What is a Digital Archive?
As society evolves into an increasingly digital age in which family albums exist in Facebook folders and photographs are produced using DSLRs, the implementation of digital preservation is becoming a critical necessity within institutional settings and our daily lives. Just as our image-making processes have grown to include the use of devices such as iPhones, Tablets, and GoPros, so has our image-storing equipment. With the emergence of cloud computing software including Google Drive and Microsoft Azure, we can now produce and amass large quantities of digital information that can be stored for future generations of artists and historians.
In the archiving community, a digital archive is defined as the compiled material, including analog material that has been transformed into binary electronic form, as well as first generation digital work, compiled within a virtual repository for long-term preservation (Newton Gresham Library). This type of archive is constructed to store electronic information that may include video footage, digital images, document files, multimedia work, and audio recordings. In the context of record-keeping and the documentation of history, digital preservation has become critical for maintaining “cultural digital heritage” as historians implement “policies, strategies, and actions” to “ensure access to digital content over time” (LeFurgy).
Archives and Cloud Technology
Today, the emergence of cloud technology has altered the way we view digital archives and how we store electronic information. Through cloud computing, we can now utilize a network of data servers that exist within remote locations–yet are hosted on the internet–to manage, store and process data. This capability helps institutions avoid depleting their financial budgets on extensive amounts of storage space needed to house archival content, while reducing the cost of establishing physical infrastructure for tangible material. While budgets may still need to be set aside to digitize collections, once this process has been implemented the archival information can be made accessible to target audiences, which may include researchers, creatives, and the general public, through the internet at the discretion of the institution. Furthermore, the introduction of cloud software means an institution's principal concerns involving climate control, electricity bills, and the need to employ IT specialists to manage hardware and software malfunctions is minimized. This process therefore allows the institution or organization to have more control over archival elements such as location, storage, and accessibility restrictions of physical material that has been digitized, as the financial burden involving operating costs are minimized to include solely that of the cloud services utilized (Microsoft Azure).
©UNESCO Archives Digitization Laboratory
Digital Archives: Best Practices
As financial concerns play a major role in the quality and breadth of archiving practices in many institutions, it is important to consider how we can implement the best practices when constructing digital archives, while also protecting the artist’s copyright. For institutions like public libraries that are dependent on government funding, making the shift to digital archives means budgets can be redirected from housing physical material towards developing community engagement activities such as educational programs. In providing archival material to communities who may be unfamiliar with the nature of archiving, it is important to consider how to maintain the highest level of security when records are accessed so that copyright infringement does not ensue.
Near the end of February, I had the privilege of meeting with Natiba Guy-Clement, the Manager of the Special Collections-Brooklyn Collection of the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL). As she spoke about what her role working with collections entails, Guy-Clement mentioned that when library-goers access digital photographs, they are permitted to download 96 dpi (dots-per-inch) files. However, if an individual would like access to 300 dpi formats for commercial or other professional work, users are expected to pay a licensing fee. As bigger file sizes increase the quality and therefore, replicability of the image, archivists must be sure to maintain the integrity of the work’s copyright. Providing the public with the access to the most basic format of an image aims to prevent the misuse and duplication of an artist’s work. By incorporating cloud computing technology, foundations can increase the security of online work by allowing institutions to set up protocols and controls that limit the access of material to certain certified personnel (Microsoft Azure). In this way, material that may be rare or involve certain privacy concerns can be limited to access only by staff who may need to view this material for record-keeping purposes.
According to the Library of Congress, when storing work digitally, one must also consider the obsolescence of digital storage devices and the effect this has on diminishing the archive’s accessibility to the public. Individuals who may have previously stored information on floppy disks and USB thumb drives must consider that technological advancements will cause such devices to become obsolete, so it is crucial to continuously update your storage locations. Perhaps the most pressing issue for digital archivists concerns how to make sure work produced 50 years ago will remain accessible to audiences 100 or 200 years from now. In taking into account the possible corruption of information, individuals must also consider whether the chosen digital storage location can withstand elements such as weather and the degradation of technological ports or chords. It is important to store digital archives within multiple locations to protect the data in cases of natural disaster, technology failures, or other emergencies. This redistribution of time, energy, and effort will be made possible by cloud computing that “makes data backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity easier and less expensive” as data is mirrored at “multiple redundant sites” within the cloud provider’s network (Microsoft Azure). For individuals looking to begin archiving their collection, it may be necessary to store work on two hard drives: one specified for personal and travel use, as well as a work device which should remain at home. Each week, incoming work can then be transferred from the personal hard drive to the homebase drive to act as a second layer of precautionary backup.
