Digitally Archiving Architectural Models and Exhibition Designs: The Case of an Art Museum

[Excerpt] In 2013, a medium-sized art museum located in the Northeast United States received a grant to plan for an electronic records repository. This museum will be referred to here as USAM for brevity. Working as the electronic records consultant on this project, the first major task was to research and inventory the electronic records being created and already existing at the museum, which necessitated scans of network storage, focus groups with departmental staff, and investigations of media included in the physical archives. In engaging in this research process, certain document types were expected, such as image files, word processed documents and spreadsheets. Although documents of these types were indeed plentiful, an extensive quantity of digitally produced two-dimensional drawings (2D) and three-dimensional models (3D) were found. Specifically, over 37,000 CAD drawings were unearthed during a network storage inventory project, as well as over 6,000 3D models. These files originate primarily in VectorWorks (and its predecessor MiniCAD), AutoCAD, and Rhinoceros. Given the quantity of digitally produced models and drawings existing at USAM, and the need to plan for an electronic records repository, this project is motivated by the following question: By what methods can two-dimensional CAD drawings (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) models be digitally archived for long term preservation and access? To answer this question, a review of the relevant literature is first presented, which explores the methods that have been developed for archiving architectural models and exhibition designs. Second, the study methods are presented, which include more detail on the context as well the archiving tests that were conducted. The paper concludes with results and conclusions regarding how architectural models and exhibitions designs are archived at USAM

Rebuilding Post War Europe: New York and Digital Archives as Reconstitutive Fabric

This project explores four digital initiatives that document and make available to the public information related to American, German, and Jewish relationships before, during, and after World War II. The goal of these projects is to make primary source information available to the public using digital technology, in effect, creating an educational infrastructure for enhancing understanding among these groups. These four projects will be treated as cases, with the guiding question being: what infrastructures are needed to create a contemporary, educational, primary source-based digital platform? The goal of this study is to highlight those infrastructure elements that are instrumental in assembling such digital initiatives. In addition to digital infrastructures, this project will find that New York City’s infrastructure—particularly buildings, transportation, cellular capacities, and the organizations maintaining those structures—all play an active role in making educational and historical content available to the public

Uptown, Downtown, and All Around: Digital Curation Education through Partnerships with NYC Archives

Presentation at the MARAC conference in Erie, PA on April 25-27, 2013. S17 - Digital Curatio

FixityBerry: Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation for Very Low Resourced Cultural Heritage Institutions

Whereas large cultural heritage institutions have made significant headway in providing digital preservation for archival assets—such as by setting-up geographically redundant digital repositories— medium and small institutions have struggled to meet minimum digital preservation standards. This project will explore one option for enhancing the digital preservation capacity for very low-resourced environments. FixityBerry is a project which connects consumer-grade USB hard disks to the $35 Raspberry Pi computer, which checks file fixity weekly and powers down when checking is complete. This poster will report out on an eight-month pilot of using FixityBerry to monitor the digital assets from several small cultural heritage institutions.ye

Inventing and implementing future-ready archival education

The Archival / Preservation Education SIG panel engages with community-responsive master's-level archival education. Seven ten-minute individual presentations and audience discussion traverse the decision points in managing curricular change; presenters bring perspectives from multiple states. "Audio Preservation as Metacognitive Archival Education" by Sarah Buchanan discusses how audiovisual archiving experiences support the continual development of students' metacognitive skills during their graduate program. Based on community collaboration, the activity progressions provide students with digital experiences, faculty with curricular guidance, and online audiences with more representative primary sources. "LIS Students Contributing to Building a Sustainable Digital Community Archive" by Krystyna Matusiak describes a community-based two-year project aimed at preserving and promoting the Park County Local History Archive in rural Colorado, now available at https://pclha.cvlcollections.org/. The presentation illustrates students' many contributions: organizing materials and assessing their copyright status, digitizing photographs, converting oral histories, creating metadata records, building exhibits, and showcasing community resilience. "Changing Horses Midstream: Revising Curriculum and Student Engagement to Ensure a Resilient Future" by Edward Benoit, III and Amanda Lima discusses the revision process for transitioning two programs to LSU Online, compares assessments from the traditional and LSU Online programs, and reflects on completing the first year. Additionally, the presenters will highlight the use of student-run Slack channels and virtual coffee hours as online student community building tools for the new LSU Online students, and discuss the school's future in the platform. "Producing Practical Professionals with Curriculum for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion" by Aisha Johnson acknowledges that cultural heritage programs should address the need for cultural preservation and reflection, for archivists of Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) heritage. The presentation will review a reestablished Archives and Records Management concentration, with core archival and complementary knowledge curriculum, as a case study for exploring new approaches to pedagogy on the purpose, value, and importance of archives in society. "Learning from Experience: Lessons from a Virtual Service-Learning Experiment" by Colin Post discusses a service-learning project documenting an artist's performance as well as their artwork archives. While such projects place even greater pressure on the instructor as a project manager, they enhance connections between theory and practice in online courses. "Lessons Learned from the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Network" by Anthony Cocciolo and Erin Barsan discusses the types of needs they have uncovered, the communities served, and the lessons learned over the course of a year running DPOE-N. The Network's response to the COVID-19 pandemic comprises microfunding for professional development and emergency hardware support for cultural heritage professionals. "National Forum Grant Project: Exploring New Frontiers in 21st Century Archival Education" by Alex Poole and Jane Zhang discusses the environmental scan, National Forum event, and final outputs of their year-long project. The presentation addresses motivation and need, historical and current context, research components, and intended results and impact. The moderator will facilitate Q&A within and across the presentations

