Blogs

APRIL 17 + JUNE 22 | 3 - 4:30 PM Eastern Planning a facilities renovation or new construction? Wrestling with managing a project that's already underway? Join your CoSA colleagues for a two-part conversation about facilities project planning and implementation. Each session will feature state archives representatives sharing real-life lessons, successes, and pitfalls. Keynote: Chris Woods, Architect with the SmithGroup, Washington, DC OPEN TO ALL WITHOUT CHARGE For more information and to register Part 1: Planning phase Part 2: Construction phase MAY 18 | 12:30 - 4:30 PM Eastern The Council of ...

"Standardizing formats and structures for email preservation (or even short-term management) can provide large leaps in efficiency in preserving email." The Phase 2: Testing Report from the CoSA PREPARE Project summarizes the findings of volunteers who tested three email preservation software packages -- ePADD, DArcMail, and libratom -- for use in email appraisal, acquisition, processing, and discovery workflows. The report includes tester insights and recommendations, and provides the basis for the next phase of the PREPARE project, which entails creation of templates, workflows, and other documentation that will support a direct assistance program to ...

Two new guidance documents from CoSA’s PREPARE: Preparing Archives for Records in Email project were published this month. PREPARE is a program of capacity-building services for email management and preservation CoSA is providing to state and territorial archives as part of the State Electronic Records Initiative (SERI). The project is funded by a two-year grant from the University of Illinois/Mellon Foundation. Much of PREPARE’s published guidance is applicable to institutions and agencies with responsibilities for managing and preserving email. To learn more about PREPARE and explore other publications from this project, please visit CoSA’s website . ...

By Lori Ashley CoSA’s Digital Preservation Capability Self-Assessment survey is a high-level framework of requirements from ISO 14721 and ISO 16363. This is the fifth and final blog in the BACKER series of five (5) blog posts to explore how specific components in the CoSA DPC survey relate to the systematic assessment of a digital preservation program and repository. We are using categories from ISO 16363, Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories, to frame the key issues and help CoSA members prepare for a positive and useful experience with the January 2022 survey. This week we finish up with a look at the second part of category #2, ...

By Lori Ashley CoSA’s Digital Preservation Capability Self-Assessment survey is a high-level framework of requirements from ISO 14721 and ISO 16363. This is the fourth in a series of five (5) blog posts in the BACKER series to explore how specific components in the CoSA DPC survey relate to the systematic assessment of a digital preservation program and repository. We are using categories from ISO 16363, Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories, to frame the key issues and help CoSA members prepare for a positive and useful experience with the January 2022 survey. This week we will look at the first part ...

By Lori Ashley CoSA’s Digital Preservation Capability Self-Assessment survey is a high-level framework of requirements from ISO 14721 and ISO 16363. This is the third in a series of five (5) blog posts in the BACKER series to explore how specific components in the CoSA DPC survey relate to the systematic assessment of a digital preservation program and repository. Follow the links for part one and part two . We are using categories from ISO 16363, Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories, to frame the key issues and help CoSA members prepare for a positive and useful experience with the January 2022 survey. ...

By Lori Ashley CoSA’s Digital Preservation Capability Self-Assessment survey is a high-level framework of requirements from ISO 14721 and ISO 16363. This is the second in a series of five (5) blog posts in the BACKER series to explore how specific components in the CoSA DPC survey relate to the systematic assessment of a digital preservation program and repository. The first post can be found here . We are using categories from ISO 16363, Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories, to frame the key issues and help CoSA members prepare for a positive and useful experience with the January 2022 survey. This week we will ...

by Veronica Martzahl and Lori Ashley CoSA’s Digital Preservation Capability Self-Assessment survey is a high-level framework of requirements from ISO 14721 and ISO 16363, two standards embraced by the U.S. Government Publishing Office and discussed in earlier posts . The next five blog posts in this BACKER series will explore how specific components in the CoSA DPC survey relate to the systematic assessment of a digital preservation program and repository. We will use categories from ISO 16363, audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories, to frame the key issues and help CoSA members prepare for a positive and useful experience ...

CoSA is grateful for our friends at the Government Publishing Office (GPO) sharing with us their work on standards and accreditation in this two part interview. Part one of the interview is available here: https://www.statearchivists.org/blogs/michelle-gallinger/2021/11/09/2022-dpcmm-gpo-interview-1 5) What led up to the transition from FDsys to govinfo? What capabilities does govinfo have that FDsys did not? GPO’s Federal Digital System or FDsys was launched in 2009, so the technology landscape and timing were ripe to fully redesign and reinvigorate GPO’s front door of access to Federal government information. GPO’s govinfo website was launched ...

CoSA is grateful for our friends at the Government Publishing Office (GPO) sharing with us their work on standards and accreditation in this two part interview. The Government Publishing Office (GPO) opened its doors on March 4, 1861, the same day President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. Since then, the agency has been Keeping America Informed on the three branches of the Federal Government and making Government information available to the public for free in both print and electronic formats. GPO produces U.S. passports, official White House programs and dinner menus, official materials for the President’s inauguration, the President’s official photo, the ...

by Veronica Martzahl and Lori Ashley BACKER Blog: International Digital Preservation Standards ISO 14721:2012 The Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) was originally developed by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) to formalize standards for the long-term storage of digital data generated from space missions. From this lofty start, OAIS has reached even greater heights, becoming the underlying foundation of digital preservation practice across the global community. The OAIS reference model has influenced the development of system designs and metadata requirements while providing a framework ...

by Veronica Martzahl and Lori Ashley Archival Repositories Come in Many Shapes and Sizes Archives manage different types of collections in a variety of repositories. The word “repository” is defined in the SAA Dictionary of Archives Terminology, as “an institution focused on the care and storage of items of continuing value, particularly records.” Traditional archival repositories were physical places where the care and storage of items appraised to have long-term or permanent value were curated and protected. Sometimes the space is highly specialized, such as a book repository, while in other instances a wide variety of physical objects from different ...

by VeronicaMartzahl Since 2011, the Council of State Archivists has made a targeted effort to assess and support state and territorial electronic records management and preservation programs through its State Electronic Records Initiative (SERI). A key tool in the assessment component of CoSA’s work is the Digital Preservation Capability Maturity Model (DPCMM). Developed by Lori Ashley and Charles Dollar, the DPCMM supports organizations charged with preservation of permanent electronic records to rate their current capabilities to support digital preservation in fifteen key areas. The DPCMM highlights that digital preservation is not just a technical challenge, ...