Assessing, processing and preserving the University of Houston Libraries’ digital archives: A Texas Digital Library resident librarian collaboration
Abstract
The University of Houston Libraries (UHL) has made significant strides in the assessment, processing and preservation of its digital collections, both born-digital and digitised. This paper provides an in-depth examination of UHL’s digital preservation programme, tracing its evolution from the formation of its Digital Preservation Task Force in 2014 to its current experimentation with workflows to manage born-digital materials. Central to this effort is the adoption of Archivematica, an open source digital preservation system, which has been used to automate key preservation processes for digitised content. However, born-digital collections present additional challenges, requiring manual intervention for file arrangement, format normalisation and long-term storage. The collaboration with the Texas Digital Library (TDL) Resident Librarian programme offered UHL a unique opportunity to revisit and refine its approach to born-digital preservation. Through this partnership, the resident librarian tested new Archivematica workflows using a pilot project involving the Gene Green Papers’ social media archives. The project not only highlighted the complexities of preserving diverse file formats but also emphasised the need for sustained institutional support, including dedicated staffing for digital preservation work. This paper outlines UHL’s journey in building a sustainable digital preservation ecosystem, exploring the lessons learned from the TDL residency, and discussing the ongoing development of workflows to address the challenges of born-digital preservation. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection, which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
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Author's Biography
Bethany Scott is the Head of Preservation Imaging at Yale University Library. She previously served as Head of the Preservation & Reformatting Department at the University of Houston Libraries, where she directed programmes and initiatives that helped ensure long-term access to the Libraries’ holdings, both physical and digital. She also served as Product Owner of the University of Houston Libraries’ open source digital access and preservation ecosystem. Her areas of expertise include digital preservation, born-digital archives, scanning and imaging, and the reuse of archival metadata. She has an MS in information studies from the University of Texas at Austin.
Ima Oduok is the Assistant Digital Preservation Analyst at the Rockefeller Archive Center, where she leads the archive’s digital preservation strategy. Prior to this, she was an ACRL Diversity Alliance Resident Librarian at Texas Digital Library. Her areas of interest include digital preservation, processing and access of born-digital collections, and the environmental impact of digital archives. She received her MS in library science from the University of North Texas.
