Digital Archiving Practices Research Articles

History Uploaded: Digital Archives After Thirty Years of Democracy

ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of digital archival projects and online databases developed by scholars and archival practitioners in South Africa since the early 1990s. It sketches key shifts in theory and practice over this period, including the economic and practical perils of digital conservation as heritage and of increasing civic archival activism. It shows that the outlook, aims, and successes of these projects have changed in tune with shifts in the state’s archival legislation, changing publishing economics, decreasing cost of digitisation and equipment, and widening access to the internet. Recent archival projects, such as the Five Hundred Year Archive and EMANDULO Project, illustrate a pioneering trend in South African digital archival practice and are suggestive of the formation of a distinct digital epistemic culture. The article argues that South African scholars and archival practitioners have often been at the forefront of key turns in debates taking place in digital archival practice globally and in Africa.

Documenting resistance, conflict and violence: a scoping review of the role of participatory digital platforms in the mobilisation of resistance

In recent years, grassroots movements have gained traction and significant numbers globally. Against longer histories of resistance and protest movements’ mobilisation of documentation, mechanisation and digital technologies, this scoping literature review seeks to understand how resistance and social movements have drawn upon the participatory and easily accessible nature of social media and digital platforms to mobilise new generations of activists, create new archives, document activities and abuses, call for accountability and overwrite or challenge the narratives put forward by mainstream media outlets and state archives. We identify relevant projects, explore the activist potential and threats of the combination of digital technologies, social movements, and documentary or archival practice, before concluding by identifying open research questions in relation to digital technologies, social movements and archival practice.

Mobile self-efficacy as predictor of mobile-based personal digital archiving practices: a study of Pakistani undergraduates

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of mobile self-efficacy on personal digital archiving (PDA) practices of undergraduate students. Design/methodology/approach This study used a quantitative research design for achieving the objectives. The population consisted of undergraduate students from public sector universities (the top five) of Punjab, Pakistan, listed in the Higher Education Commission recognized general universities. The data were analysed by using SmartPLS, mobile self-efficacy was the independent variable that consisted of two constructs (basic mobile phone operations and using the internet and emails). PDA practices was the dependent variable (information backup, clearing and deleting). Findings The analysis consisted of two major parts: first the assessment of measurement model and second the structural equation modelling analysis. A significant impact of mobile self-efficacy (basic mobile phone operations, using internet and email) was found on all the sub-constructs (information backup, information clearing and information deleting) of PDA practices. However, using internet and email has no significant impact on the information clearing practices of undergraduate students of Pakistani universities. Originality/value This study is a valuable addition to the extant literature because no comprehensive research has been carried out on the impact of mobile self-efficacy and PDA through mobile phones. It also contributes theoretically in the form of the development of a validated instrument on mobile-based PDA. Additionally, it possesses practical value for information literacy instruction programs.

Using Oral History to Study the Personal Digital Archiving Practices of Modern Soldiers

ABSTRACT Drawing on literature from personal information management studies and on the topic of documentation of American military experiences, this article aims to help the archival profession understand the personal digital archiving practices of modern soldiers. During the summer of 2019, the author conducted oral history interviews with US Army soldiers at Fort Hood to address the questions of what personal records soldiers keep of their military experience, what they do—if anything—to preserve them, and how they value them. This study found that both military and socio-technological factors contribute to a lack of digital recordkeeping among modern soldiers, that soldiers' reliance on social media as ad hoc digital preservation tools leads to poor digital preservation practices, and that a majority of soldiers do not see their digital records as worthy of future historical study. The article concludes with a discussion of actions that can address these issues.

Co-Constructing Digital Archiving Practices for Community Heritage Preservation in Egypt and Iraq

AbstractWe document cultural heritage to preserve cultural heritage, to ensure its survival by pushing back against the entropic forces of forgetting and neglect. These entropic forces are particularly acute for intangible cultural heritage preserved in digital form and produced in fragile and conflict-affected settings. And whilst professionals from across the “memory” professions have responded to these challenges, based on our experience of development work with young people in Egypt and Iraq, they have done so in ways that are ill-suited to the worldviews, cultural practices, educational experience and learning models of those outside centres of archival power. This paper describes the delivery of “digital archiving” workshops, training, support and resources developed by an interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral collective of academics, practitioners, community leaders and community participants. Working at the intersection of development studies, heritage management and digital preservation, this paper argues that cultural heritage practices are enriched by foregrounding particular place-based and contingent activities that productively peel back the provincialism of the canons of enlightenment memory work.

