2014 Presentations (Communicative Events)

Acquisition of Digital Records: Lessons of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program project

Gorjevsky, Jane; Sokolova, Dina

Columbia University Libraries is working on a large-scale project, funded by the Ford Foundation grant, to permanently preserve and make accessible the archives of the International Fellowships Program. At this time, the acquisition phase has been completed. The Ford IFP collection, now part of the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, includes 3.6 TB of electronic materials gathered from 22 countries around the globe, in 245 separate file formats, 10 languages and 7 non-Roman character sets. We are ready to share the experience, gained in the course of this project. Our principal points include: using preliminary surveys and record samples as planning tools, coordinating donor activities related to selection and arrangement, storage and access planning as influenced by privacy and confidentiality concerns, ensuring the authenticity of transferred digital objects, and using digital forensics tools and preservation software for post-acquisition processing.