thoughts on 4 years of “thinking digital” brian wilson, the henry ford michigan archival...

Thoughts on 4 Years of “Thinking Digital”

Brian Wilson, The Henry FordMichigan Archival Association 2014 Annual Meeting

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Henry Ford Statue. Image by Michelle Andonian. ID THF54681

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Scale, Access, Tools, Workflows

Scale, Access, Tools, Workflows

Henry Ford Statue. Image by Michelle Andonian. ID THF54681

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Explore by looking at: • Institution-wide Collections Digitization Project• New Collection Management System• Online Finding Aid Project

ProjectsProjects

Collections Digitization

Background• Project started 2010• Goal to digitize entirety of holdings

– Museum, Village and Archives

• Multiple departments– Archives, Conservation, Registrars, ITS, Digital

Media– 10-15 staff on full-time basis

• Delivers online object records and images

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Collections Digitization

• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics

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- 500 records in 2010; now +27,000

- 7000 archival items per year21,000 CMS records42,000 image files

- Max 2 week turnaround- Number of staff and

departments involved

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Collections Digitization

• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics

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- Cameras, not flatbeds- Faster computers; dual

monitors- New software- Employing Project Manager

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Collections Digitization

• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics

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- Parallel processes- Imaging before cataloging- Selecting entire folders or

boxes, not just individual items

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Collections Digitization

• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics

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- Aggregate and individual description

- Reduced depth of description- Description tasks occurring

outside of Registrars

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Collections Digitization

• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics

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- Imaging for access not preservation

- Discovery affected by aggregate description

- User interface plays a big role

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Collections Digitization

• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics

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- Digital images are an investment

- Investment needs protection- DVDs aren’t sufficient- Storage needs grow quickly- Storage does not decrease- ITS is your friend- Material does not manage itself

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Collections Digitization

• Scale• Tools• Workflow• Description• Access• Preservation• Metrics

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- Metrics based solely on objects miss underlying processes

- 1 object = 3 records + 6 image files

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New Collection Management System

Background• Replaced Argus with KE Software EMu• New system put in production in 2011• Serves multiple departments

– Archives, Conservation, Registrars, ITS

• System capable of managing archival collections– Not unlike Archivist Toolkit

• Currently contains +350,000 catalog records

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New Collection Management System

• Description• Workflow• Tools

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- Primary description to be held in CMS

- MARC derived from CMS- Common fields with Registrars- Incomplete or in-process

records are ok

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New Collection Management System

• Description• Workflow• Tools

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- MARC comes second- Tasks split between

departments

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New Collection Management System

• Description• Workflow• Tools

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- Everyone must learn new software

- Complex, enterprise type application

- Not Excel or Access

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Finding Aid Project

Background• DALNET grant 2011-2012

– Scanned +4400 pages = 946 inventories– PT assistant to create finding aids

• PDFs in web-accessible folder– Folder indexed by Google and ArchiveGrid

• +260 finding aids publically available• +1100 finding aids and inventories

available to staff

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Finding Aid Project

• Access• Workflow• Tools

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- EAD not the only way- Cross-document search- Google indexing- Linking to other holdings, forms- Effective for other textual docs

like photo logs, transcriptions

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Finding Aid Project

• Access• Workflow• Tools

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- Publishing and publically distributing

- Create well-defined authoring, review and change process

- No more hand changes to paper copies

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Finding Aid Project

• Access• Workflow• Tools

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- Digital does not have to mean complicated

- Simple tools can be effective- MS Word and PDF- Web folder and static html page

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Henry Ford Statue. Image by Michelle Andonian. ID THF54681

Brian WilsonBenson Ford Research CenterThe Henry FordDearborn, Michiganbrianw@thehenryford.org@brilwil

Thank You!