Born-Digital Processing

In the Spring of 2017, the Alexander Architectural Archives took its first steps toward processing a born-digital collection (VOH). Using the resources and training provided by UT Libraries, the Alexander Architectural Archives has made a commitment to processing its born-digital media in order to recover data from legacy media formats and to create preservation images to be vaulted to tape. The documentation on this page is a comprehensive list of the workflow and steps necessary to achieve these goals. While the purpose of these pages is to train future GRAs in the practices used at the archives these pages are not intended to be static. As more resources, training, and tools become available, staff should feel free to update (and if necessary archive) these pages. 

Processing Plan and Workflow - An overview of how a processing plan for each collection should be developed and the basic steps in a workflow. 

Phase I - Bit-level preservation - All pages in this directory are related to explaining in detail the steps needed to create preservation disk images, documentation, and metadata of the media that can be sent to tape. 

Media Overview - A description of the types of legacy media likely to be encountered and details on the tools needed to access and image these items. 

Documentation - Resources on directory creation, photographing media, and the creation of the processing log and readme files. 

Disk Images - How-to guides on BitCurator, FTK Imager, and the KryoFlux

Transfer and Storage - Instructions on how to create the AIP for ingest using Bagger and how to coordinate with Digital Stewardship to transfer the records. 

Problematic Disk Images - A guide to extracting content from disks that don't image correctly or have corrupted DFXML files.

Redacting PII - A guide to redacting PII from files before bagging.

Phase II - Access and Description - All pages in this directory are related to how the materials should be described in the Finding Aid and include instructions on how to use FTK Imager to extract files from disk images. (WIP)

Digital Preservation Laptop - Information related to the dedicated workstation provided to AAA by the Digital Stewardship Unit at UT Libraries. 

Recommended Readings - A collection of readings related to processing born-digital materials. 

Recommended Resources - A collection of websites, blogs, and listservs related to digital preservation.