This talk was given by Ricc Ferrante of the Smithsonian Institution Archives during the joint NISO-NFAIS Virtual Conference held on December 7, 2016.

1. Durable Access to Digital
Primary Sources
Ricc Ferrante
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Presented at NISO 2016Virtual Conference
Making CertainDigital Content is Preserved: Archiving Digital Resources

2. 170 years: Increasing and diffusing knowledge
The Archives holdsrecords that document the Smithsonian’speople,
events, buildings,and research.The history of the Smithsonianis a vital
part of the historyofAmerican experience,scientificexploration,and
internationalcultural understanding.
The Archives collectionsincludeInstitutionalrecords,personaland
organizationalpapers.

4. James Smithson Engraving
Smithsonian Institution Archives, RecordUnit 95, Box 21, Folder 1

5. SI Building from the Northeast with Flowers Along Mall, by Russell, Andrew J, c. 1858,
SmithsonianArchives - History Div, 9748-A or MAH-9748A.

6. Rocket Row, byUnknown, 1959,
SmithsonianArchives - History Div, 73-7185

7. Buddha draped inrobes portraying the Realms of Existence,
Freer Gallery of Art, Purchase –Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1923.15

8. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Image ID: SIA2010-0338
From left to right: Ronald Winston, son of jeweler HarryWinston, Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, Secretary
Carmichael, letter carrier James G.Todd, Harry’s wife Edna, and Secretary Carmichael at the National Museum of Natural
History.

9. Smithsonian Institution Archives, RecordUnit 158, United States National Museum, Curators' Annual Reports
National Gallery ofArt, 1919-1920

10. General log and notes on Persian Gulf and Jeddah (Jidda)onthe Red Sea, Donald S. ErdmanPapers, 1948,
Smithsonian Institution Archives, RecordUnit 7084.

11. Partial digital file listing from Devra G. Kleiman Papers, 1967 – 2010,
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 11-124

12. Exposing Collections & Access
• New expectationsofcatalogsand finding aids
• Online catalogs and finding aids link to online digital surrogates
• One-at-a-time reading room access to 24/7remote access
• Full Accessrequires complete collections
• Devra G. Kleiman Papers, 1967-2010
• Paper, audio, video, born digital
• Databases, digital video & animation, websites,
manuscripts, presentations, reports,
custom programs & scripts
• Deep access
• Data mining , similar strategies
• Strategies that work across multipleholdings
• Open access

13. Digital Curation at the Archives
• A Digital PreservationApproach
• Analog holdings
• prioritized and digitized at or above FADGI standards
• Born digital holdings
• Combined strategy of format migration and emulation
• Begins at accession or before
• Collection enrichment – crowdsourcing transcriptions

14. Digitized and Born Digital History
• Growth ofSIA’s born digital holdingsreflectthe expandingrole of
computers in society
• Originallyhighlyspecialized,computersare nowintegral to the way we create and
communicate knowledge,to howwe record history
• In 2003, the Electronic RecordsProgram wasestablished dedicated resourcesto
care for and preserve SIA’s growing body ofhigh risk primary source material
• Since the mid 1990’s, over 21TB of primary source material accessioned and
preserved following anOAISReference Model workflow

15. Digitization
• Dedicated in-house resourcesassignedin 2008
• Supplemented with internsand volunteers
• Target collectionsprioritizedbyuse, value and condition
• DigitizationspecificationsexceedFADGI standards
• Accessderivatives created from digital preservationmasters
• Progress since2008
• Over 700,000 imagesdigitized
• On pace to reach 1M imagesdigitized in Summer 2017.

16. Projects
• RecordUnit 1, Board of Regents Meeting Minutes, 1846 -
• RecordUnit 158, Curators Annual Reports, 1881 - 1964
• RecordUnit 305, U.S.National Museum, AccessionRecords1820 - 1958
• The Field Book Project: Establishingitem-level intellectualcontrol,
catalogingofprimary source material, various locations

17. The face of durable access
• BroaderAccess
• High quality digital surrogates
• 24/7 remote access
• Additional accessthrough aggregatorslike DPLA & Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Deep access
• Full text searchability and data mining
• OpenAccess

18. The results of durable access
• CollectionsStewardship
• Extended lifespan of holdings
• Increasingly “light archives” ofborn digital holdings
• Enriched collections
• Examples inScholarship& Research
• Reexamination ofthe methodology ofDyar’s Law
• On demand reviewof governance history and precedents
• Identification and improved documentationofimportant figuresand
organizations

19. Final comments
• Digital holdingstakemany formsfor whichdurable accessis essential.
• The variety of formats and uses mandatesa collaborativeeffort
• Good stewardship requires us to thinkbeyond digitizationfor
immediate use and to planfor sustained preservation and access