Adrienne (Qualls) Clevenger 1

Chen, L.C., & Chen, Y. (2009). Applying digital archives in undergraduates inquiry learning: evaluating their effectiveness. Literacy and You in a Digital Age. ICEM-CIME 2009 Conference (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, October 6-8, 2009), 84-100. Lin Ching Chen (Educational Media & Instructional Design, University of Florida) and YawHuei Chen (Computer Science, Florida State), both professors at National Chiayi University in Taiwan conducted a study with the intent of evaluating the design of three digital archives and also provide information on how the designers can improve for the benefit of using digital archives in higher education. This study was based on interviews, observations and surveys. This study focuses on digital archives in Taiwan, but the intent of the study is to showcase how designers can make digital archives more user-friendly so that undergraduates are more incline to use them. This is a drum that all digital archivists can dance to. One problem readers may have with this article is that it does not seem to be translated well and the grammar and spelling can be shaky, for example, one student looking at bugs exclaimed that they were grouse! Nicholson, Chris. "Linguist's preservation kit has new digital tools." New York Times 28 July 2009: D2(L). Custom Newspapers. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. Digital archiving is not just for photos and documents. Dr. Tucker Childs is a field linguist that uses electronics to record locations of unmapped villages in addition to recording dying languages. There are at least 3000 languages in danger of being lost. This article focuses on the Kim language of Sierra Leone. There are around twenty fluent speakers of Kim and they are all over the age of 60. Dr. Childs research will join the research of others and will eventually end up in a data bank at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Other institutions have also been actively digitizing endangered languages, though some admit that it is not yet user friendly. While this article is in favor of electronic archiving of these dying languages it does not fail to acknowledge the scribbled notebooks and scratchy cassette tapes of bygone days. It is the hope of the researchers to digitize these works and use software to analyze the individual elements of the languages. This article can be enjoyed by the general public without requiring in depth linguistic or archival knowledge. McMillan, Gail (2005) 'Digital preservation of theses and dissertations through collaboration', Resource Sharing & Information Networks, 17: 1, 159-174. Gail McMillan is a professor and director of the digital library and archives at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. This article discusses digital preservation of theses and dissertations as providing a good starting point to determine the processes and policies that will lead to confidence n digital preservation while simultaneously acknowledging that in a perfect work preservation is built into the life cycle of a works creation. The author states that this article focuses only on one university but explains that the digital preservation program can be extended among collaborating universities. Examples are given for standardization of storage, staff training, submissions and use of metadata to improve access. However, the article specifically states that it wishes to avoid naming specific technologies leaving the reader with possibly more questions than answers.

Adrienne (Qualls) Clevenger 2

Solbakk, S. A. (2002). Critical technological and architectural choices for access and preservation in a digital library environment. Libraries for Life: Democracy, Diversity, Delivery. IFLA Council and General Conference: Conference Programme and Proceedings (68th, Glasgow, Scotland, August 18-24, 2002). This article is written by Svein Arne Solbakk who is the IT Director of the National Library of Norway. This article focuses on architectural choices in relation to access and preservation of digital records at the National Library of Norway. This includes strategies of using search engines and metadata to make indexes. The construction of the digital library had at that time been in the process for several years. In that time technology had evolved and standards had changed. Their methods require the publisher to use good Dublin core records, but good is subjective. Another issue with their methods is that they rely on OCR technology which can often be unreliable. They also use stand-alone databases that might not be able to be integrated. While it is difficult to standardize everything in this age, it is quite possible that they have made headway since 2002 when this article was written.

Howard, Jennifer. "A monk saves threatened manuscripts using ultramodern means." The Chronicle of Higher Education 56.15 (2009). Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 1 Mar. 2010. This article focuses on a monk, Rev. Columba Stewart of St. Johns Abbey and University in Minnesota. Father Stewart is also the executive director of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library at the University. His museum has had a longstanding effort to find and digitize manuscripts in monastic communities. One monk in the 1960s decided to start microfilming manuscripts in Austria. They now have 14 studios in eight countries digitizing records. This project is being completed with donations and involves a lot of diplomacy with monasteries to convince them that the digitization is being done in good faith and not for monetary gain. This article focuses on liturgical materials but shows that even this can have political ramifications when people who are not natives of the country are involved with valuable records. Diplomacy is a skill needed by archivists of all types, not just digital. Fenton, Eileen G.(2008) 'Responding to the preservation challenge: portico, an electronic archiving service', Journal of Library Administration, 48: 1, 31 40 Written by the Executive Director of Portico, this article outlines how libraries can achieve longterm preservation of materials such as e-journals. Portico is a third party archive that has the capability to bring together libraries and scholarly publishers from around the world. This article explains many of the hardships that digital preservation faces and goes on to suggest ways that a library can start making progress towards digital preservation such as supporting and participating in at least one e-journal preservation initiative. The focus of this article is Portico, which is a permanent archive of electronic scholarly journals. One great thing about Portico is that they realize that even after a library has terminated a license to electronic resources they still need ongoing access to the content they previously paid for and licensed. This article is clearly biased for the benefit of Portico but the author does admit that there are other similar models available for use.

