Presentation given on October 10, 2012 at the School of Information Management, Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University. Abstract: Ensuring persistent access to digital content is a challenge confronting contemporary institutions of all types and sizes, regardless of professional, disciplinary or organizational context. Introduced in 2002, the term digital curation describes an array of principles, strategies and technical approaches for enabling the use and re-use of reliable and trusted digital content into the indefinite future. Trusted digital repositories have emerged as one strategy in response to today's digital curatorial challenges. Successful digital repository development and deployment necessitates coordination and collaboration among an array of actors, resources, and diverse, potentially divergent requirements. The literature contains an assortment of digital repository planning and best practice recommendations and resources, though reports on actual, as opposed to perceived or potential, roadblocks and obstacles are less reported. Drawing from a first-hand account of an extensive, multi-year digital curation and repository project at a major research university, this presentation provides an overview of what was done, including what worked and what didn’t, and resulting recommendations for advancing digital repository planning, implementation, and research.

1. DIGITAL
CURATION
IN CONTEXT
CAROLYN.HANK@MCGILL.CA
Assistant Professor ▪ School of Information Studies
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY ▪ 10 OCTOBER 2012 ▪ HALIFAX, NS

2. history
personal
a little about me

3. 2004-2005
OCLC
OCLC RESEARCH
- SENSE-MAKING THE INFORMATION CONFLUENCE
- MOVING FROM PRINT TO HYBRID JOURNAL
SUBSCRIPTIONS
2005-present - DIGITAL CURATION/INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY
UNC
- CAROLINA DIGITAL REPOSITORY
- DIGCCURR I (DIGITAL CURATION CURRICULUM)
- DIGCCURR II (PROFESSIONAL TRAINING)
AT CHAPEL HILL
- HUMAN INFORMATION INTERACTION
- DIGITAL PRESERVATION, ACCESS & CURATION
2010-present - PI: (1) FACEBOOK & (2) BLOGS
MCGILL
- CONSULTANT, BLOGFOREVER.EU
- ARCHIVAL STUDIES STREAM
- TEACHING
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES
- RESEARCH ETHICS BOARD II

4. WHAT IS
DIGITAL
CURATION
disambiguation

5. Image Credit: Tim Gough, New York Times, October 2, 2009 (All Rights Reserved).
Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/fashion/04curate.html

7. CURATE IS NOT ALONE
“ … the word archive has lost much of its traditional
meaning and associations … archivists have literally
lost control over the definition of archive.” (Hedstrom,
1991, p. 336)
“…despite the recent appropriation of „archive‟ as a
verb to mean „store‟ or „to preserve,‟ the traditional
meaning of archives as a noun is narrower.” (CLIR,
2001, p. 85)
“Traditionally, preservation and archiving have had
two distinct definitions with preservation being a
necessary component of, but not equivalent to, the
totality of archiving.” (Tibbo, 2003, p. 11)

8. DIGITAL
CURATION
DIGITAL
PRESERVATION
Also, be aware of digital stewardship,
digital archiving, and data curation too …

9. OUTCOMES AND GOALS
YOU CANNOT “PRESERVE” IT IF YOU CANNOT …
1 GET IT
2 DESCRIBE IT
3 INTERPRET IT
4 SECURE IT
6 AUTHENTICATE IT
7 ACCESS IT
9 PERFORM IT

10. DEFINITIONS
DIGITAL PRESERVATION (ALA) - Short/Medium
SHORT: “Digital preservation combines policies,
strategies and actions that ensure access to digital
content over time.”
MEDIUM: “… reformatted and born digital content
regardless of the challenges of media failure and
technological change. The goal of digital preservation
is the accurate rendering of authenticated content
over time.”
LONG: Really long … breaks down digital preservation
strategies and actions into three main areas: 1) content
creation, 2) content integrity and content
maintenance.
SOURCE: http://www.ala.org/ala/alcts/newslinks/digipres/index.cfm

11. DEFINITIONS
DIGITAL CURATION (DCC)
Digital curation, broadly interpreted, is about
maintaining and adding value to a trusted body of
digital information for current and future use.
The active management and preservation of digital
resources over the life-cycle of scholarly and scientific
interest, and over time for current and future
generations of users.
“What Is Digital Curation?”http://www.dcc.ac.uk/about/what/

12. WHY THESE MATTER
A SAMPLE OF SELECT ISSUES
– Creating durable digital objects
– Appraisal and selection
– Hardware and software obsolescence
– File formats
– Rights management and other legal and ethical issues
– Metadata (minimum/optimal/practical)
– Quality control and “trustworthiness”
– Commitment to the long-term
– Resource allocation, costing, and staffing
– Funding for development and sustainability

13. WHY THESE MATTER
SOURCE: http://www.happyplace.com/10720/utterly-insane-job-opportunities-on-craigslist/page/1

14. WHY THESE MATTER
… because it might be
something you are expected
to do in your professional life
(and that you might want to
do, in your personal lives).

