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No Time to Waste: Moving the Pawlenty Digital Records from Appraisal to MPLP Online Access

No Time to Waste: Moving the Pawlenty Digital Records from Appraisal to MPLP Online Access. Session 205: Share a Byte! A Practical, Collaborative Approach to Electronic Records in Modern Political Collections August 9, 2012.

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No Time to Waste: Moving the Pawlenty Digital Records from Appraisal to MPLP Online Access

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  1. No Time to Waste: Moving the Pawlenty Digital Records from Appraisal to MPLP Online Access Session 205: Share a Byte! A Practical, Collaborative Approach to Electronic Records in Modern Political Collections August 9, 2012

  2. A retention schedule was established during the Ventura administration • The Pawlenty administration was aware of the types of materials they needed to keep for the Minnesota Historical Society • Pawlenty would not be seeking a third term as Governor of Minnesota and was instead thinking of a 2012 Presidential run Background

  3. Working quickly • The Governor’s office contacted MHS close to the end of Pawlenty’s second term and an in-person meeting followed shortly • MHS received the records at the end of 2010 • MHS compared electronic records with what was promised and got another set of records that had been missing

  4. Timeline • Late November/early December: The Governor’s office contacted MHS • Early December: In-person meeting • Late December: Records, both paper and electronic delivered • January-February: Back-up copies of born-digital files created • February: Born-digital files given to Collections Cataloger • Late February: Photographs collection completely cataloged • Early March: Sound Recordings collection completely cataloged • May: Pawlenty announces presidential bid

  5. Image files • Photographs transferred on two DVD-R discs, one for Governor Pawlenty and the other for First Lady Mary Pawlenty • 1,740 files, mostly JPEG, but also TIFF, PDF, and BMP • Each disc contained 9 folders • The image filenames ranged from descriptive to vague, and they did not follow any standard convention

  6. Differences in file naming Governor Pawlenty files First Lady Mary Pawlenty files

  7. The sound and video files • Files transferred on DVDs and CDs as well as harvested from the Governor’s website • 410 files, mostly MP3 and WAV, but also CDA and a single MP4 file • Some discs contained numerous files, some contained a single file • Files names were inconsistently applied, but most contained some level of description

  8. Backing up the born-digital files • Born-digital files were copied from discs to secure server • A second set was copied from the first set and sent to Collections Cataloger for processing, cataloging, and for web use • A third set of thumbnails were created from the second set for the image files only

  9. Managing the born-digital files • Master files stored on a SAN unit managed by the Enterprise Technology department • Enterprise Technology manages backups • Intellectual control of the born-digital files is managed by the Digital Archivist • Preservation framework is continuing to be developed

  10. How to process the files • The original folder structures, file types, and filenames were kept completely intact for the digital images and mostly intact for the sound files • The series within the finding aids mirrored the arrangement of the files as we received them • The sound files for the Conference Calls had to be renamed “CallMMDDYYYY” because many were saved with the same name

  11. View of series and subseries

  12. Views of folder structures Second level of folders File level First level of folders

  13. Minimal processing • Did not alter titles unless absolutely necessary • Didn’t create a set of preservation masters • No extra metadata was added to the files • No additional research was conducted for files with non-descriptive or undated filenames • Created the finding aid using a simple template and extracting filenames from folders into a .csv file • Item-level description in the finding aid was easy

  14. How to make them accessible • Initial debate regarding how best to make them available • Due to potential national exposure, wanted them made available from anywhere with an internet connection • Didn’t want them hiding in a database • Decision was made to simply make use a finding aid with item-level description

  15. Description of the sound recordings finding aid • Contains a mix of born-digital files with physical cassettes and cds • Display is simple and uncluttered • Each born-digital file is linked in a <physloc> field in the EAD-encoded finding aid so users can easily download the file • File sizes are included so users can gauge download time

  16. Finding aid screenshot

  17. Description of photographs finding aid • Simple display that includes a thumbnail illustration for each photograph • Amount of description varies depending on information provided with each file • Images are coded in <dao> (digital archival object) fields in the EAD-encoded finding aid • File sizes included

  18. Finding aid screenshot

  19. Part I conclusion • Collaboration was key throughout the process, both the external/internal collaboration, as well as interdepartmental collaboration • Communicate which born-digital materials you’re expecting and preferred formats • Ask for inventories from the donating institution to compare with the actual files • Emphasize how you want the files delivered • Know how files will be managed and who is responsible for which tasks • Use already-existing platforms for public access • No correct way to process a born-digital collection

  20. Part II – Revisiting born-digital records • Easy to overlook born-digital records before procedures established • Collection was revisited to extract and describe files that had previously been on four discs • Collaboration was key throughout the process as members from various departments established a plan

  21. Treatment of the files • Pawlenty files were used as a model and contents were copied from the discs onto a secure server • Physical discs were removed permanently from this collection • Born-digital files moved to server space • Dilemma with whether or not to create .csv copies for long term preservation

  22. Processing the files • Finding aid was similar to the Pawlenty finding aid • Nature of the file types and sheer number of files (.shp, .shx, .cdf etc) caused us to rethink linking to individual files • Despite specific file types, we left it to the user to be responsible for having the proper software • Decision was to convert the files to .zip files for each of the 7 directories to make it easier for users to download • Adherence to MPLP principles during processing

  23. Finding aid screenshot

  24. Finding aids • Governor Tim Pawlenty. Sound and video recordings: http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gr00226.xml • Governor Tim Pawlenty. Governor's Office photographs: http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gr00213.xml • Governor's Citizen Advisory Commission on Redistricting. Records: http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gr00558.xml

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