Digital Acquisition & Preservation
A page documenting: Projects and workflows related to digital archives projects.
SAA ARR : CAD/BIM TF
20170321: CAD/BIM Taskforce of the SAA’s Architectural Records Section requests your participation in an interview about your archives' approach to and practices around digital design holdings. This conversation builds upon the insights gleaned from the 2016 survey on digital design holdings (attached) ((not attached to this wiki pg but saved on the Admin Server Architecture/digi_projects/saa-arr_cad-bim_tf)). We will be interviewing 30 or so institutions and corporate archives and hope to report on our findings at the SAA Research Forum this July.
I have provided the outline of questions below for your reference. As you can see, we are focused on current practices. Our survey seeks to understand the existing and expected needs of professional development, staffing, and resources for archives collecting digital design records. We anticipate the interview to take about an hour.
Let me know if you have any questions for me before we meet. Thanks so much again and looking forward to meeting soon in Detroit!
Best,
Pamela Casey
Archivist
Drawings and Archives Collection
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
1172 Amsterdam Avenue MC0301
New York, NY 10027
pfc2108@columbia.edu
212-854-0760
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INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
NOTE: we have very few collections that include born digital records. Unsure if we have any CAD/BIM records.
1. About policies and workflows
2. Acquisition
How much of your backlog contains born-digital?
Do you ask for monetary or staff support from your donors to accompany their materials? Always, but it is not a requirement and we only have metrics on calculating analog items. We have a low success rate.
If you ask for documentation from donors, what do you ask for and why? For the collection: Biographical information, inventory of containers, project lists. For digital material: .....
Do you also require or ask donors to submit documentation about the context of the records creation and use? (yes/no) Yes, for their top 10 projects. Low success rate. I usually end up recording our initial meeting on my iPhone (with their permission). For digital: ..........
If yes, what contextual documentation do your require? (file naming procedures, software & server set up, versioning, backup procedures, operating systems, file dependencies, copyright information, contracts, project records)
3. Preservation
What medium(s) do you use to store your digital files?
What are your current preservation strategies?
How confident/satisfied are you in these strategies?
What strategies would you like to implement in the next few years?
4. Access
How much access are you currently able to support?
What types of reference questions are you fielding around your digital design holdings?
5. Relationship with related academic programs
What, if any, relationship does your archive have with the related academic departments or programs at your institution?
6. Challenges and needs
What are the most pressing concerns or identified obstacles for your archive? staffing staffing staffing. storage.
What resources or support do you need to help overcome those obstacles? $$$$$