1. Digitization, Preservation and the Future of the Archive Paul Conway University of Michigan 23 rd Annual Preservation Conference National Archives and Records Administration

2. The Legacy of Digitization? “I aspired to authenticity, but I never got beyond verisimilitude.” 23/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference Copyrighted New Yorker cartoon deleted

3. The Past is Prologue?  Much learned about digitization in 15 years  How to use an entire suite of technologies  Transformation of service models  Costs of digitization  Current risks and limitations  Success brings fundamental questions about the nature of the products we are producing through digitization. 33/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

4. Large Scale Collection Building Thematic General Purpose Cultural Heritage OR Commercial Purpose-built 43/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

5. Key Notes  Digitization  Representation  Digitized Archives  Implications  Future of the Archive 53/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

6. All Digital All the Time “Organic is nice, but haven’t you got anything digital?” 63/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference Copyrighted New Yorker cartoon deleted

7. Working Assumptions  All digital all the time  Insatiable demand for digital content  Technological maturity  Pressure for scale and breadth  Permission granted to digitize 73/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

8. Motivation to Digitize “O.K., so I dig a hole and put the bone in the hole. But what’s my motivation for burying it?” 83/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference Copyrighted New Yorker cartoon deleted

9. Access Is a Given  Web is access by default  Purposes broader than delivery  Experimentation less pressing need  Prototyping and acceptable risk  Accessibility, not access, is the goal  An investment in persistence 93/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

10. What is Digitization? Digital products are the cumulative result of many decisions, small and large  Selection or reappraisal  Technical transformation  Text and image, in rich combinations  Metadata, derived and added  Assembly and interface re-presentation 103/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

11. Written in Stone? “Are these just guidelines, or are they actual new policies?” 113/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference Copyrighted New Yorker cartoon deleted

12. Guidelines for Digitization National Archives (2004) Library of Congress (2006) North Carolina (2007) Colorado (2008) 123/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

13. Common Post-Scan Decisions From Master to Access Versions: 1. Assign color profile (screen or print) 2. Adjust/Correct color 3. Adjust/Correct tone (histogram) 4. Crop /deskew 5. Reverse polarity (negative to positive) 6. Apply sharpen mask 7. Remove scanner and film effects 8. Resize for screen display (store master) [Conway 2008] 133/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

14. Pictorial Rendering Intent The photographic image is rendered. (As Is) – Match appearance of original The original appearance is rendered. (As Was) – Reverse aging (color fading, physical damage) The photographer’s goal is rendered. (As Desired) – Adjust for errors in exposure or processing The original scene is rendered. (As Seen) – Remove effects of intermediate [Frey & Reilly 1999/2006: 28-29] 143/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

15. Digitization Reference  Input versus Output  Replacement versus representation [Susstrunk 2002] 153/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

16. Perspectives on Products [Puglia & Rhodes 2007] 163/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

17. Perspectives on Transformation 1. Copying  Contrast with photocopying and microfilm 2. Faithful reproduction  Quality and integrity 3. Representation  New media communication “The trick … is to produce a new artifact which preserves those features of the original that are essential to the purposes for which the copy is being made.” [Levy 1998] 173/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

18. Representation “…representation is always of something or someone, by something or someone, to someone.”  Intentionality [camera | scanner]  Processes [darkroom | Photoshop]  Materiality [content | artifact] Digitizer User Digital Surrogate Document Axis of representation Axis of communication [W.J.T. Mitchell 1995] 183/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

19. Materiality and Meaning  Some meanings not translated into digital form [Koltun 1999]  Formerly joined – materiality and meaning now result in ‘ephemeral ghost’ [Sassoon 2004]  Photography and digitization share the “illusion of transparency and neutrality” [Schwartz 2000]  “Original” is fiction: surrogate may be superior [Mitchell 2003]  User behavior and experience are now key defining principles [Cameron 2007] 193/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

20. Remediation and Re-presentation “Our culture wants both to multiply its media and erase all traces of mediation…” [Bolter & Grusin 1996]  Transparency is goal  Hypermediacy: presence of old in new gives a sense of multiplicity  Technologies of rendering (making visible) are tools for mediating mediation “The materiality of the digital acts as a testimony to its own history and origin, and hence authenticity.” [Cameron 2007] 203/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

21. Archival Properties “With the doubloon, you’ve got the intrinsic value of the metal plus the numismatic considerations.” 213/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference Copyrighted New Yorker cartoon deleted

22. Archival Properties  Continuum of archival values added  Derived from source [significant properties]  Embedded through processes [recordness]  Validated by use [substitution]  At what point does the digitized become an archive?  Archivisation [Nesmith 2002]  Provenance [Cook 2001]  Integrity [Duranti 1995] 223/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

23. What is Preservation? Preservation is the creation of digital products worth maintaining over time. [Visual Telegraph, London to Deal, 1794] Values Transcendence Transparency Persistence Context 233/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

24. “I should have had him put into a more manageable format years ago.” Preservation in Repositories 243/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference Copyrighted New Yorker cartoon deleted

25. Implications for Operations  Subtleties of workflow  Guidelines for digital products  Communication of intent  Embracing flexible uses 253/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

26. Implications for Education  Archives and visual learning  Learning to manage uncertainty  Archives out of the box  Flirting with convergence  Embracing a theory of digitization for preservation 263/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

27. “I’ll be happy to give you innovative thinking. What are the guidelines?” Digitization, Preservation 273/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference Copyrighted New Yorker cartoon deleted

28. Future of the Archive  Beyond reproduction to representation  Beyond retrieval to significant uses  Beyond access to preservation  Transcendent applications  Transcendent: 1. Surpassing or excelling others of its kind; going beyond the ordinary limits; pre-eminent; superior or supreme; extraordinary. Also, loosely, eminently great or good; cf. ‘excellent’. 283/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference [OED, 2 nd ed.]

