Accessioning

 Appraisal

 Materials  Preparation

 Prometheus  Workflow

Job

Part

Stub

 Documentation  Finalisation

 Summary Steps

 Glossary

 Do's & Don'ts

 Policy Links

Manuscripts - Sectional Cataloguing Reference Guide


Accessioning digital archival material (Digital Backlog Project):


The digital project officer will be responsible for migrating to Prometheus the items identified as the Manuscripts Digital Backlog Project. While we know that this is not the complete backlog, it is not within the scope of the project to further identify items. Future items discovered in the normal course of business will be dealt with by the Collection Management team as part of their routine work.

Digital Records on G Drive
It has been a practice in the past to convert digital objects to various formats and place them on the G Drive. In the case of such digital objects, Migration is to be undertaken from the original carrier where possible rather than from the converted items themselves. Where the contents of disk are unable to be migrated, an appraisal decision will be made about whether to use the G drive version (full details would need to be included in the preservation note). Preservation and system details identified by IT during the conversion project should be re-used as applicable in either case. Superseded copies of digital objects on the G drive should be placed into one TRIM file (and deleted from the G Drive) once the content the original physical carrier/s has been migrated.

Physical Carriers
The physical carrier/s, once content has been migrated, are to be returned to their place within the physical collection. It should have the required preservation housing and all associated documentation (for preservation work undertaken) attached to it. The physical carrier should also be marked that a preservation action has been undertaken (this action may be either to preserve or not to preserve).

Access to digital content
It should be noted that for the majority of items ingested to Prometheus we will not be able to request or provide access to the intellectual content (rendered) of the actual documents/s. This may be possible where the digital objects were created using software currently available on the Library’s computers, for example a Word document created using Microsoft Word 2003. However, that will only be a viable option as long as the Library supports that software.

Investigation and Description

In 2007 David McGill undertook a project to identify and remove physical carriers from manuscript collections, identified by a report from the ILMS. David identified 632 digital carriers from 73 manuscripts collections. Documentation for the 2007 project is at: NLA07/2646. There were a number of items which David identified as being unable to locate, these will be investigated as part of the current project.

Before beginning to migrate the digital content from the carriers we need to transfer the information from the 2007 spreadsheet to projects Digital Preservation Worksheets and include additional information which David wasn’t originally requested to include.

The following information needs to be identified in most cases and added to the Digital Preservation Worksheet [DPW]:

      Title of items & any contextual information

      Series Description (if relevant)

      Date – original creation or modification date (if unable to identify may be able to get from the Manifest)

      Media type

      Disk Labels

      Access conditions for digital items

      System details

      Establish if it is in paper form as well

      Collection Reference Number

Additional information may be drawn from a search of the following:

      MSS Special Format Sheets or IT conversion notes (for those items on the G drive),

      accession/collection Sheets,

      descriptive lists (finding-aids and box/site lists),

      the physical carrier itself, and

      possibly the acquisition file if no other source of information is available (if possible avoid this source as too time consuming)

The spreadsheet is at: \List of Manuscripts collections -  master list (Digital master List) 29 May 2009.XLS.


Accessioning


1. Accession the collection as you would normally

– Complete accession sheet including information on the digital carrier/s in the processing note.
Ensure that information about the digital carriers is mentioned in the Processing note of the Accession sheet. Details of the preservation action will be added at the end of the migration process.

– create Bib record if required

– add Holdings record for new accession
Note Bib Id on the accessions sheet (register). This will be needed when creating the Prometheus record.

– create purchase order etc.

– Begin Digital Preservation Worksheet (DPW)

– Remove digital carriers – place Temporary Removal Marker to mark the exact place for where item/s removed from. Place in plastic bag and complete all required details within the DPW including the exact location details.
It is important to note context of the item [did it come from a folder, if so what is its title, information provided by the donor, etc]. Note the following information on the label.
If not already noted, amend donor’s or Ms descriptive list to indicate presence of digital carrier/s.

– shelve collection


2. Identify the types of physical carriers that can be migrated by Manuscripts (5 1/4“ disks, 3.5” disks, CD-ROMS, DVD’s or USB devices) from those that requires advice from Digital Preservation for internal processing or specific external intervention to preserve the format of the digital item.

