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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Wayne State University

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Archival Science

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Framework For Contextual Metadata Used In The Digital Preservation Of Cultural Objects, Joan E. Beaudoin Nov 2012

A Framework For Contextual Metadata Used In The Digital Preservation Of Cultural Objects, Joan E. Beaudoin

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

The quality and the quantity of contextual information found in the descriptive metadata associated with digital representations of cultural objects are frequently inadequate for assuring that users will understand the nature of both the original object that has been digitally preserved, and the digital representation itself. This paper proposes and defines a framework for ensuring that relevant contextual metadata is easily collected and maintained. After identifying and describing eight important dimensions of context, the paper shows how implementing the framework, through a series of questions and prompts, results in a descriptive metadata record that accommodates the important aspects of an …


Context And Its Role In The Digital Preservation Of Cultural Objects , Joan E. Beaudoin Nov 2012

Context And Its Role In The Digital Preservation Of Cultural Objects , Joan E. Beaudoin

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

In discussions surrounding digital preservation, context — those properties of an object related to its creation and preservation that make the object's origins, composition, and purpose clear — has been identified as a critical aspect of preservation metadata. Understanding a cultural object's context, in as much detail as possible, is necessary to the successful future use of that object, regardless of its form. The necessity of capturing data about the creation of digital resources and the technical details of the preservation process, has generally been agreed. Capturing many other contextual aspects — such as utility, history, curation, authenticity — that …


Specters In The Archive: Faculty Digital Image Collections And The Problems Of Invisibility, Joan E. Beaudoin Dec 2011

Specters In The Archive: Faculty Digital Image Collections And The Problems Of Invisibility, Joan E. Beaudoin

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

This paper argues that the devaluation of visual information in favor of textual information will result in a loss of visual information in a digital form that has personal, institutional and cultural ramifications. Framing this discussion is a study of the digital preservation practices among two faculty user groups, archaeologists and art historians. The study examined the faculty users’ knowledge, perception, emotions and processes surrounding the digital images they had created and, or collected to support their professional activities. What was discovered is a worrisome situation where an important part of the cultural record is at serious risk of being …