Identifying and Selecting Digital Content
This webinar will address the scope of digital content potentially available at an institution, as well as the process for selecting digital content for preservation. The scope of content will include digital content currently in the custody of a cultural heritage institution and digital content that has been or will be created in the future. The process for selecting digital content for preservation may be known by different terms in institutions, e.g., appraisal in archives, selection in libraries, or acquisition in museums, but there are common principles and outcomes that may be applied across all types of institutions.
Digital Content Inventories
Examples (note these are used for submission of digital content rather than for inventory purposes):
California Digital Library (CDL) / UC Libraries Digital Assets Submission Inventory
www.cdlib.org/services/dsc/contribute/docs/submission.inventory.rtf
University of Kansas Data Collection Manual for Digital Assets
http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/bitstream/1808/166/6/Appendix%20E%20-%20Data%20collection%20manual%20draft%202.pdf
File Identification
"File Format Identification and Validation Tools," Roy Lechich, Yale University, February 2007, http://www.library.yale.edu/iac/DPC/FileIDandValidate.pdf
“Format Identification, Validation, Characterization and Transformation in DAITSS”, Carol Chouhttp://fclaweb.fcla.edu/content/format-identification-validation-characterization-and-transformation-daitss
PRONOM - The Technical Registry:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/Default.aspx
DROID, PRONOM and Preservation Planning: Anyone can do it!, by Alison Heatherington, 2009: http://www.dpconline.org/docs/events/0906roadshowYorkHeatherington.pdf
PRONOM - A Practical Online Compendium of File Formats, by Jeffrey Darlington, RLG DigiNews, 2003:
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070519/viewer/file1490.html#feature2
Sustainability of Digital File Formats
Sustainability of Digital Formats, Planning for Library of Congress Collections:
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/sustain/sustain.shtml
Brown, Adrian. Selecting file formats for long term preservation, August, 2008:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/selecting-file-formats.pdf
Identifying Content: Sample Inventory
Examples (note these are used for submission of digital content rather than for inventory purposes):
California Digital Library (CDL) / UC Libraries Digital Assets Submission Inventory
www.cdlib.org/services/dsc/contribute/docs/submission.inventory.rtf
University of Kansas Data Collection Manual for Digital Assets
http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/bitstream/1808/166/6/Appendix%20E%20-%20Data%20collection%20manual%20draft%202.pdf
File Identification
"File Format Identification and Validation Tools," Roy Lechich, Yale University, February 2007, http://www.library.yale.edu/iac/DPC/FileIDandValidate.pdf
“Format Identification, Validation, Characterization and Transformation in DAITSS”, Carol Chouhttp://fclaweb.fcla.edu/content/format-identification-validation-characterization-and-transformation-daitss
PRONOM - The Technical Registry:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/Default.aspx
DROID, PRONOM and Preservation Planning: Anyone can do it!, by Alison Heatherington, 2009: http://www.dpconline.org/docs/events/0906roadshowYorkHeatherington.pdf
PRONOM - A Practical Online Compendium of File Formats, by Jeffrey Darlington, RLG DigiNews, 2003:
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070519/viewer/file1490.html#feature2
Sustainability of Digital File Formats
Sustainability of Digital Formats, Planning for Library of Congress Collections:
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/sustain/sustain.shtml
Brown, Adrian. Selecting file formats for long term preservation, August, 2008:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/selecting-file-formats.pdf
Identifying Content: Sample Inventory

identifying_content_sampleinventory.pdf |
General Selection Issues
"Appraisal of Digital Resources in the Public Sector: A General Introduction from a Delos Report," Digital Preservation Europe
http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/publications/briefs/Appraisal-of-Digital-ResourcesEN.pdf
Example: “A Florida Atlantic University Libraries' Digital Library Collection Development Policy”, July 2012, accessed online, May 29, 2014
http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/digital_library/images/dl_cdpolicy2012.pdf
Appraisal: Institutional Records
“Appraisal Policy” The National Archives, UK:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/appraisal_policy.pdf
“How to Compile an Appraisal Report,” The National Archives, UK, 2006:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/appraisal_report_v2.pdf
Assessment Criteria for Digitization
Oxford University, 1999:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/scoping/assessment.html
Back to Preservation of Digital Collections
Resources list compiled by Mary Molinaro, Webinar Series 4 Presenter
Materials adapted from Library of Congress- Office of Strategic Initiatives, Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Program
Materials adapted from Library of Congress- Office of Strategic Initiatives, Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Program