Modeling the process of personal digital archiving through ubiquitous and desktop devices: A systematic review

The purpose of this study is to explore Personal Digital Archiving, and its practices, reasons, and challenges in desktop and in ubiquitous environment such as desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones or smartphones, tablets, and cloud services. Moreover, it is also aimed to develop a model of Personal Digital Archiving process for desktop and ubiquitous devices. This study used Preferred Reporting Items for the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guidelines for searching and devising, and inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Search was conducted from selected repositories, databases, and core journals, potentially containing studies related with Personal Digital Archiving. Consequently, 21 studies were included through identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion of studies process. It was found that people used multiple devices such as mobile phones or smartphones along with other devices. It was established that people had also used cloud services with different devices including computers and smartphones or tablets for Personal Digital Archiving. Five major categories of individuals’ Personal Digital Archiving practices, that is, backup, replication or duplication, reorganizing and updating, cleaning or removing, and migration of information were found. Moreover, emotional motives, technological causes, alternative access, easy retrieval, and task completion were the reasons to adopt Personal Digital Archiving. On the basis of findings of selected studies, researchers developed a four steps model of Personal Digital Archiving process, consisting of initiation, identification, action, and evaluation constructs. Personal Digital Archiving challenges were also identified such as the individuals had to face through the use of desktop and ubiquitous devices including technical, fragmented and overloaded information, lack of training and expertise, and psychological and miscellaneous challenges. Personal Digital Archiving process model is based on the extracted data from studies published worldwide, and it is useful for both desktop and ubiquitous devices with reference to Personal Information Management context. The findings of the study will be helpful for software designers and android application developers to design and develop users’ centered Personal Information Management software.

Public History and Contested Heritage

This article presents a case study of a collaborative public history project between participants in two countries, the United Kingdom and Italy. Its subject matter is the bombing war in Europe, 1939-1945, which is remembered and commemorated in very different ways in these two countries: the sensitivities involved thus constitute not only a case of public history conducted at the national level but also one involving contested heritage. An account of the ways in which public history has developed in the UK and Italy is presented. This is followed by an explanation of how the bombing war has been remembered in each country. In the UK, veterans of RAF Bomber Command have long felt a sense of neglect, largely because the deliberate targeting of civilians has not fitted comfortably into the dominant victor narrative. In Italy, recollections of being bombed have remained profoundly dissonant within the received liberation discourse. The International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive (or Archive) is then described as a case study that employs a public history approach, focusing on various aspects of its inclusive ethos, intended to preserve multiple perspectives. The Italian component of the project is highlighted, problematising the digitisation of contested heritage within the broader context of twentieth-century history. Reflections on the use of digital archiving practices and working in partnership are offered, as well as a brief account of user analytics of the Archive through its first eighteen months online.

Information School academics and the value of their personal digital archives

Introduction.This paper explores the value that academics in an information school assign to their digital files and how this relates to their personal information management and personal digital archiving practices. Method. An interpretivist qualitative approach was adopted with data from in-depth interviews and participant-led tours of their digital storage space. Analysis. The approach taken was thematic analysis. Results. Participants placed little value on their digital material beyond the value of its immediate use. They did not attach worth to their digital files for reuse by others, for sentiment, to project their identity or for the study of the development of the discipline or the study of the creative process. This was reflected in storage and file-naming practices, and the lack of curatorial activity. Conclusions. This paper is one of the first to investigate academics' personal information management and personal digital archiving practices, especially to focus on the value of digital possessions. The paper begins to uncover the importance of wider contextual factors in shaping such practices. Institutions need to do more to encourage academics to recognise the diverse types of value in the digital material they create.

PERSONAL INFORMATION ARCHIVING: BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSES TO THE PERCEPTION OF RISK

The paper investigates the factors that influence perceptions of online risk and the consequential behavioural responses to those perceptions. Using Bates’ theory of information behaviour, we focus on online protection strategies and digital archiving as a specific instantiation and manifestation of information behaviour and analyze how factors, such as perceptions of online risk and self-reported internet skills, have consequences for information behaviours.
 The study uses semi-structured interview data (n=101) collected from East York, Toronto. We asked about individuals’ perception of risk online, self-reported internet skills, protective measures when going online, and digital archiving practices. Our findings identify a nuanced relationship between perceptions and behaviours. The results offer an alternate perspective on online information behaviour that departs from traditional classifications that rely on _demographics_. We offer a refinement to the definitions of information behaviour by Bates (2010) and Fisher and Julien (2009) to include factors that modify behaviours, and develop a user typology relating specifically to perceptions of risk online.