Check with the Senior Archivist on procedure matters and Digital Preservation on technical questions.

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Appraisal

The appraisal of digital material in the backlog project will have additional considerations above or apart from the usual appraisal criteria. This is largely a result of the delay in making this appraisal, the inability in most cases to establish reliable information about their creation from the donor and our inability to view the intellectual content of the disks.

1.    Appraise the digital content and decide wether item should be preserved or not. See Appraisal guidelines.

2.    Record appraisal decision for digital content in the DPW and Accession sheet.

3.    Check that all accessioning work has been completed and that the Accession has a holding record on Voyager.

The Voyager bib record, Holdings record must be created before the content of the digital carrier can be migrated to Prometheus.
Complex appraisal decision should be approved by the head of Collection Management and Development within the Manuscripts Branch.

Preparation of material for preservation


4.    Identify the types of physical carriers that can be migrated by Manuscripts (5 ¼ “  disks, 3 ½ ” disks, CD ROMS, DVD’s, USB devices) from those that require Digital Preservation advice for internal processing or specific external intervention to preserve the format of the digital item.

Check with Senior Archivist on procedure matters and Douglas Elford, Digital Preservation on technical questions.

5.    5.    Identify any requirements that a specific type of context (content) be preserved in a specific way, retention of specific fonts, pagination or file formats. What would the most appropriate means for retaining this intent.
 For example:
– has track changes been used by the donor.
– is there something inherently valuable in the format or layout of the document/item that needs to be preserved,
– Is there a contextual relationship between the items that needs to be maintained for access or understanding,
– Is there musical notations that needs to be migrated in a specific way to ensure the visual content is preserved.

Liaise with Digital Preservation about the best way to progress this in terms of preservation and on-going access.


6. If physical carrier is required to be sent to another area of the Library, such as Digital Preservation, for further action:

a) Keep the digital carrier in the bag with associated metadata and with a clear indication that it comes from Manuscripts along with a contact person and phone number.

b) Place a call slip in the collection box to record that the item has been sent to Digital Preservation. Place the 1st carbon copy in the drawer of reading room desk and keep the yellow copy in the box within the accessions area, as a central reference for what has been moved outside of the secton. Destroy the yellow copy of the call slip when the carrier has been returned and place the returned carbon in the relevant RR returns box.

c) Update documentation when notified by Digital Preservation or IT of the status of the migration (success or failure).

d) Return the physical items to their location within the collection.

e) Update relevant documentationSee Summary steps.


Preservation of digital content:

For material remaining in Manuscripts –


Create Job

7. Create a Prometheus Job (Prometheus Workflow Step 5)


8. Job Name (Prometheus Workflow Step 5.5). Use the following title convention for Job Name :

 MS Papers/Records of XXXX [title as identified in Catalogue record title – 245 field/tag] – Acc xx/xxxx or MSxxxx


All disks in one accession are to be added to the one Job with appropriate recognition of different contexts.

Use of MS as a prefix allows for group retrieval of all MS jobs. We are unable to change the Job title.


All disks in an accession are to be added to the one Job (which links to Bib Record and Holdings record for the Accession).

9. Once the Job has been created – note the Job Number and the Digital Holding Persistent Identifier (Prometheus Workflow Step 5.8) from the Bibliographic Information tab within the PDW for its later addition to the Accession Sheet.


Note that information in the Bib Record is not automatically extracted as part of the preservation metadata (with the exception of the Bib ID).


10. Annotate the Job in the Notes & Metadata tab. (Prometheus Workflow - Section 7.2). Annotations should be at the broad (collection) level; specific information will be recorded at the Part level. Include the following information:


– Accession/Ms no: MS Accxx/xxxx or MSxxxx
– Date: Migrated: XX/XX/2009 [Date of preservation work]
– Note 1: Context [(Broad Level) – eg contextual information from Donor or archivist applied description]
– Note 2: Access Conditions. [general summary]
– Note 3: General Notes – Preserved as part of 2009 Manuscripts Digital Backlog Project [For backlog project only]
– Note 4: A&D Information. [Only use when full processing done. Series, Folder etc]
– Title: [Title of Series digital object comes from – if no series identified use broad file/item identification to describe all carriers]
- Location [for entire Accession]

– Box number

11. Put the Job Number on each bag containing digital carriers.


Creating Part/s

12. Create a Part to the Job for each of the physical carriers in the accession. (Prometheus Workflow - Section 6).

- Note all parts must be part of only one Holdings record and one Job. 

