Nature of Archives. Preservation. Preservation. Preventive Preservation. Preservation Management

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1 Preservation of Archival Materials Nature of Archives Arrangement Accessioning Description Acquisition Preservation Appraisal Functions Access 1 Preservation The professional discipline of protecting materials by minimizing chemical and physical deterioration and damage to minimize the loss of information and to extend the life of cultural property. The act of keeping from harm, injury, decay, or destruction, especially through noninvasive treatment. Eimee Rhea C. Lagrama Preservation To keep for some period of time; to set aside for future use. To take action to prevent deterioration or loss. Eimee Rhea C. Lagrama 3 4 Preservation Management In archives and records management, it is a tool used to manage the physical condition of holdings, ensuring present and future access. It is based on the principle of preventive conservation and integrates preservation in all other archival functions. Eimee Rhea C. Lagrama Preventive Preservation Focus is to defer or avoid altogether the deterioration of the collections as a whole Prevention is better than cure 5 6 1

2 Preventive Preservation Housing and storage Collection surveys to identify collection condition and needs Staff training and education in Archives preservation and disaster awareness Environmental monitoring and management Disaster preparedness, response and recovery Integrated pest management. Remedial Preservation Focus is to correct/remedy physical or chemical deterioration Costly, labor intensive Requires training 7 8 Remedial Preservation Conservation treatment Must be carried out by a professional Requires conservation laboratory Can be contracted/outsourced Cost-prohibitive Remedial Preservation Reformatting Creating a copy with a format or structure different from the original, especially for preservation or access. Migrating information from one carrier to another Photocopying Microforms Digitization Reformatting Photocopying Duplication of a printed material using a photocopying machine Relatively inexpensive Can reach a broader audience

3 Photocopying Issues Cannot be used for preservation Copyright issues Inaccurate image capturing (even for colored machines) Color photocopying is expensive Microforms Images are reduced to about 25x the size of originals and stored in microfilms, microfiche or aperture cards Images are stored in the positive or negative Microforms: Advantages Assured longevity under optimal conditions (±500 years) Analog, does not require a PC to decode the images Easily produced, stored, distributed and reproduced Cannot be mutilated or defaced Acceptable in the court of law Microforms : Disadvantages Requires a special reader to see the images Images are captured poorly Colored microforms are expensive and degrade much faster Texts are not searchable Can cause headaches after prolonged use Original image Microfilmed image Digitization is a paradigm shift. physical to electronic limited access to full access slow to speed retrieval local to global availability uncontrolled to secured written archival descriptions to Encoded Archival Descriptions (EAD) or metadata. 17 3

4 History Digitization started in December 2004 when Google announced the Google Print Library which will digitize print materials from the collection of five major libraries Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Oxford and the New York Public Library. Digitization: Pros and Cons by M. Santos-Ong What is Digitization? Digitization is the process of placing tangible, real items into an electronic format. The use of digital cameras, flatbed scanners, and other computer technology to create digital or virtual archives or museums. The digital format gives the subject longevity far beyond what the original item would have. Gabriel M. Cole 19 What is Digitization? Converting written and printed information into electronic form Creation of computerization of a printed analog. Contents text, image, audio, video or combination of these (multimedia) Digitization Conversion of analog source material (printed matter, microforms, audio/video) to digital format Resulting digital format is called a digital object or digital surrogate and is subject to the same archiving procedure as a borndigital material Eimee Rhea C. Lagrama Digital archiving It means taking steps to ensure the longevity of electronic documents. Alison Bullock Digital Archives are materials that have been converted to machine-readable format for preservation or to make them more accessible to users. Also refers to information originally created in electronic format, and preserved for its archival value. 4

5 What is Archives Digitization? It is a process of retrieving, collating, organizing, and utilizing of archival materials and store or convert in electronic or digital format for preservation, control, security, and access. Purpose of Digitization Keeping documents intact for future use Improved access to archival resources and dissemination as needed Accessibility any time, anywhere, and any place Document Preparation Is material copyrighted? Are there legal/donor restrictions? Can it be digitized? Can it handle the digitization process? Will the material be a digital surrogate? Digitization can be used to preserve, protect, and make widely available historical items 27 Advantages of Digitization Protection of physical resources Unlocks information that was previously difficult to access in paper form Use of digital surrogates will reduce wear and tear of originals and made legible Eliminate the use of originals Access control and restriction to information Cost saving on paper Time saving in finding information Other advantages: Improved searching mechanisms Metadata search and full text search Support simultaneous searching Online finding aids Query formulation and crystalization Space save 3000 kg of paper could be saved in a DVD Data manipulation and compressed for various applications

