Guidelines for creating born-digital media documentation - archived 3/5/2018

Photographing media
Record-keeping
Creating plaintext "readme" files

Photographing media

Photograph each piece of digital media, without the paper label wrap if you have applied one. Capture manufacturer or user-added labels clearly. Capture the assigned media number somewhere in the frame for future reference. Take additional photographs at a closer zoom to document any physical damage or anomalies if necessary. Name each image according to the file naming convention AIPidentifier_mediaNumber_itemNumber_01, AIPidentifier_mediaNumber_itemNumber_02, etc. in directory AIPidentifier_mediaNumber_itemNumber_media_photographs.

The following sample images are JPEGs taken using an iPhone 6:

Record-keeping

Create a media processing log to track your actions and progress. For the VOH collection, I created a spreadsheet using the following fields (column headers): Media Identifier; Associated Identifier (UUID); Media Description (PBCore instantiationPhysical)*; Photographed (y/n); Matches entry in physical inventory (y/n)**; Notes. It's also good practice to create a separate "readme" tab with an overview of your processing project (see below).

*PBCore is a public broadcasting metadata dictionary; the PBCore vocabulary gives controlled, standard descriptions of physical media
**An extensive physical inventory created and bound by the donor accompanied the born-digital media in this collection.

Snapshot of processing log

"readme" tab

Creating plaintext readme files

Using a simple text editor, create a readme file to document any issues that may have occurred when processing media. For example, when:

a disk is missing
a disk is damaged
a disk is blank
a disk contains program files/proprietary software
an error occurs (list the exact error in the file)

Follow the naming convention AIPidentifier_mediaNumber_itemNumber_readme.txt, e.g., 2017009_01_001_readme.txt, and save the file within the top-level directory for that object.