- Each Carrier is a separate Part. There is no limit to the number of parts that can be added to a Job.


13. Each Part should have a different and unique Name using the following format:

Carrier No – Title on Disk [MS annotation/clarification if needed] – MS AccXX/XXXX or MSXXXX

e.g.    Disk 1 – Knowles Diaries. South Africa – MS Acc08/101

Disk 2 – G Knowles Diaries A-D 1921, 1924, 1937 – MS Acc08/101

If the carrier is Untitled – use Untitled [mss applied title].

If it is unnumbered arrange disks if possible and number from 1. If no original order can be determined number from [1].

There are no size limits to the names for Parts. Minimum is 256 characters.

14. If not already done, mark each Carrier with the relevant Disc Number.


15. Migrate contents of carrier.

- For CD-ROM’s & DVD-ROMs - Prometheus Guide - (Prometheus Workflow Steps 6.5-6.8).

- For non-Optical media e.g. an External Hard Drive, USB Drive, Single File, Floppy Disk 3.5” - (Prometheus Workflow - Section 9) – Capturing Non-Optical media.

NOTE: For media which is not fully processed or uploaded using the application, but which the user wants to associate with an item so that all the Parts are known and recorded, create a 'Stub'. See Step 21. (Manuscripts - Glossary)


16. Print a PDF copy of the Browse Captured Files list (manifest). This will later be filed in TRIM with the DPW PI. [Note: To enable creation of a manifest only for each media carrier, ingest only one media carrier per Job].


17. Note the individual Part Number within the DPW Job. [Note: They are not consecutive!]

18. Put the relevant Part Number on the bag/s containing the digital carrier’s and the relevant carrier itself.


19. Annotate the Part in the Notes & Metadata tab. (Prometheus Workflow – Step 7.1).

Annotations should be at the Series/Item level. Include the following information:

  • System Details:

- Note the System Details (eg WordPerfect 1.5, Windows 95, etc.).

- Check carrier label for useful information. If unable to determine this record the Media Format (eg: Verbatim Datalife MF2-DD. IBM Format) which may provide clues when doing access conversions later on.

  • File Format: 

[eg xls, JPG/JPEG, TIF/TIFF] Summarise for each object on the carrier (check Manifest if no other source of information).

  • Accession no: 

MS Accxx/xxxx or MSxxxx

  • Date: Migrated: 

XX/XX/2009 [Date of preservation work]

  • Date: Contents 

[check Manifest for date late modified if not apparent]

  • Note 1: 

Context [record information about the context of the carrier. Was it within a Folder? Was it with a Group of other records if so what are they? etc. [series and folder number at least, 1 of 15 disks]

  • Note 2:

Access Conditions [only if different from Job details]

  • Note 3:

General Notes – Preserved as part of 2009 Manuscripts Digital Backlog Project [For backlog project only]

  • Title: 

[Title of individual Carrier – if different from Part name] 

  • TRIM:  

[Record number for DPW]

  • Location: [exact for physical carrier]

– Box: [MS Box No]

– Folder No: [only if applicable]


20. Once migrated – record on physical carrier that content has been preserved.

21. If Part is unsuccessful – Record the DPW failure error for a a physical carrier within it's Part, [later to the Accession Sheet] as a Stub. Click on the title of the Part, as per Annotation, and select 'Mark Part as a Stub. You will be prompted to enter a reason. 

To un-stub a part, click on 'Unstub Part'.

Mark a part as a stub - recorded info

Note
: When one un-stubs a Part it will need to be recaptured before being able to mark the Job complete as the original content has been deleted when making it a stub. If the material is still not processable the Job will not be able to be Marked Completed.

22. Repeat Steps 11-15 for each individual Carrier (Part).


Completing the entire Job


23. When all Parts have been added and the Annotations completed AND checked against the captured files, the job can be finalised by clicking on "Mark entire job complete" button. (Prometheus Workflow Section 6.10)

24. A confirmation dialogue box will appear and click on Mark entire job complete button to finalise the job by submitting it to the permanent digital repository’s ingest service.