Postgraduates' personal digital archiving practices in China: Problems and strategies

This study examined postgraduates' personal digital archiving (PDA) practices in China. Based on a case study of the PDA practices of postgraduates in Wuhan University, many problems in PDA were found; postgraduates have a higher awareness of PDA, but the differences between different grades level and disciplines are obvious. Many postgraduates are technological optimists. Those who realize the importance of PDA lack real action and can only use a single strategy. The protection of personal privacy and information security is still challenging. To solve these problems, efforts from individuals and institutions are proposed, including the suggestion that institutions should implement an advanced intervention in PDA progress to improve postgraduates' PDA awareness, and the suggestion that postgraduates should view archiving technology dialectically and make rational use of archiving tools, using various strategies, regularizing their PDA behavior, and taking multiple measures to protect their personal privacy and information security.

Post-Custodial Archiving for the Collective Good

LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections at the University of Texas at Austin applies post-custodial archival methods in pursuit of a new vision of digital archival practice and the transnational construction of historical memory. This work seeks to develop a practice for digital archiving that enables the redistribution of resources while centering communities as contributors and owners of their own documentary heritage. Although LLILAS Benson has successfully built partnerships and continues to manage widely recognized collections using a post-custodial model, the anti-colonial framework through which this work has been understood does not fully account for the power imbalances at play. Using Cifor and Lee’s survey of neoliberalism in the archives as a launching point, this article considers how neoliberalism has shaped post-custodial practices at LLILAS Benson, focusing on ideas and practices of labor, digitization, and the common good. Through this analysis, the authors describe not a static set of methodologies, but rather an ongoing process of learning, unlearning, and restructuring in pursuit of a collective good.
 Pre-print first published online 03/03/2018

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Digital Archives: Digital Archiving Practices at the Swedish Film Institute

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Digital Archives: Digital Archiving Practices at the Swedish Film Institute

Fleeting Film: Using Story to Seek Archival Permanence in the Transitory and Globalized Digital Visual Effects Industry

AbstractArchiving is a long-standing vocation, founded on principles such as provenance, original order, truth, evidence, preservation and permanence. A far cry from the visual spectacle and movable feast of film visual effects (VFX)—a transitory and globalized industry of disposable firms, ever-advancing technologies and a roving workforce which craft digital animations and seamless effects for the big screen. In this paper we utilize the concept of “story” as a premise to bring together the seemingly different vocations of archival science and film VFX. Through an exploration of digital film production and archival practice under the context of storytelling, we aim to highlight the need for archivists to work with the VFX industry to ensure evidence of this culturally significant aspect of filmmaking and cinema discourse is preserved into the future. As well present the argument that archives are more than collections of historical evidence. Archives are story—and archivists are storytellers.

Data rescue

In this article, Nancy Y. McGovern, Head of Digital Preservation for the MIT Libraries, discusses data rescue in the context of digital preservation, archival practice, and public policy.

Personal digital archiving: influencing factors and challenges to practices

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the associations of personal archiving behaviors to factors and challenges that have been assumed to affect personal digital archiving strategies.Design/methodology/approachThis study created an online survey to understand general patterns of personal digital archiving practices and related phenomena. The survey was employed to investigate to what extent people show a certain behavior or feel certain factors and challenge when archiving personal digital content.FindingsSome of the findings of this study regarding specific personal digital archiving practices were in accordance with existing studies. However, the associations between digital archiving challenges and archiving practices were not observed statistically significantly as assumed in previous studies. General technology efficacy and the awareness of the importance of personal records appeared to influence personal archiving practices.Research limitations/implicationsThis study used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. As this is not a commonly used internet service, the workers here could have higher than average levels of internet efficacy. This possibility may have affected the demographics, and the survey responses may be biased in this respect.Practical implicationsAs the study results suggest that technology efficacy and personal heritage awareness are the influencing factors of personal digital archiving, these are the areas where information professionals can involve in assisting users for future cultural heritage.Originality/valueThis is the first study that develops measures for personal digital archiving related practices and perceptions that the previous qualitative studies have identified. With these measures, it examines the general status of individuals’ archiving strategies and the overall associations of digital archiving challenges as well as looking into other technological and personal factors.

Exploring the methods and practises of personal digital information archiving among the student population

