Digital Preservation, Eh?

February 28, 2017 Marlo MacKay

by Alexandra Jokinen

This post originally appeared on the Society of American Archivists blog: https://saaers.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/digital-preservation-eh/

Hello / Bonjour!

Welcome to the Canadian edition of International Perspectives on Digital Preservation. My name is Alexandra Jokinen. I am the new(ish) Digital Archives Intern at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I work closely with the Digital Archivist, Creighton Barrett, to aid in the development of policies and procedures for some key aspects of the University Libraries’ digital archives program—acquisitions, appraisal, arrangement, description, and preservation.

One of the ways in which we are beginning to tackle this very large, very complex (but exciting!) endeavour is to execute digital preservation on a small scale, focusing on the processing of digital objects within a single collection, and then using those experiences to create documentation and workflows for different aspects of the digital archives program.

The collection chosen to be our guinea pig was a recent donation of work from esteemed Canadian ecologist and environmental scientist, Bill Freedman, who taught and conducted research at Dalhousie from 1979 to 2015. The fonds is a hybrid of analogue and digital materials dating from 1988 to 2015. Digital media carriers include: 1 computer system unit, 5 laptops, 2 external hard drives, 7 USB flash drives, 5 zip disks, 57 CDs, 6 DVDs, 67 5.25 inch floppy disks and 228 3.5 inch floppy disks. This is more digital material than the archives is likely to acquire in future accessions, but the Freedman collection acted as a good test case because it provided us with a comprehensive variety of digital formats to work with.

Our first area of focus was appraisal. For the analogue material in the collection, this process was pretty straightforward: conduct macro-appraisal and functional analysis by physically reviewing material. However, (as could be expected) appraisal of the digital material was much more difficult to complete. The archives recently purchased a forensic recovery of evidence device (FRED) but does not yet have all the necessary software and hardware to read the legacy formats in the collection (such as the floppy disks and zip disks), so, we started by investigating the external hard drives and USB flash drives. After examining their content, we were able to get an accurate sense of the information they contained, the organizational structure of the files, and the types of formats created by Freedman. Although, we were not able to examine files on the legacy media, we felt that we had enough context to perform appraisal, determine selection criteria and formulate an arrangement structure for the collection.

The next step of the project will be to physically organize the material. This will involve separating, photographing and reboxing the digital media carriers and updating a new registry of digital media that was created during a recent digital archives collection assessment modelled after OCLC’s 2012 “You’ve Got to Walk Before You Can Run” research report. Then, we will need to process the digital media, which will entail creating disk images with our FRED machine and using forensic tools to analyze the data. Hopefully, this will allow us to apply the selection criteria used on the analogue records to the digital records and weed out what we do not want to retain. During this process, we will be creating procedure documentation on accessioning digital media as well as updating the archives’ accessioning manual.

The project’s final steps will be to take the born-digital content we have collected and ingest it using Archivematica to create Archival Information Packages for storage and preservation and accessed via the Archives Catalogue and Online Collections.

So there you have it! We have a long way to go in terms of digital preservation here at Dalhousie (and we are just getting started!), but hopefully our work over the next several months will ensure that solid policies and procedures are in place for maintaining a trustworthy digital preservation system in the future.

This internship is funded in part by a grant from the Young Canada Works Building Careers in Heritage Program, a Canadian federal government program for graduates transitioning to the workplace.

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Alexandra Jokinen has a Master’s Degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University in Toronto. Previously, she has worked as an Archivist at the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto and completed a professional practice project at TIFF Film Reference Library and Special Collections.

Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Fair Dealing and Students

February 24, 2017 Marlo MacKay

This is the fourth and final entry in our series celebrating Fair Dealing Week.

The copyright landscape in Canada has undergone significant changes recently. To ensure a fair and reasonable approach to the use of copyright protected materials on campus, Dalhousie has sought to balance the rights of users with those of creators. To help accomplish this, the University has established a Copyright Office and has most recently adopted updated Fair Dealing Guidelines.

