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Why Can’t I Read This File? Born-Digital Challenges at the Smithsonian Institution Archives<br />Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig<br />Mid-Atlantic Regional <br />Archives Conference <br />Fall 2011, Bethlehem, PA<br />

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Smithsonian Institution Archives’ Mission<br /><ul><li> Appraise, acquire, </li></ul>and preserve<br /><ul><li> Offer a range of research and reference services

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Create and promote products and services that broaden the understanding of the Smithsonian

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Provide professional archival and conservation expertise</li></ul>Above, a collection storage area for the Smithsonian Institution Archives, located on the third floor of Capital Gallery West. Upper left, in 1894 a room on the fourth floor, East Wing of the Smithsonian Institution Building, was converted for use as the Smithsonian Institution Archives. <br />

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SI Archives Digital Services Division<br />Curate and preserve born-digital collections<br />Digitize images, video, and audio<br />Research digital preservation issues<br />Promote the archives through web and outreach<br />SIA Accession 11-124<br />

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Born-digital records that document the Smithsonian’s history<br /><ul><li> Text

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Images

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Drawings/CAD

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Databases and spreadsheets

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Audio

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Video

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Websites and social media

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Email accounts</li></ul>Many part of mixed collection of paper and electronic<br />Removable media <br />or server/ftp transfer<br />SIA Accession 11-281<br />

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SI Archives’ procedures<br /><ul><li>Inspect media

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Virus scan

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Conduct transfer</li></ul>/ingest with checksums<br /><ul><li> Make copy

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Analyze files for </li></ul>formats and issues<br /><ul><li> Convert proprietary </li></ul>files to <br />preservation formats<br />

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Current preservation formats<br />MS Word/WordPerfect PDF/A or PDF<br />PowerPoint, Excel PDF/A or PDF<br />GIF, JPG, BMP, etc. TIF<br />Access databases SIARD XML<br />Audio WAV/BWF<br />Websites crawled and captured as WARC <br />Email saved to XML following CERP/EMCAP preservation schema<br />Born-digital video not straight-forward. Different options<br />Digitized video Motion JPG2000 <br />

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Tools for processing<br />Open source and proprietary software<br />Jhove, Droid, FITS (FITS is also a format)<br />MediaInfo<br />In-house batch scripts<br />Duke Data Accessioner<br />Evaluating Curator’s Workbench<br />CERP (SIA-Rockefeller Archive Center) parser<br />

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Files in disguise<br /><ul><li> No extension – right click to open in Notepad to see coding, especially helpful with WordPerfect

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Wrong extension – .doc could be a Word or it could be WordPerfect</li></ul>BMP that is a JPG<br /><ul><li> Complete unknowns that date back 20 years or more</li></ul>Accession 10-052<br />

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Older files<br />Gerber <br />PCD (Kodak Photo CD)<br />EXE (Executables)<br />Gerber overlay, by AA7JC, Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.<br />

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DATs (Digital Audio Tapes)<br />Transfer them now, if you can!<br />Machine production ended<br />Tapes susceptible to fungus, other problems<br />DAT recorded in 1990 <br />for the Folk Masters radio program. <br />SIA Accession 06-106<br />

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It Says It Is PDF/A<br />Accession 08-149<br />

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But It’s Not PDF/A<br />

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Software incompatibility issues<br />

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New formats/flavors/technologies<br />Geospatial PDF <br />WWF – PDF that doesn’t print<br />Keep an eye <br />on mobile sites/apps<br />3D scanning and printing <br />- Point clouds<br />

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Digital forensics<br />

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Resources for formats<br />Sustainability of Digital Formats – Library of Congress<br />http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats<br />Pronom – The National Archives in the UK<br />http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/Default.aspx<br />Unified Digital Formats Registry – Expected date of operation 2012<br />http://www.udfr.org/<br />FILExt – File Extension Source<br />http://filext.com/<br />TrID – File Identifier<br />http://mark0.net/soft-trid-e.html<br />

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Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig<br />Digital Services Division<br />schmitzfuhrigl@si.edu<br />Smithsonian Institution Archives website:<br />http://siarchives.si.edu<br />