The issue of personal archiving is one often raised in the context of the fast changing digital era. Even among the “informationally literate” personal digital archiving is more often simply a side-effect of generating content in the digital environment than a planned activity. The aim of this paper is to research the extent to which the student population employs the doctrines of digital curation, digital preservation and digital stewardship. This group is interesting for examining in this context because of the unique mixture of formal, mainly scholarly, and personal information that they govern in their day to day activities and in digital formats. Some of the information that this research attempted to obtain concerned the actions individuals undertake to acquire, store and conserve digital objects, the formats they use and the practices they employ in the process. An attempt was made to determine whether the migration of content is practiced, where and how digital information is stored, as well as whether or not scholarly objects (such as those used for study) are handled differently than informal ones (such as those used for entertainment and other private purposes). The paper also provides insight into student practices regarding the creation of digital copies of objects and the use of other media such as portable memory sticks, CDs, DVDs and Blue-Ray discs. The research touches on a number of other questions, such as: how often do students revisit the contents once they’ve created them? Do they use digital archiving in the cloud? Do they create backups for the objects they have identified as important to preserve? This paper also contributes to identifying the specific criteria for the selection of digital information that will remain preserved for the future other than pure chance. The survey was conducted on undergraduate and graduate information science students from the Universities of Osijek, Zagreb and Zadar. Online questionnaire sent to said institutions and dispatched among information science students resulted in data that can be used in attempts to answer the above mentioned questions. Once the survey was closed, the gathered data was analysed using SPSS programme and used to draw conclusions regarding personal digital archiving practices and awareness among this population, along with other interesting findings this study brought up. Hana Marcetic Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Information Sciences Trg Svetog Trojstva 3 HR-31000 Osijek Croatia Revised version of paper that was presented on BOBCATSSS conference 2015.

When Archival Description Meets Digital Object Metadata: A Typological Study of Digital Archival Representation

The relationship between archival description and descriptive metadata of digital objects has not been explicitly discussed in the literature. The discussion will enhance our understanding of the relationship between archival context and digital content, a significant topic in a networked digital environment. The data collected in this study show that archivists have made conscious efforts to build connections between archival description (context) and digital items (content), and, as a result, distinct representation models have emerged from digital archival practice. However, at the level of integration of archival context and digital content in digital archival representation, archivists are challenged to achieve an ultimate goal of making digital archives more accessible and better contextualized in the digital world.

Saving-Over, Over-Saving, and the Future Mess of Writers' Digital Archives: A Survey Report on the Personal Digital Archiving Practices of Emerging Writers

This article reports findings from a survey of 110 writers' personal digital archiving practices. The authors found that most writers neglect digital archival concerns, and consequently, their digital archives consist of poorly managed, highly distributed, and unsystematically labeled files. Writers are not entirely to blame for their neglect, however, as they develop archival practices idiosyncratically, with little or no guidance from information professionals, and 80% indicate they would welcome instruction on digital preservation. The authors recommend that archivists actively approach writers to offer guidance on the best and simplest ways to organize and archive their files so as to prevent further losses.

디지털 콘텐츠의 무결성 유지를 위한 장기적인 보존 정책에 관한 연구

디지털 콘텐츠의 장기적인 보존 정책에서 디지털 콘텐츠의 무결성 유지를 보장하는 것은 가장 중요한 부분 중 하나이다. 그래서 본 연구는 장기적인 관점에서 디지털 콘텐츠의 무결성 유지를 보장할 수 있는 명문화된 보존 정책의 기틀을 마련하기 위해, 실행 수준의 장기적인 보존 정책에 포함되어야 하는 항목들과 세부적인 요건들을 도출해보았다. 특히 해외의 디지털 아카이빙 사례들 중에서 무결성 유지에 초점을 맞춘 장기적인 보존 정책들을 조사하였고 저장 매체와 파일 포맷, 매체와 포맷 변환, 재난 방지와 복구 정책, 관리와 취급, 검사와 모니터링, 그리고 보안의 관점에서 분석하였다 Assuring that the integrity of digital contents is reliably maintained is an important component of long-term digital preservation. The purpose of this study was to examine and analysis the best practices of digital preservation policy and provide the basis theory for establishing a preservation policy for maintaining the integrity of digital contents. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, we examined the digital archiving practices for maintaining the integrity of digital contents. Especially, we focused on the storage media and file formats, the media and format conversion, disaster prevention and recovery, management and handling, inspection and monitoring, and security policies.

How Much Is Enough: Metadata for Preserving Digital Data

Developments in digital archival practice are an important consideration when dealing with digital data, given their archival nature and the growing effort to preserve data as evidence, support research and publication, and promote data reuse. The research community can benefit from the work of the archives community to achieve their shared goal of preserving authentic digital data over time and across domains. In this paper, I introduce developments in scientific use of digital data; I then offer an archival perspective on aspects of the core metadata issues that have engaged much of the attention of information management specialists in the last decade. In particular I focus on the similarities between metadata for recordkeeping and metadata for preservation. The paper provides insight into how these two aspects of metadata tie together not only in a general sense, but with regard to the implications for the challenges being faced in many repositories and related initiatives seeking to preserve data as records of their time and for replication and reuse in new contexts. The points of the argument are summarized and the need is reiterated for scientific researchers to work closely with archivists when designing and developing data preservation strategies.