Digital Archives Project

AMIA Conference

Miwa Yokoyama, Digital Project Manager

Friday, November 8, 2013

Background on Archives

Old Archives Space New Archives Space

ZERO to DAMS

• What does starting from zero mean for CH?

– Had some basic description and metadata in Access databases

– Finding Aids and OPAS Database

– Development wanted Archives to apply for grants

Digital Archives Project

• What exactly is the DAP?

o Conservation and Digitization

o Setting up a new DAMS

o Establish digital preservation procedures

• July 2012 – July 2015

Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation

Photo courtesy of The MediaPreserve

Photo courtesy of NEDCC

Photo courtesy of Colorlab

Planning

1. Hired a consultant

2. Researched best practices

3. Prioritized collections (assessment)

o Timeline and budget

4. Hired a Digital Project Manager

5. Formed a core team of advisors

6. Estimated a production schedule

Digitization • Preparing materials

o Inventories and basic item-level description

• Write an SOW to spell out your specifications and requirements

• How to best ship materials

Photo courtesy of The MediaPreserve

Photo courtesy of Colorlab Photo courtesy of Colorlab

Working with Vendors

• Asked for recommendations from colleagues

• Sent out RFP

• Selected a vendor that fits for your project

• Be clear about your expectations for customer service and deadlines

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions

Photo courtesy of Colorlab

Photo courtesy of NEDCC

DAMS Selection

Step 1: Gathered Requirements (6 months)

– Who will your users be?

– How many assets will the DAMS support?

• Digitized assets

• Born-digital assets

– What functions are must-haves?

– Storage Architecture Requirements

– Other technical requirements

DAMS Selection cont’d

Step 2: Came up with a shortlist of possible vendors that might fit

Step 3: Wrote a Request for Proposals

Step 4: Reviewed and Ranked Vendors

Step 5: Demo-ed top 2 or 3

Step 6: Decision Making

Taxonomy Development

• Established an internal working group

• Need for a unified terminology

• Research and Development

• GOAL – document of controlled vocabulary

• Work in progress, needs monitoring

Next Steps

• Hand over assets and data to vendor

• RFP for second primary storage

• YEAR 2 Digitization

• Develop and Implement Taxonomy

• Design public portal site

• Develop digital preservation policies

• Apply for more grants

DAP YEAR ONE • Digitized o 1294 audio recordings o 2 film collections o 833 videotapes o 35,000+ pages

• Set up a digital media station

• Selected a DAMS • Secured 440TB storage

onsite

Lessons Learned…so far

• Be flexible with your timeline

– Things will take longer than you expect!

• Become friendly with your IT Department and ask questions

• Articulate your expectations to vendors

• Use time-saving tools

• Need organizational support for buy-in

• Advocate for your DAM project

Thank you! • Questions? Contact myokoyama@carnegiehall.org or

Archives@carnegiehall.org

• http://www.carnegiehall.org/digitalarchivesproject/