Learning how other institutions deal with born-digital material is vital to the development of our own program. While some of this learning involves one-on-one conversations, much of it happens by finding documentation online from places like the Yale University Library and the University of Illinois University Library. As our program reached the point where we had pretty stable and well-documented workflows, we wanted to do the same. So, we are very pleased to announce the launch of a dedicated website to share work from the Digital Preservation Laboratory. The site shares things like:
- Our workflows for creating forensic images or file transfers that focus on maintaining the bit integrity of the material
- The inventory of new and vintage off-the-shelf computing workstations and specialized forensic peripherals used in the lab
- A selection of reports and in-house research on the preservation of born-digital assets
The documentation shared on this website represents over five years of work, much of which was completed by student interns and part-time employees from the University of Michigan School of Information and the Wayne State University School of Information Sciences. These students have managed to do professional-level work while completing their rigorous graduate programs. The documentation shared on our new website would not exist if not for their hard work and dedication. We also appreciate the support of our colleagues in the library's Design & Discovery and Communications & Marketing departments in launching this site, especially their work to improve upon my horrible design and bad joke filled writing.
We hope the new website will be a helpful resource for the library and digital preservation communities.