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Ethics, sustainability and the challenge of digital curation for a real-time archive
Journal of Digital Media Management,
9
(1),
63-70
(2020)
Abstract
As immigration became a divisive topic in the USA, Allies to End Detention, a group of dedicated community activists, began writing to would-be immigrants held in detention centres. Understanding the importance of the information in the letters, the Allies asked the San Diego State University Library to archive the growing collection and to make the redacted letters accessible online. They hoped the letters would influence public opinion and possibly impact government policies. This paper outlines the issues with real-time sensitive archives, the complex workflow and the reasons why the collection was eventually removed from public access.
Keywords: archives; online libraries; immigration; community activism; risk assessment; ethics
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Katie Romabiles is the Institutional Repository Specialist at San Diego State University. She has been involved in the creation and maintenance of the university’s digital collections and repository for the past three years. She earned her BA in history from San Diego State University and her MLIS from San Jose State University.
Amanda Lanthorne is the university archivist at San Diego State University (SDSU) where she works to preserve, organise and provide access to archival collections related to university history as well as local and regional history. She has a BA in history from SDSU, an MA in Middle Eastern studies from Columbia University and an MLIS from San Jose State University.
Arel Lucas is a Faculty Metadata Librarian at University of Southern California Digital Library. Her previous roles include working as a metadata specialist at San Diego State University, site administrator for a digital asset management system at United Airlines, Archives and Special Collections Librarian at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Prescott). She has an MLIS from San Jose State University.
Lisa Lamont is the interim Associate Dean and Head of Digital Collections at the San Diego State University. She has an MA in history from Penn State and an MLIS from the University of North Carolina.