Digitally Archiving Architectural Models and Exhibition Designs: The Case of an Art Museum

[Excerpt] In 2013, a medium-sized art museum located in the Northeast United States received a grant to plan for an electronic records repository. This museum will be referred to here as USAM for brevity. Working as the electronic records consultant on this project, the first major task was to research and inventory the electronic records being created and already existing at the museum, which necessitated scans of network storage, focus groups with departmental staff, and investigations of media included in the physical archives. In engaging in this research process, certain document types were expected, such as image files, word processed documents and spreadsheets. Although documents of these types were indeed plentiful, an extensive quantity of digitally produced two-dimensional drawings (2D) and three-dimensional models (3D) were found. Specifically, over 37,000 CAD drawings were unearthed during a network storage inventory project, as well as over 6,000 3D models. These files originate primarily in VectorWorks (and its predecessor MiniCAD), AutoCAD, and Rhinoceros. Given the quantity of digitally produced models and drawings existing at USAM, and the need to plan for an electronic records repository, this project is motivated by the following question: By what methods can two-dimensional CAD drawings (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) models be digitally archived for long term preservation and access? To answer this question, a review of the relevant literature is first presented, which explores the methods that have been developed for archiving architectural models and exhibition designs. Second, the study methods are presented, which include more detail on the context as well the archiving tests that were conducted. The paper concludes with results and conclusions regarding how architectural models and exhibitions designs are archived at USAM.Digitally_Archiving_Architectural_Models_and_Exhibition_Designs.pdf: 99 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Finding Inactive Records on Institutional Networks: An Evaluation of Tools

[Excerpt] The objective of this study is test select tools for their ability to identifying groups of records that may be inactive because of their age. Tools to identify batches of inactive records, such as the records of departed staff members or initiatives that have long ended, are often lacking and are designed more for IT departments to manage disk space. However, one such tool that will be explored is called TreeSize, and as the name indicates it’s focus is on identifying directory sizes in order to help manage disk space.v Despite this orientation, it does have some features that are useful for identifying records based on age. The other tool that will be explored is a script developed by the researcher called Archives Finder that aims to address some of the issues with existing tools for locating batches of inactive records. Archives Finder searches across unstructured network drives for the largest possible grouping of records that are a given number of years old defined by the user. It also includes a “fuzzy math” feature that allows the user to specify that only a certain threshold of files need to by X years old. This tool, as well as TreeSize, will be tested for their ability to efficiently and accurately locate records that may be inactive on unstructured network shares.Finding_Inactive_Records_on_Institutional_Networks_an_Evaluation_of_Tools.pdf: 18 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Digitally Archiving Architectural Models and Exhibition Designs: The Case of an Art Museum

[Excerpt] In 2013, a medium-sized art museum located in the Northeast United States received a grant to plan for an electronic records repository. This museum will be referred to here as USAM for brevity. Working as the electronic records consultant on this project, the first major task was to research and inventory the electronic records being created and already existing at the museum, which necessitated scans of network storage, focus groups with departmental staff, and investigations of media included in the physical archives. In engaging in this research process, certain document types were expected, such as image files, word processed documents and spreadsheets. Although documents of these types were indeed plentiful, an extensive quantity of digitally produced two-dimensional drawings (2D) and three-dimensional models (3D) were found. Specifically, over 37,000 CAD drawings were unearthed during a network storage inventory project, as well as over 6,000 3D models. These files originate primarily in VectorWorks (and its predecessor MiniCAD), AutoCAD, and Rhinoceros. Given the quantity of digitally produced models and drawings existing at USAM, and the need to plan for an electronic records repository, this project is motivated by the following question: By what methods can two-dimensional CAD drawings (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) models be digitally archived for long term preservation and access? To answer this question, a review of the relevant literature is first presented, which explores the methods that have been developed for archiving architectural models and exhibition designs. Second, the study methods are presented, which include more detail on the context as well the archiving tests that were conducted. The paper concludes with results and conclusions regarding how architectural models and exhibitions designs are archived at USAM.Digitally_Archiving_Architectural_Models_and_Exhibition_Designs.pdf: 99 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020