Overview: Organizing your digital material for storage can be important when you either need to add files or when you need to retrieve files. For most collections, there is some structure whether that was put in place by the producers or by the archivists or librarians.
In the context of digital records, remember that archival practice may overlap with digital archives work for digital records and has its own domain expertise to assist with preservation packaging. Archival terms are often used differently by other domains, so remember to ask questions as a way to build understanding and develop working definitions. Referring to 'An Archival View' in the Radical Collaboration issue of Research Library Issues (RLI 296) may be helpful, especially if packaging digital records is less familiar at your organization or you are getting started with them.
Reviewing this from the FAQ may be helpful: https://texasdigitallibrary.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DPS/pages/3449323530/TDL+DP+Decision+Tree+FAQ#Why-does-it-help-to-disambiguate-%E2%80%98digital-archives%E2%80%99-and-%E2%80%98digital-preservation%E2%80%99?
For comparison and to assist with cross-domain packaging discussions , these are the working definitions from the Digital Archives and Preservation (DAP) Framework:
digital archives refers to all the activities organizations or individuals required in real-time to appraise, acquire, process, describe, secure, and make available specified digital content;
digital preservation refers to all the activities organizations or individuals engage in over-time across generations of technology to ensure the long-term readability and usefulness of specified digital content.
Question for your team/organization: Are your digital records ready for packaging? TDL members contact TDL for more information and assistance.
Source: Using approaches developed by and for the Digital Preservation Management (DPM) Workshop curriculum and resources. See the resources below for additional information, examples, and current information.
Related Resources:
Smithsonian Institution’s Recommended Preservation Formats for Electronic Records
This is a joint initiative between TDL Digital Preservation Services and the Digital Preservation Management (DPM) Workshop and Global Archivist LLC. Dr. Nance McGovern 2024.