A presentation about the challenges of long term digital preservation of CAD, Digital Audio Tapes, digital videotapes, websites, social media, email, text documents, and images at the Smithsonian Institution Archives. Given by Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig, Electronic Archivist, at the Smithsonian Institution Digitization Fair held in Washington, DC in 2010.

1. Preserving Digital Materials at the Smithsonian Institution ArchivesLynda Schmitz FuhrigElectronic Records Archivist

2. Long-term digital preservationMore than 350 accessions contain electronic records in a variety of types including video, sound, images, databases, applications, websites, and text. These range from exhibit planning documents to unit handbooks to conference images. One collection can contain thousands of filesFiles arrive via removable media or file transferGoal is to ensure authenticity, integrity, and accessibilityUse best practices and accepted archival standards Use formats that are open, lossless, and widely accepted. Proprietary formats, i.e., Microsoft Word and WordPerfect are problematicDocument all processing steps including virus scans and checksumsPerform full-level preservation as much as possible. Bit preservation at minimum for files we cannot convert or emulate.Original files always maintainedImages and video are the top types in terms of sizeFiles kept on backed-up SIA servers, LTO tapes

3. CAD – Computer assisted designA 2-D CAD drawing of an aerial view of the plan for the National Museum of the American Indian, 2003. View in AutoCAD proprietary software. SIA Accession 06-012

4. Same 2-D CAD drawing preserved as a PDF file. SIA Accession 06-012

5. Digital audio tapes Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks OrchestraLena HorneJazz Smithsonian Radio Broadcast with Lena Horne, “A Spanish Tinge,” 1997All clips from SIA Accession 04-062Introduction by David Baker, SMJO“Manteca” performed by SMJOUsing DAT machine on loan from Smithsonian Folkways to conduct digital-to-digital transfersAudio files being preserved as WAV/Broadcast WAV

6. Digital Video “The Colbert Report – National Treasure: Portrait of Stephen” videoSIA Accession 10-111NASM Udvar-Hazy Center preview video SIA Accession 04-055Digital A/V files are huge and complex

7. Preservation tools and formats/codecs not as straightforward as other types.

8. We also have been digitizing our video historiesSI Websites and social mediaArchiving SI websites since the late 1990s through a variety of methodsNow using open-source archival crawler Heritrix and other tools for social media captures

9. Email collections Conducted three-year grant-funded project to study techniques for long-term preservation of email collectionsResulted in tools and procedures now in use at SI Archives

10. ImagesRoxie C. Laybourne, a pioneering forensic scientist at the Smithsonian Institution,examines aircraft parts. SIA Accession 04-086Exhibition photograph from the National Portrait Gallery’s “Champions of American Sport.”SIA Accession 09-066Original formats include GIF, JPG, EPS, TIF, PCD, etc.Accepted preservation format currently is TIF. Smithsonian American Art Museum staff paints the “Wall of Expression” in commemoration of Sept. 11, 2001.SIA Accession 03-127

11. Text documents MS Word document from SIA Accession 02-094WordPerfect document from SIA Accession 95-052Rich Text Format (RTF) document from SIA Accession 06-058Numerous word-processing files and spreadsheetsPreservation format is PDF/A or PDF