The document discusses the University of Notre Dame Archives' transition to digitizing and curating photograph collections in response to increased remote access during COVID-19. It provides background on the Archives' history and collections. It then describes the Archives' previous process of digitizing photographs on demand for in-person researchers. During COVID, the Archives began digitizing entire collections in anticipation of remote requests. The document outlines the Archives' implementation of the Preservica digital preservation system to manage digital assets through defined workflows, including the workflow developed for digitized analog photographs.

1. “Curation-Ready”
Workflows for
Digitized Photograph
Collections
A Temporary Need or the New Norm?
Elizabeth Hogan and Scott Kirycki
University of Notre Dame Archives
VRA 2021 - March 26, 2021

2. Brief Notre Dame Archives History
Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., Founder of Notre Dame (1842-1893)
• University Charter granted by the State of Indiana on January 15, 1844
• Early museum acquisitions for teaching
James Farnham Edwards (1876-1911)
• Arrived as a student in 1859 at age nine, remained on as history professor and
librarian after completing collegiate studies at Notre Dame
• Early interest in collecting material of the Catholic hierarchy in America
• Bishops Memorial Hall
Rev. Thomas McAvoy, C.S.C. (1929-1969)
• Continued collecting Catholic materials, less focus on institutional history
Dr. Wendy Clauson Schlereth (1978-2015)
• Formalized Records Management Program under the influence of Rev. Thomas
Blantz, C.S.C., University Archivist between Fr. McAvoy and Dr. Schlereth
• Hired a photograph archivist in 1983 and exponentially grew the collections

3. Notre Dame Archives Collections
Collection Policy
• University administrative records acquired through the Records Management
Program
• Personal and professional papers of those connected to Notre Dame, with
emphasis on materials that document the history of Notre Dame through a
different lens than that of the administrative records
• Papers and records of Catholic clergy, lay people, and organizations that
document the development of the Catholic Church and its people in the United
States, especially Catholic higher education, publishing, religious orders, and
social action
Nearly 1600 distinct collections
About 600 of those collections contain over one million analog photographs, artwork,
and graphical ephemera such as postcards
Nearly two million born-digital photographs and graphic design files

4. Patrons Using the Photograph
Collections
Campus departments, particularly graphic designers and media producers
• Development
• Athletics: Fighting Irish Media
• Alumni Association
General public
• Genealogy
• Artwork
Local and national news and media outlets
National and international scholars creating books, articles, and documentaries
Notre Dame faculty and students

5. Digital Preservation
• Digital preservation is the management and protection of digital information to
ensure authenticity, integrity, reliability, and long-term accessibility
• Digital preservation represents the utilization of management activities,
strategies, best practices and standards, and policies and procedures to
guarantee ongoing access to digitized and born-digital information, despite the
challenges of technological change, media deterioration, hardware/software
obsolescence, human error, and intentional harm. Digital preservation efforts
seek to provide accurate and authentic rendering of content, while ensuring its
future functionality and usability over time.
Dictionary of Archives Terminology, s.v. "digital preservation," accessed March 11, 2021,
dictionary.archivists.org/entry/digital-preservation.html.

6. What is Digital Curation?
• Digital curation refers to the actions taken to select, manage, preserve, and add
value to digital data throughout its lifecycle
Dictionary of Archives Terminology, s.v. "digital curation," accessed March 11, 2021,
dictionary.archivists.org/entry/digital-curation.html
• Digital curation builds upon the underlying concepts of digital preservation whilst
emphasizing opportunities for added value and knowledge through annotation
and continuing resource management. Preservation is a curation activity,
although both are concerned with managing digital resources with no significant
(or only controlled) changes over time.
Glossary of Social Science Terms, s.v. “Digital Curation,” accessed March 11, 2021,
https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/cms/2042

7. Digitization Process before Covid
• Vast majority of researchers are remote due to the national audience of Notre
Dame and nature of the Catholic collections
• Digitizing on demand, as materials are requested
• Rarely digitizing full collections
• Already digitizing to FADGI 3 & 4 star level and saving the files for reuse in the 5-
10 years up to covid
• http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/
• Digitized materials are stored on a tape library maintained by the Office of
Information Technology that is backed up in geographically diverse locations
• The photos previously digitized fulfill the needs of ~80% of patrons
• Patrons who did visit the reading room usually only looked through the
database of digitized images (only available in the reading room)

8. Tools to Manage Digital Photos
Photoshop
• Straighten, crop, edit digitized images
• Create contact sheets of images for patron preview
• Resize for patron use
Adobe Bridge
• Embed descriptive metadata
• View images in folders
• Search has limited capabilities
Teracopy (https://www.codesector.com/teracopy)
• Verifies checksums when copying files to and from storage location
Extensis Portfolio, single-client desktop version
• Great digital asset management software, but….
• Became unsupported in 2014, starting to get glitchy
• Not collaborative with fellow Archives’ staff
• Will not work with new tape library storage application