Adrienne (Qualls) Clevenger 3

Digital preservation. (2009, October 6). Retrieved from http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ This website is created by the Library of Congress. Not only does it provide articles about digital preservation, it also has current news and events of other institutions that are implementing digitization such as Arizona State and Portico. The Library of Congress states that no institution can tackle the challenge of digital preservation on its own and they have over 130 partners that they collaborate with. Due to these partnerships the Library of Congress supplies a large list of tools and services that can be of use to preservationists. A very valuable portion of this website is devoted to video presentations and podcasts. Some subjects that are covered are Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Documents and Preserving Digital Public Television. There is also a section for those who wish to preserve family heirlooms. This website is focused more on professionals but would be a good resource for those who are just interested in the basics as well. This website can be a little overwhelming to look at with so many links on the main page, but is very well organized and should not have much of an effect on usability. Deegan, M., & Tanner, S. (2006). Digital preservation (digital futures series). London: Facet Publishing. Both of the listed authors of this book are based out of Kings College in London. Deegan is the Director of Research Development and Tanner is the Director of Kings Digital Consultancy Services. This can be very misleading; the only review that could be found states that the book has nine chapters and each is written by different people. In my opinion this would make Deegan and Tanner editors instead of authors. This book outlines key issues of preservation, strategies for preservation and costs. The review stated that not only does the book talk about costs, it gives advice on how to plan for the costs. The reviewer also mentions that the book has a European focus but the strategies could be used all over the world. While the authors admit that there are still a lot of questions to be answered, this is still probably one of the best books for learning about digital preservation. Digital preservation management. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/dpm/index.html This website is created by Cornell University and supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. This site contains tutorials on Digital Preservation Management: Implementing Short-term Strategies for Long-term Problems and the tutorials are available in English, French and Italian. This could be a problem due to the increased use of Spanish in the United States. The tutorial won the 2004 Society of American Archivists Preservation Publication Award. Before going through the tutorial there is a quiz to find out if the tutorial is right for the individuals needs. The site states that the tutorial can stand on its own but that it was designed to complement a workshop which goes into greater detail. The next workshop will be in June at MIT in Massachusetts. The tutorial includes sections on obsolescence, foundations, challenges and physical threats. There are also two quizzes to assess the users knowledge. This site is focused on professional users and may be overwhelming for those just starting out in digitization.

Adrienne (Qualls) Clevenger 4

Best, R. (2009). Preserving and providing access to digital state publications in Alabama: a case of cooperation. The Southeastern Librarian, 57(3), 3-15. Rickey Best is the Dean of the Auburn University Montgomery Library and in this article he explains how there are efforts at the federal level to solve problems relating to data security and preservation but there are still gaps at the state and local levels which endanger the long-term preservation of electronic documents. The article goes on to explain how fuzzy legislation is a major challenge for state level libraries because they do not clearly address issues pertaining to preservation and access to born-digital publications. This article focuses on how professionals can develop a cooperative method of recognizing and preserving state publications. This article centers on academic librarians in Alabama but the methods can be utilized in any academic setting; this project was based off of several other state libraries initiatives. This project did not deal with the preservation of physical documents; it only focused on electronic documents which may not be useful to most archives. PADI: gateway to international digital preservation resources and to ICADS (IFLA-CDNL alliance for digital strategies) . (2010). Retrieved from http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/ This website is a product of the National Library of Australia. They state that their mission is to provide mechanisms that will help to ensure that information in digital form is managed with appropriate consideration for preservation and future access. PADI has an international advisory board of 20 people from various archives and national libraries. The idea for PADI was introduced in 1993, making it a forward thinker in the world of digital preservation. In 1996 they received funding and that is when they really got off the ground. This website has sections for selection criteria, technical notes, contact information and a very clean page outlining all the topics that PADI covers including strategies, issues, formats, data documentation and intellectual property rights. They also provide links to academic papers and articles regarding digital preservation and a list of events such as conferences. This website is very easy to navigate though it is focused on professional institutions and may not be of much help to smaller institutions. Bollacker, K. D. (2010, March/April). Avoiding a digital dark age. American Scientist, 98(2), 106. Written by the digital research director of the Long Now Foundation this article by Kurt D. Bollacker focuses on his fear that if we cannot learn to explicitly save our digital data, we will lose that data and, with it, the record the future generations might use to remember and understand us. Bollacker goes on to describe that he sees preservation as a two part problem; first, the preservation of the physical media and second, even if the physical medium is preserved there will be software and machines needed to use it. Otherwise, the information is lost. The reader is taken back in time to the first human records and brought back to the present with a nice graph illustrating how digital media does not last as long as analog. Because this article was published by a science magazine there is a lot of technical information that may not interest digital preservationists. This article does not contain a lot of practical advice but it can be taken as a cautionary tale of what can happen to all human knowledge if we do not take precautions.