This guide is written for librarians, archivists and other information specialists who have a need to manage born-digital content. The premise is that inaction is a risk with the management of born-digital content and that those professionals dealing with born-digital content need to go beyond what is on the screen. This book addresses a range of topics associated with the life cycle of born-digital content. It also looks at older born-digital content stored on physical devices as well as more modern storage. The authors encourage digital content managers to get stuck in, start playing with content and learning on the job. Discussion does not assume prior knowledge, and a technical background is not needed to use this guide.
Chapters cover topics such as digital information basic such as file formats, storage media and repository code, selection, acquisitions, accessing and ingesting content, description of content including metadata for bibliographic, archival and repository systems, preservation and storage strategies, and methods of access including examination of issues like privacy, digital rights management and discovery. There are pointers on developing policies such as preservation policy and designing and developing workflows. Finally, there is discussion on emerging trends and technologies in the area. The book can be read and used as a complete guide, or sections of it can be used to address particular topics. For example, the comparison of descriptive standards for digital content provided in the guide can be used to inform a decision on how to describe content in a particular situation.
The authors treat each topic thoroughly, from methods of extracting data from old devices such as hard drives and floppy discs, as well as dealing with network born materials including email and web site capture. Chapters are easy to follow, and explanations are clear and well able to be understood. There is a useful glossary of terminology, a resource list for further investigation and an appendix containing, among other tools, a list of basic UNIX command line prompts.
This book is an excellent guide to all things born digital – selection, acquisition, description, storage, access, policies and workflows. It is useful to everyone who works with content born digital which in 2018 is all of us. It is a great resource and is highly recommended.