29. T HANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION. Paul Conway University of Michigan

30. References (1)  Association of Research Libraries. (2004) Recognizing Digitization as a Preservation Reformatting Method. http://www.arl.org/news/pr/digitization.shtmlhttp://www.arl.org/news/pr/digitization.shtml  Blouin, F. and W. Rosenberg (eds). (2005) Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory: Essays from the Sawyer Seminar. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.  Bolter, J. D. and R. Grusin. (1996) “Remediation.” Configurations 4 (3): 311-358.  Cameron, F. (2007) “Beyond the Cult of the Replicant: Museums and Historical Digital Objects – Traditional Concerns, New Discourses,” In Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage: A Critical Discourse, ed. by F. Cameron & S. Kenderdine, pp. 49- 75. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  Conway, P. (1996) Preservation in the Digital World. Washington, D.C.: Commission on Preservation and Access. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub62.htmlhttp://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub62.html  Conway, P. (2000) “Overview: Rationale for Digitization and Preservation.” In Handbook for Digital Conversion Projects: A Management Tool. Edited by Maxine Sitts. Andover, MA: Northeast Document Conservation Center. http://www.nedcc.org/digital/ii.htm http://www.nedcc.org/digital/ii.htm  Conway, P. (2008) “Best Practices for Digitizing Photographs: A Network Analysis of Influences.” Proceedings of IS&T’s Archiving 2008, Imaging Science & Technology, Berne, Switzerland, June 24-27. 303/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

31. References (2)  Cook, T. (1994) “Electronic Records, Paper Minds: The Revolution in Information Management and Archives in the Post-Custodial and Post Modernist Era,” Archives & Manuscripts 22 (2): 300-329.  Cook, T. (2001) “Fashionable Nonsense or Professional Rebirth: Postmodernism and the Practice of Archives,” Archivaria 51 (Spring): 14-35.  Duranti, L. (1995) “Reliability and Authenticity: The Concepts and Their Implications,” Archivaria 39 (Spring): 5-10.  Eichhorn, K. (2008) “Archival Genres: Gathering Texts and Reading Spaces,” Invisible Culture 12 (May 2008).  Erway, R. and J. Schaffner. (2007) Shifting gears: Gearing up to get into the flow. Dublin, OH: OCLC. http://www.oclc.org/programs/publications/reports/2007-02.pdfhttp://www.oclc.org/programs/publications/reports/2007-02.pdf  Frey, F. S. and J. M. Reilly. (1999/2006) Digital imaging for photographic collections: Foundations for technical standards. Rochester: Image Permanence Institute.  Folsom, E. (2007) “Database as Genre: The Epic Transformation of Archives,” PMLA 122 (5): 1571-1579.  Koltun, L. (1999) “The promise and threat of digital options in an archival age,” Archivaria 47 (Spring): 114-135.  313/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

32. References (3)  Levy, D. (1998) “Heroic Measures: Reflections on the Possibility and Purpose of Digital Preservation,” Proceedings of Digital Libraries ’98, Association of Computing Machinery.  Mitchell, W.J.T. (1995) “Representation,” In Critical terms for literary study, 2 nd Ed., ed. F. Lentricchia and T. McLaughlin, 11-22. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  Mitchell, W.J.T. (2003) “The Work of Art in the Age of Biocybernetic Reproduction,” Modernism / modernity 10 (3): 481-500.  Nesmith, T. (2002) “Seeing Archives: Postmodernism and the Changing Intellectual Place of Archives,” American Archivist 65 (Spring/Summer): 24-41.  Puglia S. and E. Rhodes. (2007) “Digital Imaging – How far have we come and what still needs to be done?” RLG DigiNews 11 (15 April).  Ross, S. (2007) Digital preservation, archival science and methodological foundations for digital libraries, Keynote Address at the 11th European Conference on Digital Libraries, Budapest (17 September). www.ecdl2007.org/Keynote_ECDL2007_SROSS.pdf www.ecdl2007.org/Keynote_ECDL2007_SROSS.pdf  Sassoon, J. (2004) “Photographic Materiality in the Age of Digital Reproduction.” In E. Edwards, ed., Photographs, Objects, Histories, 186-202. London: Routledge. 323/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference

33. References (4)  Schwartz, J. M. (2000) “’Records of simple truth and precision:’ Photography, archives, and the illusion of control,” Archivaria 50 (Fall): 1-41.  Stoler, A. L. (2002) “Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance: On the Content in the Form,” Archival Science 2, no. 1-2: 87-109.  Süsstrunk, S. (2002) “Managing Colour in Digital Libraries,” In Colour Engineering: Achieving Device Independent Colour, London: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  Yeo, G. (2008) “Concepts of Record (2): Prototypes and Boundary Objects,” American Archivist 71 (Spring/Summer): 118-143. 333/26/200923rd Annual Preservation Conference