As students of Dalhousie University, you may copy materials for which the university (e.g. the Library) has negotiated licenses, according to the terms of the individual license agreements. In addition to license agreements, fair dealing allows you to make use of a work for yourself for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, news reporting, education, parody or satire. For example, this means you can copy one article from a journal, or one chapter from a book for the purpose of your studies and research.

Without fair dealing, any time you wished to make use of a copyrighted work in your course, you would need permission from the copyright holder, perhaps even paying a licensing fee. This short presentation (click on the image) illustrates how many basic use of works that we might take for granted would not be legal without fair dealing:

For more information on how fair dealing affects students, please take some time to read about fair dealing for students, and consult our fair dealing guidelines. Please feel free to contact the Copyright Office with any questions or comments at copyright.office@dal.ca

Faculty and Fair Dealing

February 23, 2017 Marlo MacKay

This is part three in our series to celebrate Fair Dealing Week. Part four (Students and Fair Dealing) will appear on Friday.

Fair dealing is a powerful tool for using copyrighted works in the classroom. It allows instructors to use photos and videos in class lectures, reduce the cost of materials for students, and facilitate access and accommodation for students. Faculty can also benefit from Fair Dealing in the context of research, allowing academics to build upon existing research, and facilitating access to scholarly works.

Fair dealing is available in the contexts of education and research, but it is important to remember that copyright in Canada is a balance between users’ rights and creators’ rights. While instructors can engage in copying for their classes, it must be done in a fair and ethical manner.

One of the best resources to make sure your class readings fall under fair dealing is to make use of the Dalhousie Libraries course reserves service. By using the course reserves service, you’re taking the guesswork out of applying fair dealing guidelines for every work that is used as part of class readings, and reducing the cost of material for your students. The Dal Libraries’ course reserves service can upload material to Brightspace for you, or create stable links to course readings.

For more information on how fair dealing affects faculty, please take some time to read about fair dealing for faculty, and consult our Fair Dealing Guidelines. Please feel free to contact the Copyright Office with questions or comments at copyright.office@dal.ca

Fair Dealing: Why Is it Important?

February 22, 2017 Marlo MacKay

This is part two in a four-part series of blog posts celebrating Fair Dealing Week (February 20–24, 2017).

Fair Dealing permits the limited use of copyright-protected material without the permission of copyright owners, and without the risk of infringement. It is intended to provide a balance between the rights of creators and the rights of users. Copyright protects the expression of ideas, and fair dealing provides the space for new ideas to flourish. Prior to the current allowances of fair dealing, it was much more difficult to navigate copyright rules to find material for teaching and research. Students, faculty, and staff can now benefit from fair dealing to improve their classes, work, and studies.

Two Dalhousie professors, Dr. Sasha Kondrashov and Dr. Mike Smit discuss the importance of fair dealing in the videos below:

For more information, you can read about fair dealing on the Dalhousie Libraries’ Copyright Office’s Fair Dealing Basics page, and consult the Fair Dealing Guidelines. Please feel free to contact the Copyright Office with any questions or comments at copyright.office@dal.ca

Fair Dealing Week: What Is Fair Dealing?

February 21, 2017 Marlo MacKay

This is part one in a four-part series of blog posts celebrating Fair Dealing Week (February 20–24, 2017).

Fair Dealing Week (Fair Use Week in the United States) is the Association of Research Libraries (ARL)’s annual celebration of fair dealing. To mark Fair Dealing Week, we’ll be blogging about it all week. These posts will outline why fair dealing is important, what fair dealing means to instructors, and how fair dealing applies to students.

Fair dealing is a right in the Copyright Act (Section 29) which allows the copying and communicating of copyrighted works without permission from or payment to the copyright holder. The Supreme Court of Canada has established a two-part, six-factor test for determining fair dealing:

Step One: Determine if your use of a copyrighted work is covered by any of the purposes enumerated in the Copyright Act: research, private study, criticism, news reporting, education, parody, or satire.

