Janet Delve and David Anderson (eds), Preserving Complex Digital Objects, London, Facet, 2014.
In Neil Grindley’s introduction to Preserving Complex Digital Objects he explains that it aims to set out what is currently understood about dealing with complex digital objects and offer a broad framework for starting to manage and address relevant issues. The book is the product of a number of symposia held in the UK in 2011-2012 on different aspects of the preservation of complex objects, funded by JISC, a charitable organisation originally set up by the UK government as the Joint Information Systems Committee in the 1990s. JISC now champions and conducts research and development in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in learning, teaching, research and administration. Formerly devoting much time to digital preservation research and information sharing, JISC is now more heavily focused on research data management and sharing for the universities and other higher…
As part of its continuing mission to catalog and preserve our shared digital history, the Internet Archive has published a collection of more than 900 classic arcade games, playable directly in a Web browser via a Javascript emulator.
The Internet Arcade collects a wide selection of titles, both well-known and obscure, ranging from “bronze age” black-and-white classics like 1976s Sprint 2 up through the dawn of the early 90s fighting game boom in Street Fighter II. In the middle are a few historical oddities, such as foreign Donkey Kong bootleg Crazy Kong and the hacked “Pauline Edition” of Donkey Kong that was created by a doting father just last year.
Strategies to Deliver Unstructured Data as Relevant Data presented by Adele Carboni, CRM, PMP
ARMA Live Conference
San Diego Convention Center
Focus on unstructured data
Unstructured data= 80%
Structured data= 20%
Defining Taxonomy
Taxonomy Support= organizational chart, records retention schedule, review of shares structure currently being used.
Taxonomy goals= develop a controlled vocabulary, metadata relationships, provide non-technical users with a way to visualize and verify data, utilize attributes to allow for search to narrow results
In a manual taxonomy structure in the electronic environment, if a folder isn’t being used, then it is removed if it hasn’t been used between 3-6 months for a taxonomy filing.
Retention Schedules go hand and hand with taxonomy (functional taxonomy or departmental taxonomy)
Assign retention at the highest level possible. Assign filing at the lowest level possible. Understand parent/child relationships.
Best piece of information I received today was in a records management/digital preservation session this afternoon. It was new information to me. The storage medium is said to endure the toughest conditions, lasting hundreds and hundreds of years. It has been tested. Do you know what this is??
Had to share this meme
someone sent me about
what archivists do. Yeah…
This about sums up what
people think. Being an
archivist is actually
much harder than
people think!!!!
NB: This was a paper I wrote for my library school course, LIS 647 Visual Resources on May 5, 2014. I have not made any revisions or updates since that time.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, our culture has become saturated with images, from advertisements to television to movies. With the proliferation of social media and cheap camera phones, that saturation has become all but complete. Images and photographs are hugely popular on social media. One of the most popular platforms, Instagram, revolves entirely around photographs created and shared by users. Instagram is a vibrant, information-rich record of contemporary history. It is used around the world by average people to celebrities to cultural institutions and captures anything from scenes of everyday life to world-changing events. It would not be outrageous to say that Instagram photos and other social media content will some day become part of the collections…
Here is my newest digital
composite. It is inspired by
the potential corruption of
real world connection by
an addiction to technology.
Today I hit 1,500 WordPress
followers, but I do try to take
breaks from the tech and be
completely present in the
moment to make or keep
real world friends. It’s hard,
but if you really care about
connection, you will make
time to genuinely connect.
~★~Addiction by Felicia Lujan~★~ Digital composite includes 6 layers and 4 images.
I have been in the business of implementing or selling ECM applications for close to a decade and a half. Of late, I have serious thoughts about the longevity of ECM in general and my career in particular. Are we not going through an era where rigidity is making way for flexibility and simplicity? Especially, when it comes to the applications we use?
Why did we (all of those ECM vendors out there) make the technology so complex? Why did all the enterprise applications we built look extremely clumsy? Why didn’t we think of better user experiences? Why didn’t we care to keep things simple?
Well, it might soon be the time we could be on the receiving end. It could be the beginning of the end of that ECM as we always knew.
The ECM with loads of metadata and taxonomy will soon lose its steam. The ECM with…
The studio of an artist can be a sacred sanctuary. When it comes to the works of art created by artist Ken Estrada, that which is sacred permeates his artistic space. Estrada is a Santa Fe native who descends from the Casas Grande Apache Nation by oral tradition. He shares the wisdom of his people using art as a divine medium. His works are deep and highly symbolic. The paintings created by Estrada capture the intimate knowledge of his ancestors using signature earth pigments. The walls of his sacred sanctuary are strewn with earthy tones and imagery which helps minds understand stories of the past.
Art and artistic expression has been a great part of Estrada’s life. As a young boy he was exposed to creative thinking while he sat near the side of his grandfather, a master carpenter who specialized in Spanish Colonial designs. He believes that “everyone has a new idea or approach” to art which “essentially documents the world” they live in. For this reason, Estrada sees his art as a method of storytelling. All of his creative endeavors share “the wisdom of the elders so that it can live on” regardless of the vehicle of expression.
