Born-digital archives at the Wellcome Library: appraisal and sensitivity review of two hard drives

Abstract

Digital preservation has been an ongoing issue for the archival profession for many years, with research primarily being focused on long-term preservation and user access. Attention is now turning to the important middle stage: processing born-digital archives, which encompasses several key tasks such as appraisal, arrangement, description and sensitivity review. The Wellcome Library is developing scalable workflows for born-digital archival processing that deal effectively both with hybrid and purely born-digital archives. These workflows are being devised and tested using two hard drives deposited within the archives of two genomic researchers, Ian Dunham and Michael Ashburner. This paper examines two specific and interconnected stages of archival processing: appraisal and sensitivity review. It sets out the Wellcome Library’s approach to appraisal using a combination of several appraisal methods, namely functional, technical and ‘bottom-up’ appraisal. It also demonstrates how tools such as DROID can be used to streamline the process. The paper then goes on to explore the Wellcome Library’s risk management-based approach to the sensitivity review of born-digital material, suggesting there is a viable balance to be struck between closing large record series as a precaution and sensitivity reviewing at a very granular level.

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