Carcanet Case StudyCarcanet Case Study

Fran Baker, John Rylands University Library University of Manchester

SPRUCE event19 January 2012

The John Rylands University Library: Special Collections

JRUL & Digital Preservation

• Paradigm and Cairo Projects (junior partner)• Digital Preservation Steering Group• Digital Preservation Strategy • Implementation Plan• Theory into practice: JISC funding for

Carcanet Email Case Study

Images © Carcanet Press, reproduced by kind permission of Carcanet Press

Carcanet Press Archive

• Book files: authors’ manuscripts, annotated proofs, jacket designs, contracts, author questionnaires.

• Correspondence files: authors, translators, editors, publishers, designers, friends etc etc.

Aims of project

• To acquire and preserve the Carcanet Press Email Archive, for a year in the first instance.

• To use this archive as a testbed to establish good practice for acquiring and preserving similar born-digital archive material in the future.

• To produce guidelines and training materials in order that knowledge and expertise are retained.

• To share experiences and disseminate findings.

WP 1: Establish digital preservation ‘lab’

• Standalone quarantine PC for initial processing

• Networked workbench PC equipped with relevant software

• Secure network drive

WP 2: Survey and transfer of digital archive material

• Records survey: 2 email directories (Microsoft Outlook 2007)

• Documentation: deposit agreement; transfer list

• Encrypted portable hard drive

• Fixity checks

• Pre-acquisition appraisal

WP 3: Quarantine processing

• ‘Health check’: fixity and virus checking

• Secure deletion of selected folders (certificate of disposal)

• Audit trail

WP 4: Validation, metadata creation & extraction

• Working copy in dummy Outlook account (experiment with PeDALS email extractor)

• Accession record

• Descriptive metadata

• Curatorial ‘significant properties’

• Technical metadata

• Attachments: extraction and validation

• Processing plans

WP 5: Packaging and ingest

• Packaging tools

• Submission Information Package → Archival Information Package

• Fedora repository software: programme of fixity checks and techwatch

WP 6: Preservation planning

• Significant properties

• Long-term preservation formats for email (likely to be XML)

• Migration tools (PeDALS, CERP parser)

• PLATO?

WP 7: Training and dissemination

• In-house training manual and guidelines for curatorial and technical staff

• Training sessions

• Dissemination/sharing outcomes and experiences via relevant publications, listserves etc