9. Digitization and Digital
Preservation changes started about
a year before Covid
Preservica
• The Archives is in the midst of a multi-year process to build out our digital
preservation infrastructure
• One part of that infrastructure is a third-party, cloud-based Digital Preservation
System (DPS) called Preservica https://preservica.com/
Renovation of Off-Site Warehouse
• When completed, many collections will no longer be readily at hand
• Digitization becomes increasingly important for long-term efficiencies
Early Retirement Incentive Program
• Lost about 40% of University Archives staff that won’t be replaced 1:1
• Most seasoned, experienced staff retires

10. Digital Preservation System
Implementation
What is a DPS?
A Digital Preservation System integrates digital preservation processes and activities
in defined and managed workflows to ensure that digital content can be read and
used over time. It
• maintains file authenticity and provenance with fixity checking and audit trails
• offers the option of migrating files to newer formats while securely retaining the original file
and format
• automates health checks and integrity checks to protect against data loss and corruption
What is it not?
• not simply a backup of data
• not a Digital Asset Manager or primarily an access platform although it may have an access
module or be integrated with access platforms

11. Preservica Implementation
Establish and test written digital preservation workflows for photos and audio-visual
materials
Team
• Angela Fritz (Head of Archives)
• Elizabeth Hogan (Senior Archivist for Photographs)
• Erik Dix (Senior Archivist for Audio-Visual Material)
• Scott Kirycki (Digital Archivist)
Process
• meetings
• shared documents
• individual research on topics and bring the results back to the group

12. Testing Preservica
Content for tests
• Our collections include many types of digital and digitized photos and A/V
material created at different times and in different ways
• Although the materials have similarities, they also have significant differences
• The team concluded it was best to systematically approach each type with its
own workflow rather than try for a one-size-fits-all workflow
• We started with a workflow for digitized photos

13. Testing Preservica
Why start with a workflow for digitized photos?
• Existing experience of remote requests – requests were going to increase
• Storage amounts and file size
• Metadata availability
• Move away from aging software
• Gearing up for a more potentially public-facing tool, Elizabeth digitized
slightly more, knowing that the photos would be more accessible
• Also digitizing more because of talk of moving more collections off-site

14. Digitization and Digital
Preservation changes during Covid
• Didn’t have access to the physical collections between March 18 - June 23rd
• Requests diminished because everyone’s work was disturbed
• Couldn’t help a lot of patrons when completely shut down
• Development routinely asks for photos of individuals (donors/potential
donors) that haven’t been requested in the past
• Print services on hold
• June 23rd - August 3rd back to the office 1-2 days a week, the digitization strategy
changed
• Previously, we wouldn’t scan things until we had payment and paperwork
• Digitized in anticipation of requests that had started, but final image selections
hadn’t been made yet
• Established Covid Workbook to track outstanding digitization requests to
justify time in office

15. Digitization and Digital
Preservation changes during Covid
• Fall Semester started early on August 10th. Back in the office 50% of the time
• Creating more photocopies than usual to service researchers, particularly campus
staff who normally would come into the reading room
• Takes more time than it would to pull a file and send it to the reading room
• As time became extended in the office, decreased the amount of extra scanning,
but is still trying to anticipate selections in order to meet patron deadlines

16. Workflow - Digitized Analog
Photos
Embed
descriptive
metadata
Create access
copy with edits
to levels and
colors
Digitize
photographs
Extract
descriptive and
technical
metadata
Send files to
working space
for Preservica
Add additional
fields to csv

17. Workflow - Metadata in Bridge

18. Workflow - Keywords in Bridge

19. Workflow - Metadata Exported to
CSV
Metadata extraction tools
Exiftool - https://exiftool.org/
Metadata Deluxe - http://metadatadeluxe.pbworks.com/

20. Workflow - Preservica Ingest
Create a project in the
Preparation and
Upload (PUT) Tool
Upload preservation
masters to Preservica
holding area
On the working
space, create
.metadata files
Save and upload the
project to trigger the ingest
to Preservica process
Make post-ingest
modifications in
Preservica, if needed

21. Workflow - Convert CSV to
.metadata files
https://carj.github.io/CSV2DC/
csv2dc

22. Workflow - Preservica holding area
Cyberduck - https://cyberduck.io/

23. Workflow - Preservica Preparation
and Upload Tool

24. Workflow - Preservica Ingest

25. Workflow - Preservica Post-ingest

26. Workflow - Universal Access

27. Takeaways for what might be
useful post-Covid
Data curation processes at the point of digitized image creation
• address access/use and preservation at the same time in a workflow
• metadata adds value
• investment in pre-ingest prep leads to smoother ingest and less rearrangement
of preservation masters on the backend
Learning about the tools at hand, but there are gaps in what they can do
• Fine tuning workflows for efficiency
• Need to advocate for additional tools such as digital asset management, better
public-facing interface

28. Questions
Elizabeth Hogan
Senior Archivist for Photographs
ehogan2@nd.edu
Scott Kirycki
Digital Archivist
skirycki@nd.edu