1. Acquisition & Management of Digital Collections at the Library of Congress Ted Westervelt 3 May 2014

2. 2 1. Whats been accomplished 2. Whats possible now 3. What needs to be done 4. What policies are needed 5. Some things you might expect 3. 3 Digital stuff for the custodial collections.* *that is, incoming stuff were taking curatorial responsibility for, not stuff weve digitized here, and not subscription databases or resources someone else maintains, etc. 4. 4 1. Whats been accomplished a. Were acquiring a LOT of digital stuff, via: Transfer from other agencies/organizations Cooperative programs Web archiving Copyright deposit Cataloging-in-Publication Program Purchase Gift 5. 5 1. Whats been accomplished: examples a. Were acquiring a LOT of digital stuff through transfer services - 116 million unique files 2.74 petabytes of content in inventory Growing at 1.5 terabytes per day 1,000,000 = megabyte 1,000,000,000 = gigabyte 1,000,000,000,000 = terabyte 1,000,000,000,000,000 = petabyte 6. 6 1. Whats been accomplished: examples a. Were acquiring a LOT of digital stuff through web archiving - 8.6 billion files 534 terabytes 7. 7 1. Whats been accomplished: examples a. Were acquiring a LOT of digital stuff, like: Historical newspapers Web sites eResource content & reference works E-serials E-books GIS data 60+ other flows 8. 8 1. Whats been accomplished: focus to-date b. Assume preservation = access i. You cant serve what isnt preserved. ii. And you cant preserve what you havent got. iii. So you have to get it first. 9. 9 1. Whats been accomplished: focus to-date c. Get it here! i. Identify i. Recommended Format Specifications ii. Transfer or capture iii. Shelve (long term storage) iv. Inventory v. Process 10. 10 11. 11 1. Whats been accomplished: tools d. Existing and new i. ILS ii. eCO iii. Bagger iv. DigiBoard v. Content Transfer Services vi. Delivery Management Services 12. 12 The R word 13. 13 1. Whats been accomplished But I dont see a repository! We have one. Its just being built in stages. 14. 14 Its important to think in terms of repository services 15. 15 The Librarys digital life cycle framework guides repository services development. 16. 16 Repository services at the Library of Congress will be provided by integrating multiple software tools to support each stage of the life cycle. Some tools we have now. Some well buy. Some well build. 17. 17 2. Whats possible now We can: a. Identify what we want b. Get it to the Library c. Put it in server (secure, backed-up) storage d. Know whats been received (central inventory) e. Get to it and describe/process it f. Manage it (in some cases) g. Provide to researchers (in some cases) 18. 18 A lot has been done. But thats just the beginning. Theres a LOT more to do. 19. 19 3. What needs to be done Develop: More digital collection breadth & depth Across all subjects & formats E.g., currently only 230 e-serials via eDeposit More capacity Both storage and processing More standard and automated workflows 20. 20 3. What needs to be done Develop: More collection management tools For custodial & reference staff, curators, catalogers & acquisitions specialists Better monitoring, reporting & auditing More training Better big picture views of the whole which leads us to 21. 21 4. What policies are needed A tiny sampling: a. Collection Development: Priorities collection gaps? at-risk material? under-represented subjects/formats? Print/digital balance a. Preservation Levels of preservation service Format action plans a. Metadata Descriptive, but also administrative, technical 22. 22 4. What policies are needed A tiny sampling: a. Access Who can access what from where What they can do with it How we can protect it 23. 23 So, what might this mean for you and your digital collections..? 24. 24 Some questions to ask What is your Librarys aim in building its digital collections? What is your role in that process? What do you need to do your role with digital stuff - Information? Training? Tools? 25. 25 5. Some things you might expect a. greater volume and variety of stuff b. new workflows & new assignments c. new relationships with other parts of your organization d. to integrate new tasks with existing ones 26. 26 5. Some things you might expect e. at first, handling digital stuff will be harder & slower than analog. Trust us on this. But that will improve. f. complications (i.e., the unexpected) g. tighter resources 27. 27 5. Some things you might expect h. to learn some interesting new skills which will mean: i. more training, in lots of ways: including what you tell your management that you need 28. 28 To succeed, we all need to 1. Work together better 2. Learn from experience Educate each other 1. Become more efficient Stop reinventing the wheel Stomp on stovepipes Build on tools/workflows that already exist 29. 29 To succeed, we all need to 4. Identify and develop whats missing 5. Integrate, integrate, integrate Systems, workflows, everything 6. Standardize, standardize, standardize Formats, workflows, tools but allow for needed variations! 30. 30 And together we can make our way forward