~Grey Eagle By Ken Estrada (60 x 48)~
In addition to acquiring respect for art from his grandfather, Estrada also developed a profound appreciation for ancient petroglyphs and pictographs. These spectacular images have remained engrained in his mind’s eye. In his youth, Estrada spent several years intrigued by the mystical markings left by the Anasazi at Bandelier National Monument. Estrada grew up near the monument and lived with his uncle who was a park ranger there. He has said that this was “the seed” which inspired his “works and respect for past civilizations expressions of art.” This is a primary reason that the artist opts to work with natural pigments.
“The most logical choice was earth,” Estrada said. “In my process I discovered that not only can I get texture from the earth, but more importantly pigments. So most of the pigment, tone and texture, starts from collecting various rocks and minerals from the canyons and mountains of New Mexico. These rocks and minerals are crushed and sifted to a fine powder then mixed with acrylic base and applied generously to stretched canvas by hand and brush.” The act of physically collecting the natural elements featured in paint on his pieces is a spiritual process.
Estrada is a man of many talents. His wife Michelle has called him a “renaissance man” and “true artist” who is “gifted in music, song, writing, art, master craftsmanship, poetry, and thought.” She believes he has “remained faithful to all of his blessed talents” by “baring his soul to the City Different where he was born and raised.” His artistic expression extends beyond imagery and penetrates several senses in addition to the eyes and mind. He not only captures images in paint, he also captures spiritual sounds though music, as well as through the oral history of his ancestors.
Concerned with the historical record, Estrada has been passionately archiving ancient stories and songs from Native American storytellers over the last year. This is a special project he founded called Indigenous Spoken Song Archival Project. The project “has been consuming his thoughts for over a decade.” Recently Estrada developed a web site for this project, which is presently self funded. He has been recording and producing this project in his private recording studio, but is eager to get on the road and travel to native reservations where the ‘Elders Voice’ can be heard. “I truly believe that if we do our part, Creator will take care of the rest,” he said.
~West Medicine By Ken Estrada (30×24)~
The studio of this local artist is indeed a sacred sanctuary. The unique works created by Ken Estrada are unmatched and convey imagery which appears to jump from the canvas into the soul of the observer. Estrada shares the ancient wisdom of the Casas Grande Apache Nation by using art as a divine medium. The works of this artist offer a sound look into the stories of the past, and inspire a future of creativity and respect for Mother Earth. He is excited to extend the reach of his sacred creations at this year’s Santa Fe Indian Market. His sacred space will be open to the public so that people from around the world can catch a unique glimpse into the mind of a native Santa Fe artist. This year Estrada will feature his works near the historic Santa Fe Plaza.
~Estrada Studio Opening Reception Poster~ Designed by Felicia Lujan
The Santa Fe Indian Marketis a local event with an international draw, and has been hosted by the non-profit organization SWAIA (Southwestern Association for Indian Arts) for close to 100 years. Estrada’s opening reception is Friday August 16, 2013 from 6pm-8pm. Estrada Studio is located on the 1st floor of the Plaza Mercado Building, 112 West San Francisco Street, Suite 105, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501. Entrance on Water Street across from Coyote Cafe and below Blue Corn Cafe.
~Supplies used for the newspaper preservation project.~
A couple of weekends ago, I successfully completed the preservation of a newspaper which is over 100 years old. It was a really interesting and fun project for me. It did take a while, but I’m sure my girlfriend and her father will be happy with the results. It took me a little over a month to complete the physical and digital preservation of the 1897 newspaper.
The newspaper features a special illustrated history of the famous Battle of Puebla. The battle is the main reason that people celebrate Cinco de Mayoand the Mexican victory over France in 1862. Some of the accounts I read say that the battle lasted around four hours, but the Mexicans successfully defended their city and two forts against the French even though their troops were outgunned and outnumbered.
I preserved the newspaper by: removing it from an acidic enclosure; cleaning it and brushing off some mold; humidifying and flattening the pages; taking 25 HDR photographs; placing the pages in acid free, oversized bags; and housing the bagged pages in an acid free, oversized brief case with handles.
Tonight I created a short video so that you can see the lovely art work which was featured in this newspaper. It was well worth preserving the right way. I really enjoy helping people and was so happy and honored that my friend asked for my help.
«~• 2004 letter from the Center for Home Movies in Los Angeles, California •~»
I finally took the time to have several Super 8mm reels of home movies professionally digitized. This is a family history project that has been weighing heavily on my mind because I knew I needed to do something to preserve the precious footage.
The reels were shot by my mom and dad in the 1970s and 1980s. I was so happy when they were given to me by my dad with a dual 8mm projector. I think my mom still has the camera used to shoot the footage. I have seen some of the movies. They are so amazing. There is nothing like seeing images of my family from so long ago. Much of the digitized footage will be imagery I have never seen before, which is extremely exciting!