15. WHY THESE MATTER
sample of job titles doing “digital curation”
• Applications Programmer
• Archivist
A •
•
•
Archival Engineer
Archivist/Reference Librarian
Assistant Archivist
• Cataloger
C • Content Management Analyst
SOURCE: Tibbo, Hank & Lee (2008)

16. SAMPLE TITLES
• Digital Archivist (2)
• Digital Collections Research Asst.
• Digital Imaging Librarian
• Digital Library Program Assistant
D • Digital Preservation Researcher
• Digital Preservation Specialist (2)
• Digital Preservation System Admin.
• Digital Projects Librarian
• Digital Services Librarian
• Digital Technologies Manager
• Digitization Assistant

17. SAMPLE TITLES
• Research Programmer (2)
R • Research Data Specialist
• Electronic Records Manager
• Head of Preservation
• Information Technology Specialist
ETC. •
•
Multimedia and Metadata Librarian
Project Archivist for Special Collections
• Senior Advisor, Electronic Records
• Technical Manager (2)

18. repository
digital
digital curation in context

19. ME
ME
ME
Disclaimer

20. JUST PUBLISHED
O’Meara, E., & Tuomala, M. (2012).
Finding balance between archival
principles and real-life practices in
an institutional repository.
Archivaria, Spring 2012(73).

21. THEIR PERSPECTIVE
2009 Author’s experience with project began
2010 Carolina Digital Repository - “soft launch”
2011 Curator’s Workbench debuts
2012 Archivaria article

22. MY PERSPECTIVE
AND SOME REPOSITORY HISTORY
2003 Systems & Service Coordination Council Report
Minds of Carolina (Tibbo and Jones)
2004 Digital Assets Assessment Team Report
2005 Scholarly Communications in a Digital World
Digital Curation/Institutional Repository
Committee (DC/IRC) formed
2007 Carolina Digital Library and Archives formed
2009 My experience with project ended
Author’s experience with project began
2010 Carolina Digital Repository - “soft launch”
2011 Curator’s Workbench debuts
2012 Archivaria article

23. charge to the
DC/ICR

24. Develop a feasible plan
to serve Carolina's
curation needs and
place us in the forefront
of such efforts locally,
nationally, and
internationally.
charge

25. Design a pilot IR and
digital preservation
program in partnership
with ITS, the University
Library, and SILS that will
support ongoing
research.
charge

26. Develop policies,
procedures, and long-
term digital preservation
strategies to benefit the
entire campus, including
strategies to educate
the campus community.
charge

27. WHY?
No centralized or federated
system for identifying,
acquiring, describing and
storing the digital assets
produced and/or maintained
by the Carolina community …

28. … the University‟s unique
scholarship is at risk of being
“lost,” at one end of
a continuum, to simply
undiscoverable at the
other.

29. Since the University invests in
the manufacture of
these intellectual and
institutional digital assets …

30. … then it would only follow
that the University invest
in strategies and mechanisms
to ensure these
unique, rich digital assets are
safe, durable, and useable,
into the future.

31. anatomy
of an IR
planning
project

32. anatomy
of an IR
planning
project
1965

33. anatomy
of an IR
FUNDS
REQUIRED
planning ENGAGEMENT
project
STAFFING POLICY
CRAMP
SYSTEMS
CONTENT
MANAGEMENT
2005-
SERVICES
&
FEATURES
2009

34. LYNCH ON IRs
• … a university-based IR is a set of services
that a university offers to the members of its
community for the management and
dissemination of digital materials created by
the institution and its community members.
• … most essentially an organizational
commitment to the stewardship of these
digital materials, including long-term
preservation where appropriate, as well as
organization and access or distribution.
Source: Lynch (2002)

35. LYNCH ON IRs (cont.)
• While operational responsibility for these
services may reasonably be situated in
different organizational units at different
universities, an effective IR of necessity
represents a collaboration among librarians,
information technologists, archives and
records managers, faculty, and university
administrators and policymakers.
Source: Lynch (2002)

36. LYNCH ON IRs (cont.)
• At any given point in time, an IR will be
supported by a set of information
technologies, but a key part of the services
that comprise an IR is the management of
technological changes, and the migration of
digital content from one set of technologies
to the next as part of the organizational
commitment to providing repository services.
• An IR is not simply a fixed set of software and
hardware.
Source: Lynch (2002)

37. DC/IRC OPERATIONS
DC/IRC OPERATIONS
• Initially a two-year term (2005-2007)
• September 16, 2005: 1st DC/IRC meeting
• 23 meetings in total over 2 year initial
appointment
• Extended to 3-year term (thru 2008)
• Advisory role with introduction of CDLA