6 General Archival Collections Textual documents Maps Audio collections Video collections Graphical items Objects and artifacts Equipment needed Conversion devices Editing software Storage devices Display devices Output devices Digitization methods In-house In-house outsource Outsource Concepts of Digitization Digitize archival record is mirror image of original analogue and paper These images is then rendered into desired format (e.g. PDF) for archiving Creation of Metadata used for search and index Digitization - Objects and Process Digitization of Texts and Images Objects Image Text Audio Video digitization using scanner Image digitization using digital camera scan as image Text scan followed by OCR Process Scanner captures images/video and audio copy using player recorders. Software analyzes images and creates texts and images Software converters transform raw Audio and raw Video to standard digital format edit images compress images edit images Compress images edit text 35 6

7 Digitization of Video and Audio Organization digitization using DVD recording Video VHS, Beta ripping MPEG, AVI files digitization using video capture card Audio cassette Audio player computers audio files Indexing Text indexing Image indexing Multimedia indexing Metadata refers to any data used to aid the identification, description and location of electronic resources Software myaerarium Greenstone DSpace Output Electronic Document Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) easier for the computer to process easier color management smaller files size Portable Document Format (PDF) Useful for hosting information on the intranet Platform independent PDF readers are available as free downloads SLA WI October 42 7

8 Digitization Issues and Concerns Hardware Computer Scanner Software Communication software PC Scanner Image processing Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks etc. Enable text material to be converted to Text i.e. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) AABBYY, OmniPage Suitable Policy Choosing appropriate image format TIFF, JPEG etc. Choosing an appropriate file name scheme. Digital Preservation issues Long term maintenance Technology is rapidly changing Lack of relevant ICT skills and methods Lack of appropriate support Other issues Standards to ensure a high quality result Copyright and intellectual property implications Difficulty and expense of preserving digital information Outside funding and digital initiatives Organizing metadata -description of a digital object Concerns Digitization must not be viewed as a substitute for other preservation activities. Microfilming is still the best long-term preservation manner or method. Preserving the original materials increases the essential value of the original as evidence. Types of Scanners Other information Flat bed scanners Normal Desktop scanner Sheet fed scanners Same as above but here document moves and scan-head is immobile Handheld scanner Used to capture text Drum scanner Used in publishing industries Planetary Scanner Scanning books

9 Flatbed Scanner with Document Feeder File Formats Audio Wav Microsoft, IBM audio file format. Large files. MP3, MP4 Popular digital audio encoding. Lossy compression format so smaller files. Still can produce good reproduction of original. Real Audio ram Streaming audio format 50 Video MPEG AVI or video clip Mov wmv others File Formats Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Goal Recreate text and other elements like tables and layout so as to edit in popular word- processors Requirement Scanner and text conversion software (OCR) Technology Examines patterns of dots and recognizes them and writes them as alphabetic characters and numbers Best Practice Sample digitization procedures First scan and store as TIFF files OCR TIFF files Depending on the application and size can convert it into PDF or any format Depending on accuracy of OCR use TIFF or OCR copies for PDF

10 Camera produces raw uncorrected color photo of the each page The software cleans up the image and saves as Hi-Res TIFF image Using OCR it can converted to editable text Digitization of electronic materials It means preservation of materials that are born digital. Migration Electronic data transferred from one data format to another. Emulation Attempts to use current and future technologies to emulate the tools and logic used when the records and files were originally created Digitization on the move

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12 Analogue digitization equipments Digitization success factors Management support Financial support Technical support Sustainability Digitization projects National Archives (RMAO) digitization project started in 1998 Supreme Court elibrary started in 2004 Philippine elib Project Manila Observatory: Preserving natures worst project

13 Snapshot Points to ponder Many libraries are becoming publishers of their public domain and archival materials in digital repositories. Knowledge of techniques to scan, digitize, preserve, and provide digital access to our materials is becoming a part of information literacy for librarians. Dr. Rob McGeachin Unlike paper, parchment and other traditional forms of recording medium, electronic systems and their data are not durable. Digital materials have very different preservation requirements to analogue materials, which may last for many decades through storage in most favorable environmental conditions. The other difficulty with electronic data and files is that they require the intervention of other systems to facilitate readability or usability. F. Versoza FIN Thank You! 75 13