25. Note: Once completed no further editing of the Title, Parts or Annotations can take place!


All Jobs are to be completed at time of preservation work. Jobs are not be held over awaiting additional material as this may be years.

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Documentation and final steps:


26. Return the physical carrier to the collection box and remove temporary marker. Ensure that the physical carrier is appropriately housed. Preservation disc cases are available from shelves near Preservation Services on first floor. Affix Prometheus Ingested Sticker to the spine of the case to indicate that it has been digitally preserved in Prometheus.

Prometheus Ingested Sticker

27. Ensure that each carrier or group of carriers is in a plastic bag with a copy of the Manifest for each Part with the Job and Parts numbers written on each bag.


28. Ensure that each disk has been marked as having been preserved or as not having been preserved whichever is appropriate.


29. Update Voyager Record:

Bib record - add 583 tag:

583 ‡aDigital content preserved (AccXX/XXX)‡5ANL


30. TRIM a copy of the DPW Job and the manifest for each Job to XXXX (TRIM File no tba). Include any information about the digital item (not included in the DPW) provided by donor.


31. Amend the descriptive list to indicate preservation work and reference numbers.


32. Amend the Accession sheet to include details of the preservation work (Migration Date & Status), preservation reference numbers (Job and Part). Include details of any Jobs/Parts that were unsuccessful. Put Trim Rec Number for the DPW and manifest.


33. Ensure that appraisal decision have been recorded in the Accessions register.

34. TRIM all copied digital objects from the G Drive (G Drive/Div 2/Manuscripts/Digital Records) to the relevant TRIM File.


Summary Steps

1. Accession archival accession
2. Appraise digital content
3. Prepare carriers for preservation work
4. Log onto Prometheus [
Prometheus Workflow Guide – 2]
5. Enter Bib Id for archival collection [
Prometheus Workflow Guide - 5.1]
6. Preview details [
Prometheus Workflow Guide – 5.2]
7. Click on down arrow against the choose holdings box [
Prometheus Workflow Guide – 5.3]
8. Choose relevant holdings (MS or MS Acc)
9. Check for existing jobs [
Prometheus Workflow Guide – 5.5]
10. Message displays – no jobs exists.
11. In the Enter name of new Job box - Enter name of new job (
see Title conventions)
12. Create new Job
13. Annotate Job [
Prometheus Workflow Guide – 7.2]
14. Create Parts for each individual media [
Prometheus Workflow Guide – 6]
15. Annotate Part/s for each carrier/s [
Prometheus Workflow Guide – 7.1]
16. Complete Job [
Prometheus Workflow Guide – 6.10]
17. Update documentation.

 

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Glossary:


Born Digital –Electronic records which are created within a digital manner in during day to day business are referred to digitally created materials. They were not intended to have an analogue equivalent (paper) and probably only exist in digital form. They have a ‘formal’ status by Creator.

 

Digital Holdings Persistent Identifier – unique number allocated by Prometheus Digital Preservation Workflow system to a Digital Object (eg nla.dp-nXXXXX). This number can be used to provide a future access link to a related Digital Preservation Job or Part.

 

Digital Preservation – A management series of actions required to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary.


Digital Publications – These are born digital objects which have been expressly released for wider access and either distributed free of charge or for a fee.

 

Part – A Job can have multiple Parts with each Part corresponding to one discrete component of an Holding Item. Each physical media item (CD-ROM, Floppy Disk etc) associated within a Holding will be come a separate Part within a Job. Each Part should be uniquely named to match its corresponding physical media’s name.

Preservation Disc Case

These are high quality compact (9mm spine) clear, unbreakable, flexible polypropylene cases are recommended for rehousing CDs / DVDs. Often this will be replacing the brittle original 'Jewel' cases familiar to Music CD users.

Stubs

The term ‘stub’ refers to a media Part which is not fully processed or uploaded using the application, but which the user wants to associate with an item so that all the Parts are known and recorded, even if not all can be uploaded to preservation storage.

A ‘stub’ can be created or declared in a number of cases:

  • a media Part is registered and processing commences, but cannot be Completed due to error conditions, or similar. A user can then declare this Part a stub and allow the Job to be submitted for ingest (excluding the Part).