38. DC/IRC MEMBERSHIP
• University Library, inc.: • Information Technology
– Library Systems Services (ITS)
– University Archives • The Odum Institute
– DocSouth • Ibiblio.org
• Health Sciences • UNC Press
Library • Kenan-Flagler School of
• School of Information Business
and Library Science • Department of Romance
(SILS) Languages
• Renaissance • Department of
Computing Institute Anthropology
(RENCI) • Department of Art
13 to 27 members

39. WORKING GROUPS
WORKING GROUPS
INITIALLY INFORMED BY:
1) RLG/NARA (2005): Taskforce on Digital Repository
Certification, Audit Checklist for Certifying Digital
Repositories: Draft for Public Comment.
THEN RESTRUCTURED IN CONSIDERATION OF:
2) DRAMBORA (2007): Digital Repository Audit
Method Based on Risk Assessment.
3) OCLC, CRL, and NARA (2007): Trusted
Repositories Audit and Certification: Criteria and
Checklist.
5+1 restructured to 4

40. WORKING GROUPS
1) Governance and Policy (GP)
2) Guidance, Engagement and Training (GET)
3) Communities and Digital Assets Management (CDAM)
4) Technical Planning Infrastructure Group (TPIG)

41. KEY KEY ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITIES
1 state of the art literature review on IR deployment
2 months planning TRLN IR Forum
3 expert speaker talks hosted
4 working groups formed
6 semi-structured needs assessment interviews completed
7 IR policies drafted and vetted
9 months installing/configuring/testing IR beta
10 presentations at local/national conferences
11 repository applications reviewed
18 deposit and use case scenarios drafted and vetted
23 meetings held (2005-2007)
66 page IR ingest survey devised and tested

42. CONTINUED FOCUS ON …
management
policies services
collaboration
content
engagement technologies

43. SPECIFICALLY …
1) Dedicated staffing, particularly programming
2) Open, flexible and extensible technologies
3) Informed, timely engagement
4) Structured, strategic content recruitment
5) Partnership, collaboration and relationship
building
6) Top-down and grassroots promotion

44. staffing?
but first, what about doing …

45. SO, WHO (OR WHAT) IS
A DIGITAL CURATOR

46. “Traditionally, curators are responsible for
acquiring material for a collection, preserving
these materials for future generations, helping
users locate items from the collection and
providing contextual information so they can
better understand them, and designing
exhibits for the benefit and enjoyment of the
public.”
“What is a Digital Curator?”
Doug Reside, Digital Curator of Performing Arts,
Library for the Performing Arts April 4, 2011.
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/04/04/what-digital-curator

47. “As digital curator, I will do most of these things as well, but
I have specifically made it my mission to:
1) make as much of our collection available online as
copyright law, professional ethics, and our budget permits
2) provide both contextual information and software tools
to make our digital collections as useful as possible
3) improve methods for preserving and providing access to
the "born digital" materials (word processor files, digital
musical scores, 3d set designs, etc.) that are now part of the
creative history of most contemporary works of art”
“What is a Digital Curator?”
Doug Reside, Digital Curator of Performing Arts,
Library for the Performing Arts April 4, 2011.
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/04/04/what-digital-curator

48. NOT A COMMON TITLE
206 LISTINGS (2006-12)
JOB
POSTINGS RESEARCH DATA & DIGITAL CURATION OFFICER
DSpace@Cambridge
ANALYSIS
CURATION SERVICES OFFICER
Digital curation Centre, U of Edinburgh
SOURCE: SHERPA

49. PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES
To do digital curation is to …
• Develop and implement policies
• Analyze digital content to determine what
services can be provided from it
• Provide advice to producers and consumers
• Support ingest of deposits to a repository
• Enable use and reuse
• Enable discovery and retrieval
• Develop and implement preservation planning
• Promote interoperability
SOURCE: Harvey (2010)

50. DC FUNCTIONS & SKILLS
• 24 high-level functional categories across six
activity areas:
– Technical infrastructure
– Information resource treatment
– Metadata treatment
– Human interaction
– Strategies, prioritization, and judgments
– Administration
Source: Lee (2009). Matrix of Digital
Curation Knowledge and Competencies

51. A DEPT. OF ONE?
staffing institutional repositories
WHAT ABOUT
7.2 IF LESS THAN
1 FTE?
STAFF
Markey et al. (2007) Matthies (2011)

52. DC/IRC STAFFING PLAN
TREATMENT OF
TECHNICAL TREATMENT OF
INFORMATION
INFRASTRUCTURE METADATA
RESOURCES
TECHNOLOGIST I TECHNOLOGIST II
(System Administrator & (Metadata Technologist &
PROJECT Principle Programmer) User Support Specialist)
MANAGER
STRATEGIES,
HUMAN ADMINISTRATIVE
PRIORITIES &
INTERACTIONS ACTIVITIES
JUDGMENTS

53. HOW
DO WE
ENGAGE OUR
STAKEHOLDERS
CONTENT PRODUCERS, CO-PRODUCERS & MANAGERS,
CONSUMERS & DESIGNATED COMMUNITIES,
FUNDERS AND ADMINISTRATORS …
AND OURSELVES?

