INST 640:
Principles of Digital Curation
University of Maryland iSchoolIntroductory Course for the Certificate, Curation and Management of Digital Assets (CMDA), outline prepared April 2015
NB: This document is a preliminary guide for the course and is subject to change. Enrolled students should consult the course syllabus on ELMS for actual course information.
Instructor
Jesse A. Johnston, Ph.D.
@jesseajohnston
About This Course
This course explores various dimensions and contexts of digital curation. For the purpose of this class, digital curation encompasses all activities involving the management, representation, and preservation of both born-‐digital and turned-‐ digital information for current and future use. We shall reflect on current efforts that respond to the opportunities and the attendant challenges and demands of ever-‐increasing digital data and networked information infrastructure. To do this, we shall also look into the infrastructure necessary for handling digital collections as well as the knowledge and skills necessary for effective management of digital curation systems and programs.
This course will take a comparative approach in examining the principles, standards, and practices that institutions apply over digital collections. While traversing various forms and practices—from institutional repositories, digital libraries, cyberinfrastructure, and virtual archives to practices of digital
preservation, data curation, electronic records management, web archiving and digital assets management—we shall examine the role of electronic and networked technology in the long-‐term preservation of and access to digital assets and digital heritage collections. As a foundation course for the Curation and Management of Digital Assets (CMDA) certificate, this course is designed to provide students with a broad understanding of current trends, issues, and challenges in managing digital collections, as well as a greater appreciation of the changing landscape of digital collections contemporary landscape.
Course Objectives
This course presents an introductory overview for the CMDA program with the goal of providing a framework for digital curators in training by introducing key
concepts, models, and skills.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
● Identify and assess key models, strategies, and standards for digital curation; ● Articulate an understanding of key concepts and approaches to digital
preservation;
● Evaluate digital curation policies and methods for organizational
implementation in designing plans for the stewardship of digital assets; ● Develop a basic conceptual model about cloud computing infrastructure that
supports digital curation;
● Identify resources that support professional, digital curation practices in various sorts of organizations;
● Identify and assess the data needs of a designated community;
● Create a digital curation plan for an institution and/or a collection, prioritize recommendations, and communicate recommendations to stakeholders.
Course Outline
The course will consist of weekly modules, one for each week of the course. Each module will include readings discussions, and activities. Modules will include the following topics and selected readings:
Digital Curation: Introductions and Definitions
● Neil Beagrie, “Digital Curation for Science, Digital Libraries, and Individuals,” International Journal of Digital Curation 1(1) (2006): 3-‐16,
http://ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/6/2.
● Selections from Margaret Hedstrom, et al., “Preparing the Workforce for Digital Curation,” National Academies Press (2015),
http://www.nap.edu/download.php?record_id=18590.
● Elizabeth Yakel, “Digital Curation,” OCLC Systems and Services 23(4) (2007): 335-‐340.
● Christine Borgman (2015), “Provocations,” in Big Data, Little Data, No Data (MIT Press).
Curation in the Cloud: The Concepts and Basics of Infrastructure
● Brian Aitken, Patrick McCann, Andrew McHugh, and Kerry Miller (2012), “Digital Curation and the Cloud Final Report” (JISC white paper),
http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140616164656/http:/ /www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/preservation/CurationCloud.aspx. ● Daniel Pitti (2005), “Technology and the Transformation of Archival
Description,” Journal of Archival Organization 3:9-‐22.
● Charles Severance, “Programming on the Web” and “HTML and CSS” from Using Google App Engine (O’Reilly Media, 2009).
Digital Preservation: Open Archival Information Systems, or, the OAIS Reference Model
● Brian F. Lavoie, The Open Archival Information System Reference Model: Introductory Guide, January 2004. Available:
http://www.dpconline.org/docs/lavoie_OAIS.pdf.
● Mary Vardigan and Cole Whiteman, “ICPSR meets OAIS: applying the OAIS reference model to the social science archive context,” Archival Science 7 (2007): 73–87. doi: 10.1007/s10502-‐006-‐9037-‐z
Acquiring and Appraising Content
● Angus Whyte and Andrew Wilson, (2010) "How to Appraise and Select Research Data for Curation". DCC How-‐to Guides. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-‐guides.