  • a media Part is created, but there is no attempt to process it – e.g. no suitable drive is available. However, a user wants to register that the media Part exists, so that it is known for future reference. A user can declare a stub at any time without attempting processing. An error state does not need to exist to allow a user to declare a stub.

 


Policy Decisions – informing these procedures


D1 - Reference Policy – use of optical media for reference access once digital stream has been preserved.

D2 - Routine accessioning – We will no longer be compiling Ms Data Sheets. The Digital Preservation Worksheet (DPW) will be the most consolidated information on the preservation work undertaken on digital records. The central control will still be through the Accession record.

D3 – Backlog – Items already migrated to G Drive. Migration is to be undertaken from the original carrier rather than from the converted items (where possible). Where content of disk is unable to be migrated, an appraisal decision will be made about whether to use the G drive version (full details would need to be included in the preservation note). Preservation and system details identified by IT during the conversion project should be re-used as applicable.

D3 - Use of MS as a prefix allows for group retrieval of all MS jobs. We are unable to change the Job title.

D4 - All disks in an accession are to be added to the one Job (which links to Bib Record and Holdings record for the Accession). There is no known limit to the number of physical carriers (parts) that can be added to a Job. However a large job may take an excessive amount of time. It is possible to break it into smaller Jobs with the same name to enable completion of a Job within a short time frame (or else it will only be in the temporary store when ‘not complete’ rather than the managed archive storage repository.

D5. Identification of Restricted or Closed material. We need to identify this material easily so that when Access module is developed, these items can be clearly grouped and the relevant access and security restrictions applied. Decided to put access conditions as an annotation to the Part level (which equates to the Folder level). We could add the access conditions to the Title – however this would interfere with the identification of the item and as it is currently extremely difficult to change either the Title or the Annotations there may be an expectation that we would be unable to alter it with future migrations to an Access module.

D6 - The unique number applied to the various items in the Jobs and Parts are Portable Unique Identifiers (PUID) and will live with the digital objects permanently. It will be used in Manuscript Finding-aid as a pointer to the digital content (once the access module has been developed). The Job PI and Part PIs may not be sequential.

D7 – Once preservation work has been completed - the digital carriers will be returned to their physical place within the collection with updated documentation (Job No, part No etc).

D8 - More recent Optical media that can be used on a reading room machine will be available for reference use until they are no longer operable. Researchers will not be able to copy onto their computers without the creator’s permission and should not be allowed to use the media on their laptops.

D9 – Where necessary Mss to value add to Part (item) title. MS annotations to Title – to be indicated by square brackets [    ].

D10 - Record on the carrier and in the accession record whether an item was successfully or unsuccessfully migrated.

D11 - All Jobs are to be completed at time of accessioning. Jobs are not be held over awaiting additional material as this may be years.

D12 - The accession register will be the central control for digital as well as paper records. TRIM will be the control for copies of the documentation (Manifest, DPW).

D13 – Manuscripts Special Format Sheets will be replaced by Digital Preservation Worksheet.


 

Do's and Don'ts Reminder

Do

  • Carefully remove the physical media from it’s holder. When accessing optical media use supplied release mechanisms and try not to flex or bend the disc too much.

  • Check the condition of the physical media before using it and clean if necessary.

  • Ensure that each Part is uniquely named and that the naming matches that of the original physical media carrier.

  • Ensure Preservation information is entered for each Part in the form of ile Formats and System Details.

  • Conduct a final QA checklist before marking the job complete and submitting it the digital repository’s Ingest Service.

Don'ts

  • DO NOT select the ‘Digital preservation master’ holdings record for any association within the Prometheus Digital Preservation Workbench. This does not provide any linkage to the Prometheus database and it is simply a generic note within the Voyager system to indicate that one or more holdings have been ingested into Prometheus Workflow system..

What do we preserve?

Items being collected and preserved should meet the selection criteria as set out in the NLA Collection Development Policy.

The document ‘Preserving Australian physical format electronic publications – Selection guidelines’ is also recommended reading and is available at

 
NOTE: Individual collection areas may have additional selection guidelines for digital preservation.

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