Access & Preservation of Born Digital Content
Annotations by Chelsea Paige
These articles discuss the treatment of born digital content to provide access and ensure preservation, as well as describing types of born digital content created by various disciplines. The following keywords identify the specifics of each article within the scope of this bibliography: academic content, architectural documents, archival practice, art/museum content, cataloging, digital context, digital tools, historic events, institutional archiving, law content, news content, standards. The professional role of the author is also described after each annotation to contextualize the article's perspective and recommendations.
Cocciolo, A. (2014). Challenges to born-digital institutional archiving: The case of a New York art museum. Records Management Journal 24(3), 250–238.
Keywords: archival practice, art/museum content, institutional archiving, standards
This article discusses the purpose of institutional archiving using an art museum as a case study. The literature review breaks down the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model, institutional repositories (including the motives of staff to contribute to such a repository), and challenges to digital preservation at the current level of standardization. The case study revealed differences between different departments’ handling of files, intense format issues from old, proprietary, or improperly labeled files, and the dangers of bitrot. Recommended actions for the case study museum are discussed, both to catch up on the back log of materials needing attention and to set future educational goals to establish staff motivation and understanding of the repository’s purpose in preserving born-digital internal documentation.
This author was an Associate Professor at the School of Library and Information Science, at Pratt Institute, New York, NY at the time of this article’s publication.
Danner, R. A. (2004). Issues in the preservation of born-digital scholarly communications in law. Law Library Journal, 96(4), 591–604.
Keywords: law content, academic content, institutional archiving
This article discusses the particular challenges of preserving born digital varieties of legal scholarly communication. The various types of born digital documentation being produced in the academic law community, including ejournal articles, working papers, and law review publications, require individual solutions. Law reviews, for example, which are published by and centered around individual law schools, are beginning to be linked by the equivalent of a public library cooperative’s union catalog, allowing access across the country as well as limited search within one’s own community. The author also suggests a reframing of the current understanding of what the term, “published,” means, to better describe current born digital preservation and access activities. Perhaps publication no longer equals initial dissemination, but instead should qualify the process of packaging an item for definitive access and preservation. This redefinition may enable better discussion and productivity on issues facing preservation of born digital scholarship, applicable to any discipline.
The author was the Rufty Research Professor of Law and Senior Associate Dean for Information Services at Duke University School of Law at the time of this article’s publication.
Goldman, B. (2011). Bridging the gap: Taking practical steps toward managing born-digital collections in manuscript repositories. RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, & Cultural Heritage,
- 12(1), 11–24.
Keywords: standards, archival practice
The author of this article acknowledges the important higher-level conceptual work being done to define philosophies of access and preservation for born digital content, but focuses instead on foundational steps which archives, libraries, and other repository institutions can take immediately to begin working on the backlog of digital materials for which they have already accepted responsibility. Settling for the intention of those grand standards rather than their full implications might enable hesitant institutions to stop waiting on the perfect solution for born digital materials. The two most important recommendations discussed include steps for carefully separating electronic files from the donated physical media, and starting conversations with records creators earlier in their careers or lifetimes than previous standards indicate, to open the door to regular accessions and the ability to contextualize born digital materials within the greater whole.
The author was the Digital Programs Archivist at the University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center at the time of this article’s publication.
Hawkins, K. S. (2015). Automated creation of analytic catalog records for born-digital journal articles. Serials Librarian, 68(1–4), 299–306. Retrieved from
Keywords: cataloging, digital tools, academic content
This article discusses the creation and structure of a tool called mPach, which provides automated cataloging during a process of simultaneously publishing open access born digital journals and archiving them in HathiTrust. The tool transforms file formats to a better archival standard through the Journal Article Tag Suite (JATS) application. The editorial workflow using the Prepper module of mPach is described, along with the catalog records the system creates during the publishing process. Analytic catalog records are created both for the journal overall and for individual articles, allowing a variety of journal structures. This tool may be indirectly answering the call for redefinition of publishing discussed in Danner (2004).
This author was the Director of Library Publishing at the University of North Texas at the time of this article’s publication.
Howard, R., Fox, H., & Daniels, C. (2011). The Born-digital deluge: Documenting twenty-first century events. Archival Issues: Journal of the Midwest Archives Conference, 33(2), 100–111.
Keywords: archival practice, historic events
This article discusses challenges and recommendations for creating and preserving digital collections which use the born digital contributions of the public following a climactic event, to preserve a broader, more personal view of the event than other sources can. The authors found that the ease of creation and dissemination of the documents (photos, videos, etc.) does not match the amount of effort needed to preserve and provide access to those items in a cohesive, archival collection. The institution had to revise standard procedures for copyright issues, selection, and description of the items based on the particular challenges of working with born digital materials which lacked context because of the uploading habits and lack of information provided by the public donors.
