The preference is to accession digital records immediately upon receipt. There may be cases in which additional digital media is not found until related papers are physically processed. These media should be accessioned once all media in the collection has been located.
The goal of the accessioning procedures for digital archives is to
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Preliminary appraise digital content in order to save staff time and storage space
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Copy all digital files, whether received on removable media or through digital transfers, to temporary preservation storage
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Document the transfer process
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Generate basic metadata about the files to be used for processing planning and to monitor file formats for obsolescence.
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Assign accession number
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Perform preliminary appraisal of removable media or digital transfer
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Assign digital media identifier, if retaining media
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Create removal sheets for media found in related paper collection (i.e. removed from a folder)
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Store transfer media, if retaining
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Perform virus scan on removable media or transferred files
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Save files to temporary preservation storage (LTO Machine or SAN)
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Perform additional appraisal of digital content, if necessary
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Normalize names of files and directories (optional)
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Generate fixity information
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Write to LTO tape (if applicable)
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Create accession record in Archivists’ Toolkit
All digital accessions should have preservation documentation, including documentation of any actions taken on the files, fixity information for every file, and an accession record.
To ensure the name is valid in different computing environments, file names for preservation documentation and folder titles created by library staff should include only lowercase letters, numbers, dashes, and underscores. Name all documentation with the accession number and documentation type (e.g., 2011_15_er_preservation_log.txt).
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Preservation Documentation – documentation of any action taken on the files
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Fixity – may also include other metadata extracted from the files
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Accession Record - summary record about the accession
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Resource_IDs Spreadsheet (Russell A&D only) - ongoing list of all processed and unprocessed Russell collections
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LTO Tape Inventory (if applicable)
This workflow is adapted from the Russell Library digital accessioning workflow.
First draft completed: 2017 -- Adriane Hanson (Head of Digital Stewardship), Callie Holmes (Digital Archivist, Brown Media Archives), and Steve Armour (University Archives Processing and Digital Archivist, Hargrett Library).
Revised: 2019 -- Steve Armour (University Archives Processing and Digital Archivist, Hargrett Library) and Brandon Pieczko (Processing and Digital Archivist, Russell Library)