As institutions begin the process of transferring the physical material to corresponding online databases, the delegated archivist must maintain a descriptive, chronological order to keep track of which physical item corresponds to each respective digital file. Issues involving online misplacement can be avoided by utilizing appropriate and specific file-naming structures and metadata that include: the type of object, its authentic name, and its number within the sequence of material being uploaded. Because a digital archive is intended to ease one’s ability to locate material by way of finding aids, it is important to include explicitly detailed metadata to help the viewer sort through hundreds of thousands of digital artworks. When beginning the process of digitizing an artist’s physical collection, inventorying should be the first step to gauge the size and make up of the collection. The archivist can then decide on a hierarchical arrangement best suited to the content. Types of arrangement may include an item-level arrangement focused on the type of content or format of the work. As more work is added and special formats such as audio are included, the arrangement may transform to a folder, sub-series, or series-level arrangement.
The Future of Digital Media
In a discussion at New York University with the Director of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) Media Rebecca Clemans about the benefits of additional preservation in an age where material is becoming increasingly available online, she noted that the preservation of media artworks is highly dependent on the medium utilized. In speaking about the intangibility of media art, Clemans mentioned that this artform is often undervalued because one “cannot sell physical copies” and instead, the artist is often limited to “distributing the licensing” of the work (Clemans). Additionally, EAI Media has “found it harder to archive analog-based video because it requires access to specific technology,” such as analog-to-digital video converters. With many people failing to recognize that digital material often requires physical storage space, Clemans and her team decided to implement Amazon Web Services (AWS) Snowball, a data migration device that allows for the secure transport of large amounts of digital information, to begin the transfer of the company’s technological infrastructure to a solely online platform. As our knowledge of and commitment to cloud service technology grows, more and more institutions are beginning to follow in line with EAI Media to incorporate cloud-computing servers into their digital archiving practices. Platforms such as AWS Snowball provide inexpensive methods to implement foundational changes and cater to the minimal physical storage needs of digital archives, while offering solutions that account for data corruption, copyright, and existing software integration concerns.
In a follow up conversation on the potential evolution of digital archiving, Natiba Guy-Clement also noted the “cost prohibitive” nature of digitizing entire physical collections. Yet, in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic, she emphasized how the importance of “democratizing access” has grown. In recent months, entire institutions have had to transition into “working virtually and providing content to their users on digital platforms,” an act that has been especially difficult for “libraries who usually function as democractic and community based spaces.” Further compounding the matter, she goes on to explain how this crisis has made it “even more challenging” for archives, as it “shines a much needed light on the importance of investing in digitization, collecting born digital materials, and making them accessible.” The current state of our society has pushed archival foundations to begin discussions on the future of public engagement, which will fundamentally need to include “creating, using, and supporting more collaborative systems,” such as the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), according to Guy-Clement.
Ultimately, the act of digital archiving is important for material that may include fragile, original works that lack multiple generations and are in need of preservation. The process of constructing a digital archive is an active responsibility on the part of the archivist to ensure that the practices implemented are consistent with the modernization of technological storage devices. Through cloud technology, we can begin to alleviate some of the pressures that come with housing physical material and increase the opportunity for audiences across the world to access archives online. Furthermore, utilizing cloud technology to create a digital archive can help facilitate the process of licensing and distributing high quality files in a secure, efficient manner for institutions who deal with multiple collections at a time. Constructing digital archives is a continually fluctuating and evolving process; as technology advances, the need to optimize the accessibility of an archive will however persist. Essentially, the preservation of digital archives is a community effort that necessarily involves multiple organizations, institutions, and individuals in order to leave a well-rounded account of images and information for future generations.
WORKS CITED
Clemans, Rebecca. "Guest Lecturer: Director Of EAI Arts Media". NYU, 2019.
LeFurgy, Bill. "Describing Digital Preservation: As Easy As A Walk In The Park | The Signal".
Blogs.Loc.Gov, 2020, https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2011/08/describing-digital-preservation-as-easy-as-a-walk-in-the-park/.
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Archives?". Shsulibraryguides.Org, 2020, https://shsulibraryguides.org/c.php?g=86819&p=558330.
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