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The RAC Digital Program endeavors to become a leader and a model for the archival community in digital imaging, data curation, and the innovative use of technology to enhance archival services. Although the formats of archival records have changed, the core mission of the archival profession to preserve and provide access to records of historical value for posterity has not changed. The RAC Digital Program, therefore, aims to make electronic records archiving as accessible and successful as traditional archiving of analog records.
The Digital Program supports the mission of the RAC to collect, describe, manage, store, preserve, and provide access to archival collections of members of the Rockefeller family, institutions and organizations founded by Rockefeller family members and the records of other philanthropic and service organizations. The Program also endeavors to honor the tradition of Rockefeller philanthropy and the RAC's status as an operating foundation by focusing on the use and development of open source technology for the benefit of the archival community as a whole.
- To innovatively leverage technology in support of all RAC program areas, including donor relations, collection management, reference, processing, preservation and research and education.
- To provide high quality, professional standards-based care of digital collections over the long-term.
- To provide enhanced discovery tools for the entire RAC collection, as well as open access to a growing collection of digital objects.
- To enable the exposure and use of our collections by a broader audience of researchers.
- To serve as a leader and model for the archival community
- Digital Data Curation – provides practical solutions for standards-based curation of both born-digital and digitized analog archival collections, including records creation/donation, description, archival storage, preservation, and access.
- Digital Duplication – provides standards-based, archival quality digital duplication of archival collections and enhances access to them through an RAC online digital archive.
- Archival Technology Support – provides support to other RAC program areas for the innovative use of technology to enhance archival services, including donor relations, collection management, reference, processing, and research and education.
DIGITAL ARCHIVE
The RAC Digital Archive will increase and enhance access for researchers to selected material from the RAC's extensive holdings via web delivery and sophisticated search tools. The archive will encompass material from a variety of collections, including both born-digital and digitized documents, photographs, audio, and video. As a part of this project, the Digital Program Staff is developing analog digitization policies and procedures that prioritize, coordinate, and standardize the digitization of original archival documents based on research value, use statistics, added-value benefits, preservation needs, rights and restrictions, and overall RAC mission and goals. Initial large scale digitization projects include significant portions of the Rockefeller Foundation Officer Diaries and the Peking Union Medical College materials.
FINDING AIDS ONLINE
The finding aids for the archival collections at the RAC are being converted into the Encoded Archival Description XML standard maintained by the Library of Congress in partnership with the Society of American Archivists. This new standardized electronic version of the RAC's finding aids will not only bring them in line with current professional standards and best practices, but will also enhance researchers' ability to discover and search these guides to the RAC's archival collections. The project goal is to display finding aids online in a dynamic and easily navigable format that does not just replicate the look and feel of a traditional print finding aid.
DIGITAL PRESERVATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
In February 2011, the RAC will launch Phase One of the implementation of Archivematica, an open-source digital preservation management system. In preparation, the Digital Program Staff has been working to establish proactive relationships with donors earlier in the life-cycle of records to educate them regarding electronic records management best practice, preservation formats, and archival storage media, as well as to identify donor concerns and needs to target research and development of solutions for archiving born-digital records. The Rockefeller Archive Center acknowledges that digital preservation management requires establishing a whole new level of trust with our donors. The Digital Program endeavors to build that trust relationship by using the RAC's own electronic records as a test bed in order to actively demonstrate the institution's ability to successfully preserve digital content over the long-term. The project will be implemented in a phased approach beginning with simple digital objects and working towards solutions for more complex objects, such as databases and scientific datasets over an estimated 3 year period.
ARCHIVISTS' TOOLKIT REFERENCE MODULE
The RAC has developed a new module for the Archivists' Toolkit to manage researcher registration, recording visits and topics of research, and tracking researcher statistics and research products. The new module automates, standardizes, and streamlines processes and workflows and provides more accurate tracking of archival material. The module is open-source and freely available to the archival community in keeping with the original mission of the AT development team and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as the Rockefeller philanthropic tradition and the RAC's status as an operating foundation.
Head of Digital Programs - Sibyl Schaefer
sschaefer@rockarch.org
(914) 366-6353
Digital Archivist - Rebecca Robbins
brobbins@rockarch.org
914-366-6382
Assistant Digital Archivist – Laura Montgomery
lmontgomery@rockarch.org
914-366-6378
Assistant Archivist, Special Formats – Bethany Francis
bfrancis@rockarch.org
914-366-6358
Digital Program Assistant / Archival Assistant - Thomas F. Rose
trose@rockarch.org
(914) 366-6378
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