54. DIGITAL
MAD LIBS REPOSITORIES
A digital repository can be many things to many people,
depending on 1) _____________; 2) ____________; and
(PERSON) (DIGITAL ASSET)
3) __________. A digital repository is ________ ____________.
(PLACE) (ADVERB) (ADJECTIVE)
It does ___________; ___________; and ___________.
(VERB) (VERB) (VERB)
A digital repository contains __________ and __________.
(NOUN) (NOUN)

55. Image Credit: Vin Hank, age 7.

56. Image Credit: Patrick Donovan (15 Apr 2010) http://www.flickr.com/photos/21843970@N00/4529711937/

57. sell digital
curation in
30
seconds
or less Image Credit: James Malone (29 May 2009)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesmalone/3579227077/

58. just a plug …
CURATE:
The Digital
Curator Game
SOURCE: http://www.digcur-education.org/eng/Resources/CURATE-Game

59. SOURCES SOURCES
Council on Library and Information Resources. (2001). The evidence in hand: Report of
the Task Force on the Artifact in Library Collections. (CLIR Publication No. 103).
Washington, DC: Author. http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub103/contents.html
Center for Research Libraries and OCLC Online Computer Library Center. (2007).
Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist, V. 1.0.
http://www.crl.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/pages/trac_0.pdf
Caplan, P. (2008). The preservation of digital materials." Library Technology Reports, 44
(2).https://publications.techsource.ala.org/products/archive.pl?article=2614
Digital Curation Centre and DigitalPreservationEurope. (2007). Digital Repository Audit
Method Based on Risk Assessment, V. 1.0. http://www.repositoryaudit.eu/
Hank, C. (2008). A Progress and recommendations report from the Digital
Curation/Institutional Repository Committee, 2005-07: Informing a successful institutional
repository deployment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (195 pp.). Chapel
Hill, NC: University Libraries.
Harvey, R. (2010). Digital curation: A how-to-do-it manual (#170). New York: Neal-Schuman.
Hedstrom, M. (1991). Understanding electronic incunabula: A framework for
research on electronic records. American Archivist, 54(3), 334-354.
Lee, C.A. (2009, June 17). Matrix of digital curation knowledge and competencies
(overview), version 13. http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr/digccurr-matrix.html

60. SOURCES SOURCES
Lynch, C. (2002) Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the
Digital Age. ARL Bimonthly Report 226. http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br226/
/br226ir.shtml
Markey, K., Rieh, S.Y., St. Jean, B., Kim, J., & and Yakel, E. (2007). “Chapter Two: The
Institutions and the People Involved with IRs.” In Census of institutional repositories in the
United States: MIRACLE project research findings. Washington DC: CLIR.
Matthies, B. (2011). "Staffing the Repository: How to Build Your Team and Use it Effectively"
Research on Institutional Repositories: Articles and Presentations. Paper 26.
http://digitalcommons.bepress.com/repository-research/26
OCLC. (2003 ).Environmental Scan: A Report to the OCLC Membership.
http://www.oclc.org/reports/escan/appendices/collectiongrid.htm
SHERPA (UK): SHERPA maintains listings of jobs in areas related to digital curation, including
digital repositories, scholarly communication and open access. For previously advertised
posts, see: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/jobs/old-jobs.htm; for “current posts, see
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/jobs/index.html.
Tibbo, H.R. (2003). On the nature and importance of archiving in the digital age. In M.
Zelkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Computers: Information Repositories, 57 (pp. 1-67). San Diego,
CA: Elsevier.
Tibbo, H.R., Hank, C., & Lee, C.A. (2008). Challenges, curricula, and competencies:
Researcher and practitioner perspectives for informing the development of a digital
curation curriculum. In Archiving 2008: Final Program and Proceedings (pp. 234-238).
Springfield, VA: Society for Imaging Science and Technology.

61. THANK YOU
CAROLYN HANK
Email: carolyn.hank@mcgill.ca
Phone: (001)514.398.4684
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/carolynhank/
Slideshow:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT …
DIGITAL CURATION PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTE, an
initiative of (www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr/)
Also, check out Curator’s Workbench @
https://github.com/UNC-Libraries/Curators-Workbench
QUESTIONS?