FCoP Documenting Digital Curation Template

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to begin to identify areas/phases/stakeholders that will be impacted by the introduction of programmatic software collection, curation, preservation and emulation activities. After three-four months of experimentation, piloting, and completing other capacity building exercises, return to the results of this activity and compare to see if your assumptions about impact hold true – or if there are new and unexpected ways in which this work impacts your organizations.

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Timeline

NOTE: This exercise can be done with a group synchronously in-person or virtually mediated. If you decide to facilitate this exercise with a group synchronously, consider the time breakdown provided below. This activity works best if someone is designated to ask questions and prompt the group while another person takes notes. If all persons participating in the exercise are considered key stakeholders in digital curation, then see if you can find a colleague outside of the group to take notes – otherwise consider rotating note taking responsibilities so that all persons can participate. If the group of participants is large enough, consider breaking up into two or more working groups. This can be very effective in unearthing and challenging individuals’ assumptions.

  • 30min Articulate and document what happens in each of your existing digital preservation and curation stages/phases. 

30min Determine which areas/phases/stakeholders may be affected by programmatic software collection, curation, preservation and emulation activities – and articulate how those areas/phases/stakeholders might be affected.

  • 30 – 45min If participants split up into two or more working groups, reconvene and have each working group report out to the larger group. Compare notes, find convergence and divergence. Address areas of divergence. 

 

If you decide to facilitate this exercise with a group asynchronously, create a worksheet and send out copies to each participant on the team. Comparing responses across individuals can be illuminating for the same reasons mentioned above – it is generative because it unearths mismatched assumptions and expectations that can be addressed in group discussion.

  • (One week) Complete the digital curation worksheet
  • (One week) Synthesize individual responses in order to identify convergent and divergent assumptions and expectations. Develop an agenda for group discussion that will allow the group to work through the divergent assumptions and expectations together. 
  • Synchronous call or in-person discussion based on the results of asynchronous work.

Instructions

  1. Articulate and document what happens in each of your existing digital preservation and curation stages/phases.
    • What are the (5-7) main activities that are performed during the workflow?
      • Ex. Semi-centralized; recently moved into a special collections/archives/preservation functional area/department 
      • Ex. Curatorial workflow – Curators bring the collections in 
      • Ex. Archivist workflow – accessioning, appraisal, documentation
      • Ex. Metadata and Descriptive creation – impact into descriptive areas
    • Who are the people / roles involved with these main activities?
      • Ex. Dealers – appraisal context and educating these users 
      • Ex. Administrative stakeholders
    • What are the key inputs and outputs from one phase of the workflow to another? 
      • Ex. Machine actionable metadata
      • Ex. Scalable solutions
      • Ex. Mapping to archival output
      • Ex. Contextual documentation and information for maintaining the system over time; technical infrastructure
    • What are the systems / tools used during these main activities?
      • Ex. Interested in testing: tools for gaining technical information about dependencies; interested in authenticity – what that means in preservation and in access contexts?
  2. Return to the areas/phases/stakeholders outlined in Step 1. Determine which areas/phases/stakeholders may be affected by programmatic software collection, curation, preservation and emulation activities – and articulate how those areas/phases/stakeholders might be affected.
  3. Synthesize, compare notes, identify convergence and divergence. Discuss.