Conference Proposal

Your Catchy Title: Digital Data Capture for Small and Mid-Sized Institutions

While many larger institutions have made considerable headway on digital preservation, medium-sized and smaller-sized institutions have struggled to make similar progress, largely due to lack of time, staff, or funds. Yet, preparedness and action concerning digital materials is essential as more hard drives and CDs arrive from donors and old media begin to deteriorate. The ingest of new digital material, as well as ensuring older content is still accessible, is of great concern for archivists. This panel investigates the strategies that small and medium-sized institutions are implementing in order to ensure the preservation of digital objects in their repositories. Three panelists will also address their experience with digital preservation. Particularly, [sub-topics could include:] in creating awareness and surveying of donors,the process of ingest, choosing/creating management software, creating metadata, developing a methodology for preservation or access, providing users access to the digital content. Additionally, a panel member will discuss the working grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services that was awarded to Northern Illinois University that is currently investigating this issue.

Audience members with novice interest and understanding as well as experienced digital archivists in small and mid-sized institutions would benefit from this session; it will address the current concerns and methods of practice in collecting and archiving digital content. Audience members can leave the session with the latest knowledge in emerging methods for planning and implementing the processing of digital material.