● Ross Harvey and Dave Thompson, (2010) “Automating the Appraisal of Digital Materials,” Library HiTech 28(2): 313-‐322.
Submitting and Ingesting: SIPs and Formats
● UC Libraries. Preparing to Submit Objects to the Digital Preservation Repository.
http://www.cdlib.org/services/uc3/docs/PreparingForDPRSubmission.pdf. ● Library of Congress, “Sustainability of Digital Formats,”
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/intro/intro.shtml. A Matter of Trust: Characteristics of Trusted Digital Repositories, Assessing, and Auditing
● Christoph Becker and Andreas Rauber, (2011) “Decision Criteria in Digital Preservation: What to Measure and How,” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 62(6): pp. 1009–1028.
● Requirements for Bodies Providing Audit and Certification of Candidate Trustworthy Digital Repositories, 2014 (Magenta Book). URL:
http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/652x1m2.pdf. Significant Properties: Context and Metadata
● Simone Sacchi and Jerome P. McDonough, “Significant Properties of Complex Digital Artifacts: Open Issues from a Video Game Case Study,” Proceedings of the iConference 2012, February 7–10, 2012, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ● Gareth Knight, “Significant Properties of Email,” JISC (2010). URL:
http://www.significantproperties.org.uk/email-‐testingreport.pdf.
● Ryan Edge and Myung-‐Ja Han, “Building a Sustainable Metadata Workflow for Audio-‐visual Resources: University of Illinois Library’s Medusa Digital
Research Data Curation and Data Management Plans
● Dharma Akmon, Ann Zimmerman, Morgan Daniels, and Margaret Hedstrom, (2011) “The application of archival concepts to a data-‐intensive
environment: working with scientists to understand data management and preservation needs,” Archival Science 11 (3-‐4): pp. 329-‐348.
● Jake Carlson and M. Witt, M. (2007). Conducting a Data Interview. Presented at the IDCC, Washington DC, December 12.
● Daniel Noonan and Tamar Chute (2014), “Data Curation and the University Archives,” American Archivist 77:201-‐240.
Archival Storage Management and Repository Technologies
● Reagan W. Moore, Arcot Rajasekar, and Michael Wan (2005), “Data Grids, Digital Libraries, and Persistent Archives: An Integrated Approach to Sharing, Publishing, and Archiving Data,” Proceedings of the IEEE (93/3).
● David Rosenthal (2010), “Keeping Bits Safe: How Hard Can it Be?” Queue 8/10 at http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1866298.
Disseminating: Uses and Users of Digital Collections
● David Seaman, “Discovering the Information Needs of Humanists When Planning an Institutional Repository,” D-‐Lib Magazine 17 (3/4) (March/April 2011). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march11/seaman/03seaman.html.
● Gobinda Chowdhury, (2010),"From digital libraries to digital preservation research: the importance of users and context", Journal of Documentation 66(2) (2010): pp. 207-‐223.
● Nancy Fried Foster and Susan Gibbons, “Understanding Faculty to Improve Content Recruitment for Institutional Repositories,” D-‐Lib Magazine 11(1) (2005), http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january05/foster/01foster.html. Access Systems: Digitization Management
● Paul Conway (2013), “Preserving Imperfection: Assessing the Incidence of Digital Imaging Error in Hathi Trust,” Preservation, Digital Technology, & Culture 42 (1): 17-‐30.
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/99522
● Melissa Terras (2008), “Digital Images and Memory Institutions,” in Digital Images for the Information Professional (Ashgate), 99-‐139.
Wrap-‐Up: Repository Models for Digital Curation
Materials and Resources Technical:
● Reliable, high-‐speed internet connection and updated browser(s) of your choice.
o What are the basic requirements for Canvas?
https://guides.instructure.com/m/4214/l/82542-‐what-‐are-‐the-‐ basic-‐computer-‐specifications-‐for-‐canvas
o Which browsers does Canvas support?
https://guides.instructure.com/m/4214/l/41056-‐which-‐browsers-‐ does-‐canvas-‐support
● An active UMD login account, granting access to email and ELMS (our online “classroom”). For help with ELMS, see http://elms.umd.edu/page/student-‐ support.
