Rare Book School
RBS Home| Course Schedule | Admissions | Support RBS | Contact RBS | Previous Years

Rare Book School
Preliminary Reading List

Born-Digital Materials: Theory & Practice

Matthew Kirschenbaum and Naomi Nelson

Preliminary Advices

Please note that participants are required to bring a laptop with them to class. In addition, please read the following before coming to Charlottesville.

Required Reading

  1. AIMS Born-Digital Collections: An Inter-Institutional Model for Stewardship (January 2012).
  2. Cunningham, Adrian. "Ghosts in the Machine: Towards a Principles-Based Approach to Making and Keeping Digital Personal Records." in I, Digital: Personal Collections in the Digital Era edited by Christopher A. Lee. (SAA, 2011). Pages 78-89.**
  3. Casey, Eoghan. Digital Evidence and Computer Crime: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet.  3rd edition. (Elsevier, 2011). PLEASE BUY.
  4.  Garfinkel, Simson and David Cox. “Finding and Archiving the Internet Footprint” (2008).
  5. John, Jeremy L. “Adapting Existing Technologies for Digitally Archiving Personal Lives: Digital Forensics, Ancestral Computing, and Evolutionary Perspectives and Tools” (2008).**
  6. Kirschenbuam, Matthew G., et al. “Digital Materiality: Preserving Access to Computers as Complete Environments” (2009).
  7. Kirschenbaum, Ovenden, and Redwine. Digital Forensics and Born-Digital Content in Cultural Heritage Collections (CLIR 2010). Familiarize yourself.
  8. Lowood, Henry.  “Memento Mundi: Are Virtual Worlds History?”  iPres 2009.**
  9. Lowood, Henry. “The Hard Work of Software History.” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage 2, no. 2 (Fall 2001): 141-61.**
  10. Mumma, Courtney C., Glenn Dingwall, and Sue Bigelow. "A First Look at the Acquisition and Appraisal of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Fonds: or SELECT* From VANOC_Records AS Archives WHERE value='true';". Archivaria 72 (Fall 2011): 93-122.**
  11. Rothenberg, Jeff. “Renewing The Erl King” (2006).**
  12.  Thibodeau, Kenneth. “Overview of Technological Approaches to Digital Preservation and Challenges in the Coming Years” (2002).
  13. Rob Walker, “Cyberspace When You’re Dead.” New York Times. Jan. 5 2011.

Readings marked ** will be the subject of in-class discussions; please jot down some questions and issues to pursue. Other required readings are background to lectures.

    Recommended Reading

  1. Beagrie, Neil.  “Plenty of Room at the Bottom? Personal Digital Libraries and Collections.”  D-Lib Magazine 11:6 (June 2005).
  2. Carroll, Laura, Erika Farr, Peter Hornsby, and Ben Ranker. "A Comprehensive Approach to Born-Digital Archives." Archivaria 72 (Fall 2011):61-92.
  3. Cochrane, Euan. "Practical Options for Archiving Social Media." Content Summary for ALGIM Web-Symposium Presentation 03/05/11. (Available on the web).
  4. Cunningham, Adrian. "The Archival Management of Personal Records in Electronic Form: Some Suggestions." Archives and Manuscripts 22.1 (1994): 94-105.
  5.  Duranti, Luciana.  “From Digital Diplomatics to Digital Records Forensics.” Archivaria no. 68 (Fall 2009) p. 39-66.
  6. Forstrom, Michael.  “Managing Electronic Records in Manuscript Collections: A Case Study from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.”  American Archivist 72 (Fall/Winter 2009): 460-477.
  7. Garfinkel, Simson and Abhi Shelat. “Remembrance of Data Past: A Study of Disk Sanitization Practices” (2003).
  8. Gutmann, Peter. “Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic Media” (1996).
  9. Hedstrom, Margaret L., Christopher A. Lee, Judith S. Olson, and Clifford A. Lampe. “‘The Old Version Flickers More’: Digital Preservation from the User's Perspective.” American Archivist 69, No. 1 (2006): 159-187.
  10. Hilton, Christopher, and Dave Thompson.  “Further Experiences in Collecting Born Digital Archives at the Wellcome Librar.”  Ariadne 53 (30 October 2007).
  11. John, Jeremy L. “The Future of Saving Our Past.” Nature 459 (2009): 775-6.
  12. John, Jeremy L., et al. Synthesis for the Digital Lives research project. Version 0.2 (2010).
  13. Knight, Gareth. InSPECT Framework Report. Work Package 3.3 (13 October 2009).
  14. Levi, Charles. "Five Hundred 5.25-Inch Discs and One (Finicky) Machine: A Report on a Legacy E-Records Pilot Project at the Archives of Ontario." Archivaria 72 (Fall 2011): 239-246.
  15. Monnens, D.  Before It's Too Late: A Digital Game Preservation White Paper. Game Preservation Special Interest Group, International Game Developers Association.  (2009)
  16. Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. “Hamlet.doc: Literature in a Digital Age.” Chronicle of Higher Education (August 17, 2007).
  17. Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008).
  18. Kirschenbaum, Matthew G., et al. Approaches to Managing and Collecting Born-Digital Literary Materials for Scholarly Use. NEH Office of Digital Humanities (2008).
  19. MacNeil, Heather. “‘Picking Our Text’: Archival Description, Authenticity and the Archivist as Editor.” American Archivist 68:2 (Fall/Winter 2005): 264-78.
  20. MacNeil, Heather and Bonnie Mak. “Constructions of Authenticity.” Library Trends 56:1 (Summer 2007): 26-52.
  21. Paradigm Project, Workbook on Digital Private Papers, 2005-2007.
  22. Rinehart, Richard. “The Media Art Notation System: Documenting and Preserving Digital/Media Art.” Leonardo 40:2 (April 2007): 181-187.
  23. Ross, Seamus and Ann Gow. Digital Archaeology: Rescuing Neglected and Damaged Data Resources. A JISC/NPO Study within the Electronic Libraries (eLib) Programme on the Preservation of Electronic Materials. Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) University of Glasgow.  (1999).
  24. Rothenberg, Jeff. “Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Information” (1999).
  25. Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet: Ensuring Long-Term Access to Digital Information. Final report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation Access. (Februrary 2010) Read the Executive Summary and Chapter 5.
  26. Wright, Craig, Dave Kleiman, and Shyaam Sundhar R.S.  “Overwriting Hard Drive Data: The Great Wiping Controversy.” Springer Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. (2008)