYSTEMS Part 4 Archivematica
Web | The AABC Archivist's Toolkit: Automation and Digitization
Slides | DIY Archives: Enhancing Access to Collections via Free, Open-Source Platforms
Article | OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR DIGITAL PRESERVATION REPOSITORIES: A SURVEY
For more information on Electronic Records Management prior to Archival processes, please see the Records Information Management section of our Resources Page.