● A Twitter account.
● A text editor (free) that helps you to work with files in various markup types and code, such as TextWrangler (Macs) or Notepad++ (Windows).
● A generally flexible and open outlook toward digital tools. At some points in the certificate program, you may encounter new, unfamiliar tools. You may, on occasion, need a specific program or tool that is not listed here to do an assignment task. All tools will be available either as free, open-‐source options or to use as a login service; you will not be asked to purchase software. Look at this as an opportunity for discovery and development. If something in your technosphere isn’t working as it should, don’t hesitate to search on the web, ask your course instructors, and perhaps best, your fellow cohort members.
Course-‐specific:
There is no required textbook for the course. Most readings will be from recent articles on digital curation, which will be found online, either in openly available versions (on the Web, links will be provided) or via journals and databases (links will be provided, though you may need to login with your UMD credentials). Other materials, including announcements, may be circulated by Twitter, email, and the course ELMS site.
In the digital curation sphere, you will find many resources online. Just a few that you may be interested in browsing before the course starts include: UMD Digital Curation Innovation Center (http://dcic.umd.edu/), Digital Curation Glossary from the Digital Curation Center (http://www.dcc.ac.uk/digital-‐curation/glossary), and the International Journal of Digital Curation (open-‐access journal at
http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/index).
Assignments and Evaluation
Students will be evaluated on their demonstrated level of understanding and critical thinking about digital curation concepts presented during the course. This
understanding will be demonstrated through regular discussions, to be held online via ELMS discussion boards (as well as, informally, on Twitter), and through
assigned activities.
● Participation (40%). You will be expected to participate in regular
discussions with your peers in the class. Participation is generally not graded on whether it is “right” or “wrong” but whether it shows that you have
thought about the issues at hand. Active participants provide thoughtful, productive contributions that move the discussion forward, respond to the prompts and course materials, and engage with ideas and concepts at hand. Participation includes respecting peers and helping to foster a collegial atmosphere conducive to the exchange of ideas. All pertinent comments are welcome and respected, even if they are challenged.
● Assigned Activities (60%). These activities will largely consist of project work that allows you to engage with particular digital curation issues. Assignment deliverables, such as written essays, markup snippets, or presentations, will be due regularly throughout the course. Topics for these activities will include a comparison of digital preservation policy
frameworks, file format preservation analysis, digital curation profile, and an assignment on trusted digital repositories. For most of the assignments, you will be able to choose materials from examples discussed in class or from examples with which you are familiar.
Additional Policies Students with Disabilities
Students with disabilities needing academic accommodation should: (1) register with and provide documentation to the Disability Support Services office, and (2) discuss any necessary academic accommodation with their teachers. This should be done at the beginning of the semester.
Learning Assistance
If you are experiencing difficulties in keeping up with the academic demands of this course, contact the Learning Assistance Service, 2202 Shoemaker Building, 301-‐ 314-‐7693. Their educational counselors can help with time management, reading, math learning skills, note-‐taking and exam preparation skills. All their services are free to UMD students.
Academic Integrity
The University of Maryland, College Park, has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Society. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student, you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. The Code of Academic Integrity prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing, submitting fraudulent documents, forging signatures, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without authorization, and buying papers. It is very important for you to be aware of the consequences of academic
dishonesty. Instances of any suspected academic dishonesty will be reported and handled according to University policy and procedures. For more information on the Code, visit http://www.shc.umd.edu.
Plagiarism is of particular concern in the networked digital environment. Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea or a passage of text from another author, they must acknowledge their source both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing using footnotes or in-‐text citations. For further information about proper citation of sources, consult the UMD Libraries website at
http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/honesty.html and
http://www.lib.umd.edu/PUBSERV/citations/index.html.