Building a Born-Digital Archives Program at the Bancroft Library
Mary Elings and Christina Fidler, Bancroft Library
Much of the focus in born-digital archives rightly centers on the technical practices and tools necessary to manage these collections, however, this is just one layer of the overall management of these materials. A born digital archives program must address a user's ability to access and work with these materials in practical ways while both challenging and conforming to traditional archival practices.
In this presentation, Mary Elings and Christina V. Fidler will discuss the Bancroft Library’s multifaceted approach to managing born-digital collections and their efforts to build a framework to support a sustainable digital archives program. They will discuss the challenges born-digital collections present throughout the archival process including appraisal/selection, arrangement/description, and access/preservation as well as the tools they use to address those challenges.
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Mary Elings is assistant director and head of Bancroft's technical services division, overseeing acquisitions, accessioning, cataloging, archival processing, and digital collections units. Prior to becoming assistant director in 2017, she served as head of the digital collections unit which is responsible for the creation and management of Bancroft’s digital collections. Ms. Elings taught a graduate course in digital collections for over ten years and regularly presents on that topic.
Christina V. Fidler is the digital archivist at the Bancroft Library. Prior to this role, she was the museum archivist at UC Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. She has also worked at the California Academy of Sciences as the digital projects coordinator and as the project manager for the Academy Library’s IMLS grant "Connecting Content."
Contact
If you have questions about this event, please contact Michael Buckland.
