Digital Curation at Work: Modeling Workflows for Digital Archival Materials

Abstract

This paper describes and compares digital curation workflows from 12 cultural heritage institutions that vary in size, nature of digital collections, available resources, and level of development of digital curation activities. While the research and practice of digital curation continues to mature in the cultural heritage sector, relatively little empirical, comparative research on digital curation activities has been conducted to date. The present research aims to advance knowledge about digital curation as it is currently practiced in the field, principally by modeling digital curation workflows from different institutional contexts. This greater understanding can contribute to the advancement of digital curation software, practices, and technical skills. In particular, the project focuses on the role of open-source software systems, as these systems already have strong support in the cultural heritage sector and can readily be further developed through these existing communities. This research has surfaced similarities and differences in digital curation activities, as well as broader sociotechnical factors impacting digital curation work, including the degree of formalization of digital curation activities, the nature of collections being acquired, and the level of institutional support for various software environments.