Embarking on a digital curation programme can be a daunting prospect as it is thought to be an expensive and complex endeavour, beyond the capability and resources of most archives. Added to this is the fact that the overabundance of resources now available is almost as much of a deterrent to those entering the field as the lack of resources was 10 years ago. This article, based on a paper given to the Society of Archivists' Conference in 2010, will discuss why the fear might be, to a certain extent, unjustified, and how organizations can take the first steps towards developing systems and procedures for managing digital objects in their care. Using work carried out at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland as an example, it will focus on issues relating to the development of ingest systems and procedures and will raise a number of questions relating to acquisition and appraisal of digital collections that would benefit from further discussion within the archival community.
Don't PanicWhen first faced with tackling digital curation, the most common reaction is one of (at least mild) fear and panic. We ask ourselves a number of difficult questions: Where will the resources come from to pay for such an expensive undertaking? What standards and requirements do we need to adhere to? Do we have the experience and skills in-house to tackle these issues? Who can we turn to for help and guidance?A large portion of our fear and concern is due to the proliferation of slightly hysterical terms such as 'the Digital Dark Ages' and the now established assumptions that lead us to believe that digital curation is prohibitively expensive and complex.
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