The authors were the Digital Initiatives Librarian at The University of Louisville Libraries, Project Archivist at Kentucky Historical Society, and University Archivist at the University of Louisville at the time of this article’s publication.
Lynch, C. (2004). Preserving digital documents: Choices, approaches, and standards. Law Library Journal, 96(4), 609–617.
Keywords: archival practices, digital context, standards
In this article, the lack of a consensus about what to preserve when preserving born digital items in contrast to preservation of print items forms a striking argument that highlights the principle differences between born digital items and other items selected for archiving. The context of each file in the digital environment may matter to preservation strategies, and certainly to access. The question of how to provide access to that context in addition to preserving the individual files requires intense consideration. The author discusses standards currently in place for the handling of born digital items, but suggests that file format recommendations and the OAIS model are only enough to know where to start; each collection will require additional unique decisions based on the items involved and the institution’s capabilities and goals.
The author was the Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, Washington, DC at the time of this article’s publication. This article is based on a presentation given at a conference and retains an informal, conversational discoursing style.
Meister, S., & Chassanoff, A. (2014). Integrating digital forensics techniques into curatorial tasks: A Case study. International Journal of Digital Curation, 9(2), 6–16. Retrieved from
Keywords: digital tools, digital context, standards
This article reports on the authors’ experience using the digital forensics tool, BitCurator, as part of the workflow of processing born digital items for preservation and access. General steps recommended include documenting media, creating disk images, and separating master from working files, but beyond these steps, the digital forensics tools introduce some novel avenues. BitCurator and other tools can analyze and extract files on hard drives and other media to provide the preservationist with suggestions for access from the filesystem metadata and to identify sensitive material which may need to be redacted or carefully considered. These tools can also analyze the environment in which the digital files were created, for example, by exploring the browser cache of a donated computer. This functionality could enable a new ability to preserve context and the creator’s intent along with the individual files.
The authors were a Digital Archivist/Professor at the University of Montana, and a Student at the University of North Carolina at the time of this article’s publication.
Moore, J. E., & Bonnet, J. L. (2015). Survey finds differences on preserving born-digital news. Newspaper Research Journal, 36(3), 348–362. Retrieved from
Keywords: news content, archival practice
This article reports the findings of a survey undertaken in Maine to reveal the views of news workers, librarians and archivists, and academic researchers on the preservation of born digital news content. The news is an extremely important area of creation of modern born digital content, because print news is an important source for research and history, and the need for preservation and ongoing access to modern news hasn’t dimmed despite the change in format. The various groups surveyed held varying beliefs about what constituted preservation in a digital context, and whose responsibility it should be to preserve news content. The article highlights the lack of education outside the library and archives community about why preservation is important and how modern digital content is being lost because of misunderstandings about the impermanence of websites and the internet.
The authors were an Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota and the Social Sciences and Humanities Librarian at the University of Maine at the time of this article’s publication.
Pierce, K. (2011). Collaborative efforts to preserve born-digital architectural records: A Case study documenting present-day practice. Art Documentation: Bulletin of the Art Libraries Society of
- North America, 30(2), 43–48.
Keywords: architectural documents, archival practice
This article discusses a case study in which the author worked within an architectural firm to identify how born digital documents are created in that type of organization and how preservation-friendly activities could be incorporated to ease an archive’s processing of the completed project files. One of the aspects relevant to many disciplines and many types of born digital artifacts is the creation of intermediary documents: drafts, communication about the project, etc. These contextual items are only reflected in the final drawing/file if they are able to be viewed as part of an ongoing process to create that final item. Preservation activities should consider the peripheral items in order to provide additional access to the preserved file.
The author was the Institute of Museum and Library Services Preservation Fellow at the School of Information at the University of Texas at the time of this article’s publication.
Robinson, K., Edmunds, J., and Mattes, S. C. (2016). Leveraging author-supplied metadata, OAI-PMH, and XSLT to catalog ETDs: A Case study at a large research library. Library Resources &
- Technical Services, 60(3), 191–203.
Keywords: academic content, cataloging, digital tools
Chronicling cataloging workflow changes over time in reference to theses and dissertations, this article shows the evolution toward workflows which efficiently use technological capabilities in providing access to born digital theses and dissertations. The article specifically discusses the details of a system which harvests user supplied metadata and crosswalks it in order to automatically catalog electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) submitted to the university, reducing staff time requirements more than ten times over. This process of harvesting and batch catalog record creation is concluded to be relatively simple to apply to any database which has the specifications required by the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), which opens the possibility to create within any discipline this type of efficient, automatic cataloging workflow.
The authors were the Digital Access and Metadata Specialist at Penn State University Libraries, the Digital Access Coordinator at Penn State University Libraries, and an Information Specialist in the Oregon Career Information System at the University of Oregon at the time of this article’s publication.