In 2004, three reels of the home movies belonging to my family were preserved as part of the Home Movie DVD Project. The films were shipped to the Academy Film Archive for digitization and copies are now part of the Center for Home Movies in Los Angeles, California. That is actually the footage I have seen.
A while back I digitized a little clip of me and the twins (my brother and sister). We were apparently pretending to be cowgirls and a cowboy. Our trio was parading around in hats, stick horses, and boots. My sis was doin’ a little cowgirl stomp. It was really cute! I put that one up on the My Voyage Through Time YouTube portal.
Last week I bought a 16GB thumb drive to ship to Albuquerque. I mailed the drive today. The digitized films will live on that for a while and I will make other copies to preserve. The excitement is killing me. I can’t wait to see what’s on there!? I only wish they had sound. Once I receive the footage back, the next step will be to give everyone in my family a copy. I’m sure my new family history project will be appreciated by all!
I recently took some time to learn more about content profiling. It is very important to me to keep my digital skill set sharp and so I enrolled in a WebEx virtual training out of the United Kingdom. The training was on May 31 at 13:00 BST/14:00 CET (UK time), which meant I needed to be logged in by 5:30am (US/NM time). The training started at 6:00am in my time zone and ended at 7:00am. It was a Friday, so after several cups of coffee and a brain loaded with information, I made my way into work. I didn’t want to miss taking taking a closer look at C3PO, a contemporary tool being used for digital curation (collection, management and preservation).
~~My true loves… My computers.~~ ~~~Call this cross-platform and ready for training!~~~
This digital tool is supported by the Information and Software Engineering Group (IFS), Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems (ISIS), and the Vienna University of Technology in Austria. C3PO was developed by Petar Petrov of Creative Pragmatics. Petrov also delivered the virtual training titled C3PO: An Introduction to Content Profiling. Petrov studied Business Informatics and Software Engineering. The system he has developed addresses content profiling in three steps: the gathering of metadata; data processing and aggregation; and metadata analysis.
~~One of Petar Petrov’s presentation slides.~~
C3PO is for content and planning- content means- personal content (documents etc.), cultural heritage (libraries, museums, archives, etc.) scientific data and government documents.
He says that the “future growth” of what happens in an “internet minute” is “staggering.” The question is “what do we preserve because we can’t preserve all of it. We need to evaluate what we can preserve.”
Preservation planning- identifying risks to digital objects and developing a preservation plan. This should describe content and describe how you will go about preserving that using a certain digital repository or software.
Plato~ supports the Preservation Planning Workflow. It was developed by the University of Technology in Vienna. This program will help through the process and enable the development of a real preservation plan.
Discussed how objects, technology, usage criteria, policies, and actions affect preservation environments.
Scout~ monitors interesting aspects of the world, notifies you when a certain important event happens, helps you know when you should reevaluate your preservation plan (format migration, current tools, trend watch on preservation and migration tools, notifications come through for a redeploy of software).
Content profiling~ Property (format), FileA (PDF 1.2), FileB (PDF 1.2), FileC (PDF 1.4). Example about which are similar. Not A and B, but a closer look at the metadata is required. After looking at page count, encryption, file size, and if the files are valid and well-formed it can then be determined which files are most similar. In preservation planning, this is a necessary evaluation. It is difficult to do this both on a large scale and in detail. We need to take more data out of the digital repository and secure a data characterization process to aggregate the data.
“Heterogeneity: one size does not fit all”
He discussed how to perform a sample selection based on the metadata to experiment on.
QA and limitations~ “how do you know if your content profile is good or no good?” You need to understand the tools which provide the metadata so that your characterization data is clean and your content profiles are good.
C3PO~ how does it work? What does it do? This software merges several command line tools into one tool. This is one tool that does many things that several tools can do. Call it the “Swiss Army Knife of tools.”
v0.3.0~ it’s a Command Line Application and a Web Application. It is an open source Mongo Database and it stores documents differently than a traditional database. It uses Java technology and processes FITS (and Tika) files, stores them in the document store, XML Profiling and CSV Export. It can process close to 1 million (945699) objects in about 2 hours (1hr48m) and can define profiles in 12m. The web application provides an overview of metadata, to browse, filter, sample and export metadata.
Hands on C3PO demonstration~ very useful for data sampling. He started a terminal window to use the command line version of C3PO. He was demonstrating on about 2,000 objects. He ingested data using commands into the metadata database. He was then able to export the metadata to Excel for further sorting options and to detect problems with files and metadata. The web based app provides statistics using bar graphs of mime types, format versions, object validity, if the objects are well-formed, sizes.
Object can be filtered by format and other things to see detailed and regenerated tools to analyze particular sets of objects. For example you can see all “invalid PDFs.” You can then export any generated profiles to Plato to help you develop a preservation plan.He said “content profiling will never be completely solved, we can only improve the process.”
Lover of REALNESS... smart people with large brains... strong people with human weakness... all things divine and magical... and anything that makes my heart beat, my mind race, my body hurt, or my soul ache.
My Voyage Through Time 
SPEAK ON IT