EMu and Archives

1. EMu and Archives Experiences from the Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation

2. Goals • Share our experiences in managing archival collections with EMu • Identify items of potential common interest • Discuss and learn from others in the EMu community

3. Overview • Archival Collections at CSTMC • What is an archive? • Using EMu to manage archives • Challenges and lessons learned

4. About the Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation

5. Archival collections at CSTMC

6. Archival collections

11. Archival access projects • Several photographic collections digitized for public access • Popular Web site features • Earlier initiatives stored in MS Access databases • Current initiative using data in KE EMu

15. What is an archive? • Archival records are the products of everyday activity • Archives are the non-current records of individuals, groups, institutions, and governments • Formats may include photographs, films, video, sound recordings, computer tapes, unpublished letters, diaries, and other manuscripts • Each archival object exists as part of a group

16. Why are archives important? • Researchers use them both for their administrative value and for purposes other than those for which they were created • Used for many different reasons • Open to the ingenuity of the researcher

17. How does an archive differ from other collections? • Library collections consist mainly of distinct published works • Museum artifact collections are generally distinct, “3-D” objects • Archival collections are unique groupings of material in the context in which they were produced • With an archival collection, the sum is greater than the parts

18. Structure of an archival collection

19. CSTMC’s Archives in EMu Catalogue disciplines: Artifact Inventory Archive Engineering Drawing Photograph Trade Literature

20. Archives discipline • Hierarchical • Arranged respecting the original structure of the fonds or collection • Modeled on Rules for Archival Description (RAD) • Allows us to catalogue as deep as resources allow • Can account for a wide range of materials

21. Archival fields and tabs

22. Other disciplines that manage archival collections • Photographs, Engineering Drawings, Trade Literature • Structure is flat (no hierarchy) • While many are photos, may accommodate other types of media

23. Flat in structure… P000001 P000002 P000003 P000004 P000005 P000006 . . . P049998 P049999 P050000 P050001 P050002 P050003 P050004 P050005

24. Customized fields and tabs

25. Three archival initiatives at CSTMC • Digitizing and presenting historic image collections (mainly photographs) for public access • Documenting and cataloguing archival collections as a whole • Capturing institutional memory

26. 1. Historic image collections for public access • Current initiative is using our "photograph" discipline in the Catalogue • This is one of our “flat” archival disciplines • Objective is to make collections available to a wide audience, not to fully document the archival collections in question

27. 2. Documenting and cataloguing archival collections as a whole • Hierarchical (based on RAD) • May go in-depth, or stay at the top level for now • Intended to allow us to go to the level of detail we can manage, given resources • Make existing finding aids (documents) available and searchable as multimedia attachments

28. Archival finding aids

29. Archives in EMu

30. 3. Capturing institutional memory

31. Institutional memory: where to catalogue? (a) photograph discipline (flat) (b) in archives discipline (hierarchical) (c) multimedia attachments in events module (d) somewhere else?

32. Institutional memory in EMu

33. Challenges and lessons learned

34. Access control • Often have volunteers and short-term staff involved in cataloguing projects • Such staff are not EMu experts – we need to carefully manage what they are able to edit • Record level access should help

35. Limitations in our implementation • Search limitations of our Archival hierarchy • For example, may be difficult to search for all objects in a Fonds, given our structure • May need to adjust implementation

36. Subject terminology • Multiple sets of terminology – no universal controlled vocabulary • New archival cataloguing is loosely based on Library of Congress • Cataloguing by volunteers is a challenge (they know the material, but are not cataloguers)

37. Digital Asset Management • Many reasons to digitize • Born digital vs. digitized • Digital preservation • Capturing and managing metadata • Managing licensing and commercial use • Is EMu the best repository? • Noted that other EMu Users are also working in this area

38. References • Rules for Archival Description (RAD)http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca/archdesrules.html • “Basic RAD”http://scaa.usask.ca/rad/ • Society of American Archivistshttp://www.archivists.org

39. Discussion

40. Contact Brian Dawson Director, Informatics Services Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation Ottawa, Ontario Phone: (613) 991-1340 E-mail: bdawson@technomuses.ca Web: http://technomuses.ca