Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Yale and Tufts: Ingest Guide - Draft for Comment

For those handling born digital materials, you may want to look at this document.



The Digital Collections and Archives (DCA), Tufts University and Manuscripts and Archives (MSSA) of Yale University Library is pleased to announce the completion of the Ingest Guide for University Electronic Records, a research document for which they seek public input and comment. The Ingest Guide describes the interaction between university archives and records producers and discusses the challenges of preserving electronic records in a meaningful way such that the authenticity and integrity of records is preserved during their movement from a recordkeeping system to a preservation system. The Guide is available at
http://dca.tufts.edu/features/nhprc/reports/3_1_draftpublic2.pdf. Public input and comment will be accepted until December 15, 2005.

Having a trustworthy ingest process is one of the cornerstones to having a successful preservation program. Following the Ingest Guide should help archives and others with preservation responsibilities to ensure the functional preservation of records. The Guide refers to ingest broadly, referring not just to the actual transfer but also to the process of defining what records will be transferred and the manner of their transfer, validation, and transformation. The Guide builds on the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and the Producer-Archive Interface Methodology Abstract Standard.

The Ingest Guide is the result of the DCA's and MSSA's collaboration on a National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) electronic records research grant project (2004-083) to synthesize electronic records preservation research with digital library repository
research in an effort to develop systems capable of preserving university electronic records at both institutions. Other forthcoming products from the project include a report on requirements for trustworthy recordkeeping and preservation systems, a guide to maintaining electronic records in a preservation system, and a report on Fedora's ability to maintain electronic records. The project website is at http://dca.tufts.edu/features/nhprc/index.html.

Please address comments to Kevin Glick, Yale University kevin.glick@yale.edu or Eliot Wilczek, Tufts University eliot.wilczek@tufts.edu.

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