It has been two months since I started as a digital archives assistant at the ADS. This time has focused on getting to grips with how digital archives are managed and the systems the ADS uses. I am currently working with text and image archives submitted via ADS Easy and I have enjoyed getting to see how the ADS puts digital preservation theory into practice.
Much of my experience has been with physical archives, such as my work at The Science Museum in London as the collections information officer. The only experience I had with digital archives was a module from my MSc in Information Management and Preservation and a freelance project for the European Polar Board. This new position has given me a chance to see how these two related disciplines relate to one another.
Some of the differences have been obvious, such as physical archives providing greater opportunity to work away from a computer screen due to the nature of the material involved. Others are less so, such as the fact that, in many ways, digital records are far more fragile than physical records. If you left a paper document boxed in a file on a shelf with minimal intervention it is likely to be at least readable in five or ten years, barring some disaster such as fire or flood, the same can’t be said of the contents of a hard drive. This is mostly due to digital archives having greater requirements to ‘read’ which renders the data lost if they can no longer be met. Therefore, the preservation of digital objects is by necessity a far more active process.
However digital objects can be far more resilient. This is due mostly to the ease of duplication when compared to physical objects. In fact the OAIS model of digital preservation, which provides the building blocks of ADS procedures, calls for three copies of a digital object. As such, the loss of one digital object is less likely to mean the loss of its contents. This does create new issues, such as the risks of duplication error and the requirement for specific methods of determining authenticity and integrity, such as checksums. This has also meant that access to digital archives can be much simpler and quicker than physical archives. I would often provide digital copies of files to off-site colleagues at the Science Museum, especially for more fragile items, due to the reduction in preservation concerns and increased time saving efficiency.
The risks faced by digital and physical archives differ in their types and severity. Physical archives are more at risk from environmental threats such as fire and flood, that is not to say digital archives aren’t at risk but these are easier to mitigate as backups can be stored in multiple locations. Digital objects, however, face many technological challenges physical objects don’t, such as obsolescence, data corruption, or as in the case of the British Library last year, malicious cyber-attack. There are however some risks that do not change whether the object involved is digital or physical, and those mostly come from human error and poor object handling and therefore can be avoided with correct training and care.
Despite the differences, working with physical and digital does share several similarities. As a record undergoes the same lifecycle whether it is digital or paper, the same considerations that might lead it to an archive are required at each stage. The issue of storage is common to both digital and physical archives, whether that storage is measured in meters or megabytes. This is why appraisal, the process of determining what should be accessioned and kept, is of vital importance for both digital and physical archivists.
Both require the same balance between the ideal and realistic. In practice, the full recommendations of archival theory are too costly in terms of time and resources. Therefore, digital and physical archivists have to develop procedures that come as close to the ideal as possible with the time and resources available.
I am grateful for all the help and support I have received from the team. Everyone has been friendly, welcoming and more than willing to answer my questions. I look forward to working with different data types and getting to know everyone better.