Storing digital content is best done when it is structured and the digital preservation files are independent of any access file versions. You may need to understand where the digital content is located and determine if there is already a structure in place. This may involve talking with others in your organization who work with the servers, external storage media, storage services (e.g. DropBox, Box, GDrive), and computers where digital content is kept. Metadata will also play a part in how the structure of the digital content should be packaged.
Organizing your digital content
There may be a difference between how your digital content is structured and grouped and how the files are kept on a server. When talking with IT, share with them that there are digital preservation requirements for packaging the digital objects that are selected for digital preservation. Within the OAIS reference model is the concept of an AIC - Archival Information Collection. This is a way to group Information Packages of digital content into Collections. See Packaging Your Digital Content: Digital Records Collections for an example.
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It is common with digitization projects to combine both the preservation files and the access files in a project folder and kept by resource or date. This might mean that preservation TIFF files are stored together with access JPEG or PDF files. Consider grouping your preservation files separately from the access files as this will make it easier to locate and package only the files you plan to ingest for digital preservation. |
Organizing your digital content
- Is this digital content in Folders?
- Is this digital content in ZIP or TAR files?
- Was a standard tool used to package this digital content?
- Bagger / BagIt
- Archivematica / BagIt
- DART (Digital Archivists Resource Tool) / BagIt
Is the digital content you are preserving in organized Folders? Are the folders type ZIP or TAR?
Are the digital preservation files stored separately from access copies?
Is there a finite amount of digital content or will there be additions over time?
Is the requestiste requisite metadata able available to be joined with the digital content?
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