Digital Curation
Photo courtesy of
http://www.techday.co.nz/
The Bentley Historical Library's newest division, Digital Curation, was established in April 2011 with the goal of developing and implementing solutions for the long-term preservation and management of digital materials across their lifecycle. Digital Curation is responsible for the administration of born digital and digitized materials in both the University Archives and the Michigan Historical Collections.
The division's mission reflects the Bentley Library's belief that archives must take a proactive role in the preservation of digital content. Digital Curation Services will therefore work closely with record creators and donors to provide guidance on best practices for record creation and administration as well as sustainable file formats and transfer methods. In addition to ensuring the long-term viability of content through various preservation procedures (virus scans, filename normalization, checksum calculation, file format conversion, etc.) and secure storage, Digital Curation will add value to content through archival description, the development of access mechanisms, and the management of risk by enforcing restrictions on sensitive materials.
About
Resources for Record Creators and Donors
- Best Practices for Directory and File Naming
- Best Practices for the Creation of PDF and PDF/A files
- File Format Best Practices and Conversion Strategies (or download as a PDF)
- Why Digital Preservation is Important