Local History Digital Preservation
Preservation of Digital Community Heritage
By Jacob McCormick
Definition of Project
Local history is defined by geography and the study of the history of specific locales. In examining how local history fits into digital preservation, it is necessary to understand what types of records and information comprises the topic. Preservation of digital local history can include genealogy, geography, news and media, government records, oral history, and publications and manuscripts, among other subtopics. This assemblage of resources on the preservation of digital community heritage resulted from the thoughtful examination of scholarly articles yielded from search terms including: “local history,” “heritage,” “cultural heritage,” “community,” “public history,” “digital preservation,” “public library,” and “memory.” The EBSCOhost Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database and EBSCOhost Library and Information Science Source database proved plentiful in relevant articles. Following these discovery methods, the following ten resources were selected based on their close adherence to the broad topic of digital preservation of local history and each offering a different niche angle on the topic from the viewpoint of the subtopics of local history or broad technical efforts related to digital heritage preservation. The resources selected all range in date from 2004 to 2017 and represent literature that was published in peer-reviewed journals, The Electronic Library, Library Review, and Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture, among others.
Annotations
Local history is a constantly evolving topic in response to contemporary events and people associated with a specific place. Local news is chief among the material that records daily history. The preservation of old analog news, such as newspapers, is much more straight forward than the preservation of born-digital small local news sources. “Preserving Digital Local News” deepens the field’s understanding of the digital preservation of local history data collections as it sets up data collection and storage methods by which current and future local news is maintained. It is important to consider ways in which digital local news can be collected, preservation decisions made (what should be kept and preserved?), and storage solutions at a local community level developed and made ubiquitous.
A key element to local history collections is oral history. Their importance rests both in the information contained in the oral history as well as the actual audio or audiovisual media produced in their production. Firsthand accounts of the past are highly valuable, especially at the local level where other records of events and happenings may not exist. It is important for the field to understand the digital preservation of oral histories because they can be large and diverse file types, so developing knowledge on the storage and file maintenance of them can and should become standardized. The author seeks to illustrate how a simple oral history or digital storytelling project can be established by small public libraries as a means of recording local history and does so by making the task more approachable and highlighting its importance for community memory.
It is especially necessary in local history for institutions – like libraries and historical societies – to collaborate with community members. The history of a community is in its people and the material they produce, accumulate, and collect. By constructing a community digital archive, local history institutions can preserve born-digital local content. Preserving analog material is more simple than digital material, for reasons related to file formats, the obsolescence therein, and storage capacity and capability. The possibilities for a digital community archive include capturing social media and collecting born-digital photographic and document files from individuals and organizations. Where local public libraries can develop infrastructure to sustain a digital community archive, the storage capacity and file maintenance exist as the most significant components to the effective digital preservation of the community local history archive. The field’s understanding of local history data’s digital preservation is deepened here in understanding how public libraries, or other local history institutions, can offer centralized solutions to the preservation of born-digital content pertinent to the history of their community.
Small local public libraries have immense power and authority on a local level to set forth an infrastructure framework for digital preservation of community history. It is key for the field to deepen its understanding of ways in which public libraries can play a role in digital preservation that they traditionally have not. Information organizations, like libraries and historical societies, are in the best position locally to provide communities with an organizational and technological structure through which their collective history can be preserved. A significant element which adds to the collective understanding of local history digital preservation is the “co-created” archive that yields differing file formats coming together that must be reconciled and transferred to a common format (p. 644).
Maps and geographical material are important pieces of local history. Property developments, ownership changes, and the evolution of municipalities are pervasively recorded in maps of all varieties over time. The local history digital preservation field needs to deepen its understanding of how maps fit into digital local history collections and recognize the formats in which they exist and are best preserved, including both born-digital maps and digitized historic analog maps. It is important for the format in which maps are preserved to remain accessible over time, and utilizing standardized methodology pertaining to maps is the best option for local history use. The author seeks to demonstrate how useful maps and geospatial records are for research, also indicating that maps are less frequently published today and very few physical paper maps are printed anymore. The need for digital map preservation is emphasized because concerted curatorial efforts are necessary to ensure digital maps will be preserved for the future.
Local history must include the documentation of prominent local events in real time, as was successful following the Ferguson, Missouri demonstrations in response to police brutality. The local history digital preservation field can deepen its knowledge of community-built archives by examining the methods used to rapidly collect and store material for the long term. Key here is not only the idea of collecting and documenting significant events in real time, but the means by which it is achieved. The specific digital infrastructure, like the foundation of Omeka, can be applied at a moment’s notice to achieve a rapid response local history digital collection. As is repeatedly clear, community collaboration is a central component to local history collections. When community members can contribute directly to a digital archive, preservation in greater numbers becomes possible. Here, having an online database as a means of preserving the digital collection is the best way of preserving the material over time, allowing additions to it, and ease of accessibility.
Collaboration is always a positive in digital preservation and information science. In instances where small local libraries and historical societies have less ability to construct a digital archive, larger entities can offer collaboration to help build infrastructure at a local level for digital preservation projects. The field can deepen its knowledge on collaborative digital preservation by seeing the great benefits of collaboration with larger and more experienced institutions. Where a central repository, paired with a standardized metadata system, can serve the needs of numerous local history libraries and entities, more success will be had and more accomplished than with smaller, underfunded, less-experienced, individual entities working alone on digital preservation. As the author conveys, with Indiana Digital Preservation’s success and sharing of resources, more small libraries and statewide systems can apply a centralized and standardized system of digital preservation for application in small communities.
In the realm of local history, audiovisual materials are among the most significant pieces of a community’s cultural heritage. Historically analog audiovisual, audio, and visual material has played its part in documenting local history. However, when considering more recent history, born-digital material like iPhone videos become important to preserve. Before the cell phone became pervasive, rarely did anyone have a camera on their person at all times. It allows for unprecedented documentation of daily history which should be on the radar of local history digital preservationists. The field can deepen its knowledge of current audiovisual material as cultural heritage and local history content by thinking about the history of tomorrow rather than just the history of today. The size of this data and the proprietary software that produced it could make iPhone and other cell phone videos complicated to preserve if digital preservationists do not start to consider them now. It is additionally necessary to acquire this material directly from its original creator in the present to obtain privacy and copyright rights before such information and rights are more difficult to get down the road. The author asserts, by being “proactive in acquiring home movies,” local history digital preservation can build an extensive documentation of today for those of tomorrow (p. 140).
It is significant for digital preservation that infrastructure be in place for the library or institution to effectively administrate a digital archive. The field can deepen its knowledge immensely through the information shared herein addressing the need for standardized metadata systems and how such might impact existing collection preservation. The author is clear, for standardization to be prevalent, integration into individual systems must be seamless. While there ought to be care taken to ensure that the best system is in place, standardization should be on the forefront when managing and implementing long term digital preservation solutions.
The local history digital preservation field can deepen its knowledge of collaborative preservation efforts across related institutions by looking at the California Digital Library and the Collaborative Digitization Program. It can be so important, when centralized infrastructure plans are in place, to apply them as broadly as possible to digital preservation efforts. Too often small community libraries and local history institutions do not have the funding, staffing, or infrastructure available to effectively maintain digital collections. This California example is another in which a statewide effort, led by the state library, makes small local history digital preservation projects more possible by providing a centralized and standardized infrastructure and metadata systems. The author advocates for centralized standards and systems to apply broadly, like in statewide or campus wide libraries and digital preservation efforts.