Step Two: If your use does fall under one of these purposes, then you can proceed to applying each of the six factors the Supreme Court identified. The six factors are: purpose (different from the purpose in the first step), character, amount, alternatives, nature, and effect.

If your use of a copyrighted work passes both of these steps, it can be deemed fair dealing. To clarify the determination of fair dealing, Dalhousie has developed a set of Fair Dealing Guidelines, in cooperation with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. These guidelines apply to all members of the Dalhousie University community — faculty, staff and students.

For more information, consult the Dalhousie Libraries Copyright Office’s Fair Dealing Basics page, and the Fair Dealing Guidelines. Contact the Copyright Office with any questions or comments at copyright.office@dal.ca

Jennifer MacIsaac Completes Certificate in Museum Studies

February 8, 2017 Marlo MacKay

Jennifer MacIsaac.

In 2009, Jennifer MacIsaac was asked to take care of the Agricola Museum, Archives, and Special Collections at the MacRae Library on the Agricultural Campus. As a cataloguer with a diploma in Library and Information Technology, she thought it seemed like a close fit; the collections were similar to what she worked with every day, the materials were just older.

While the management of archives and museums is comparable to library practices, some aspects of the work are worlds apart. “With 30 years of accumulated artifacts, records, and book collections to sort through, policies to update and create, services and programs to develop, and a community to engage, I was soon feeling overwhelmed!” said Jennifer. Luckily, Jennifer is no longer feeling overwhelmed and library users can expect great exhibits and well cared for artifacts thanks to the training she has undergone since then.

Elaine MacInnis, Head of the MacRae Library and Associate University Librarian, Library Services, suggested that Jennifer enrol in the Council of Nova Scotia Archives (CNSA) core curriculum. CNSA is the body that promotes good archival practices throughout the province. They offer six two-day courses in archival studies; all six courses must be completed and the assignments passed to receive an Archival Certificate of Completion. Jennifer finished the program and received her certification in 2014.

The Agricola Collection.

Then, a conservator suggested to Jennifer that she look into the Association of Nova Scotia Museums (ANSM) program in Museum Studies to complement her archival certification. Elaine MacInnis and University Archivist and Associate University Librarian, Research and Scholarly Communication Michael Moosberger were wholly supportive of Jennifer developing these skills to better manage the 400–500 artifacts in the MacRae Library. “Management of museums is as different to libraries as archives are, if not more. ANSM offers eight core two-day courses in Museum Studies in a three-year cycle. In 2014 I began working towards my certification and finished last year,” said Jennifer.

In all, Jennifer has had training in arrangement and description, Rules for Archival Description (RAD), preservation, acquisition, appraisal and accessioning, access and reference, museums and community (engagement and responsibilities), museum management and governance, public programming, collections management and curatorship, exhibitions, facilities management, and marketing and revenue generation. “Participating in these programs has made an incredible impact on my knowledge of archival practices,” said Jennifer. She has also had the opportunity to network and collaborate with new colleagues, some now mentors, in the cultural heritage sector.

In 2013, the MacRae Library underwent a renovation. The Agricola collection was moved from one small room alone to also be housed in a second larger room that could accommodate proper shelving. “This was a fantastic opportunity to work closely with Michael’s staff from the Dalhousie Archives who came to help with the reorganization. We’ve since expanded to a third room for office and reference areas, digitization, and to house the audio visual and photograph collections,” said Jennifer.

Silent at Night Study Room in the Kellogg Library Learning Commons (CHEB)

February 6, 2017 Marlo MacKay

The CHEB has just doubled the amount of silent study space available at night.

Starting February 6, classroom C268 is reserved every night from 8:30–11:30 p.m. for silent study. From March 6–May 31, that time will be expanded to 7–11:30 p.m. nightly (including weekends).

This room is a complement to the existing silent room in the corner by the main stairs, C223.

Happy studying!

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