Moving the Archivist Closer to the Creator: Implementing Integrated Archival Policies for Born Digital Photography at Colleges and Universities

Abstract

This article discusses integrated approaches to the management and preservation of born digital photography. It examines the changing practices among photographers, and the needed relationships between the photographers using digital technology and the archivists responsible for acquiring their born digital images. Special consideration is given to technical issues surrounding preservation and access of image formats. It explores how integrated policies can enhance the success of managing born digital photographs in an academic setting and illustrates the benefits and challenges to acquisition, description, and dissemination of born digital photographs. It advocates for the archivist's active involvement in the photographer's image management practices to improve the acquisition and preservation of images.

KEYWORDS:

• digital photography
• born digital records
• raw image format
• academic archives

Notes

1. Tiffany Hsu, “Kodak Files for Long-Expected Chapter 11 Bankruptcy,” Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2012 (accessed March 15, 2012). Available at http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/20/business/la-fi-kodak-bankrupt-20120120.

2. William E. Brown, Jr. and Elizabeth Yakel, “Redefining the Role of College and University Archives in the Information Age,” American Archivist 59 (1996): 275.

3. Susan E. Davis, “Electronic Records Planning in “Collecting” Repositories,” American Archivist 71 (2008): 185.

4. Lisl Zach and Marcia Frank Peri, “Practices for College and University Electronic Records Management (ERM) Programs: Then and Now,” American Archivist 73 (2010): 122.

5. Jackie M. Dooley, Katherine Luce, and OCLC Research, Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives (Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Research, 2010), 13.

6. Ibid., 61.

7. Ibid., 101.

8. Dorothea Salo, “Innkeeper at the Roach Motel,” Library Trends 57 (2008): 99.

9. Karen Markey, Soo Young Rieh, Beth St. Jean, Jihyuun Kim, and Elizabeth Yakel, Census of Institutional Repositories in the United States: MIRACLE Project Research Findings, (Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2007), 79.

10. Jessica Bushey, “He Shoots, He Stores: New Photographic Practice in the Digital Age,” Archivaria 65 (2008): 127.

11. Patricia Russotti and Richard Anderson, Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow Handbook, (Burlington, MA: Focal Press, 2010), 8–27.

12. Camera raw is also conventionally referred to as Raw or RAW, but it is not an acronym.

13. Jessica Elaine Bushey, “Born Digital Images as Reliable as Authentic Records” (master's thesis, University of British Columbia, 2005), accessed March 15, 2012), http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc = ip1-2_dissemination_thes_bushey_ubc-slais_2005.pdf.

14. Michael Reichmann and Juergen Specht, “The Raw Flaw,” accessed March15, 2012, http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/raw-flaw.shtml.

15. Philip Andrews, Yvonne Butler, and Joe Farace, Raw Workflow from Capture to Archives: A Complete Digital Photographer's Guide to Raw Imaging (Oxford, UK: Focal Press, 2006), 6.

16. Michael J. Bennett and F. Barry Wheeler, “Raw as Archival Still Images Format: A Consideration,” UConn Libraries Published Works Paper 23, accessed March 15, 2012, http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/libr_pubs/23/.

17. The OpenRAW working group has been advocating for a Raw format that is even more open and comprehensive than the current DNG format. It does not feel DNG is a fully open and documented format as Adobe purports. See http://www.openraw.org/about/index.html (accessed March 15, 2012).

18. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Negative (accessed March 15, 2012).

19. These are sometimes referred to as “buddy” files.

20. Bennett and Wheeler, “Raw as Archival Still Images Format,” 7.

21. Richard Anderson, “Should I Convert to DNG?” DPBestFlow.org, accessed March 15, 2012, http://dpbestflow.org/NODE/570.

22. Memory card capacity for a Nikon D7000 camera, accessed March 15, 2012, http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d7000/features03.htm.

23. “Raw vs. Rendered,” accessed March 15, 2012, http://dpbestflow.org/camera/raw-vs-rendered#tiff.

24. Russotti and Anderson, Digital Photography Best Practices, 46–49.

25. It has been reported that rotating some image formats, and even checking the properties of an image, can permanently change or destroy the EXIF data. See: “Nikon Also Warn About Windows XP,” dpreview.com, accessed March 15, 2012, http://www.dpreview.com/news/2001/12/14/nikonxpwarnings. See also, Peter Krogh, “Metadata Handling,” DPBestFlow.org, accessed Mar 15, 2012, http://dpbestflow.org/metadata/metadata-handling#durability.

26. See http://dpbestflow.org/image-editing/catalog-pieware.

27. “Final Report on Activities Related to ARTstor's NDIPP Grant: Preserving Digital Still Images,” Available at http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/partners/documents/ARTstor_FinalReport020311.pdf

28. Chris Prom, “Making Digital Curation a Systematic Institutional Function,” The International Journal of Digital Curation 6, no. 1 (2011): 139–152, accessed March 15, 2012, http://ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/viewFile/169/237.

29. For example, Michael Forstrom's “Managing Electronic Records in Manuscript Collections: A Case Study from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,” American Archivist 72 (2009), 460–477, is an excellent case study on managing born digital collections, and he reviews literature of other prominent case studies.

30. Ben Goldman, “Bridging the Gap: Taking Practical Steps Toward Managing Born-Digital Collections in Manuscript Repositories,” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage 12 (2011): 16.

31. Prom, “Making Digital Curation,” 142–143.

32. ”University at Albany University Digital Image Database Proof-of-Concept Project Charter,” November 16, 2007.

33. Jeffrey Warda, The AIC Guide to Digital Photography and Conservation Documentation (Washington, DC: American Institute for Conservation, 2011), 85.

34. The Dublin Core standard is widely used by libraries and archives, and provides for easier interoperability and flexibility.

35. For example, the Web site SmugMug.com contains the born digital images of numerous colleges and universities. In an e-mail from John Edens, January 17, 2012, he explains that University at Buffalo's Creative Services are housing current photos as well as some historic photos online through SmugMug.com, and the UB University Archives are looking at solutions to preserve the images once they are no longer needed for their current uses online.

36. The Tufts University Archives contain born digital photos from 2005 to 2010. See, http://dl.tufts.edu/view_collection.jsp?pid=tufts:UA069.006.DO.UA206 (accessed March 15, 2012)

37. Bennett and Wheeler, “Raw as Archival.”

38. Ibid.

39. Zach and Peri, “Practices for College,” 122.