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Rare Book School
Preliminary Reading List

Born Digital Materials: Theory & Practice

Matthew Kirshenbaum 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. Cunningham, Adrian. “The Archival Management of Personal Records in Electronic Form: Some Suggestions.” Archives and Manuscripts 22.1 (1994): 94-105.
  2. Duranti, Luciana.  “From Digital Diplomatics to Digital Records Forensics.” Archivaria no. 68 (Fall 2009) p. 39-66
  3. Eoghan Casey. Digital Evidence and Computer Crime: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet. 2nd edition. (Elsevier, 2004).
  4. 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.
  5. Garfinkel, Simson and David Cox. “Finding and Archiving the Internet Footprint” (2008).
  6. Gutmann, Peter. “Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic Media” (1996).
  7. 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. [Summary also available at American Archivist Online.]
  8. John, Jeremy L. “Adapting Existing Technologies for Digitally Archiving Personal Lives: Digital Forensics, Ancestral Computing, and Evolutionary Perspectives and Tools” (2008).
  9. John, Jeremy L., et al.  Synthesis for the Digital Lives research project. Version 0.2 (2010.)  Summary only.
  10. John, Jeremy L. “The Future of Saving Our Past.” Nature 459 (2009): 775-6.
  11. Kirschenbuam, Matthew G., et al. “Digital Materiality: Preserving Access to Computers as Complete Environments” (2009).
  12. Knight, Gareth. InSPECT Framework Report. Work Package 3.3 (13 October 2009).
  13. Lowood, Henry.  “Memento Mundi: Are Virtual Worlds History?”  iPres 2009.
  14. Paradigm project, Workbook on Digital Private Papers, 2005-7.
  15. Rothenberg, Jeff. “Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Information” (1999).
  16. Rothenberg, Jeff. “Renewing The Erl King” (2006).
  17. 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 and Access.  (February 2010)  Read the Executive Summary and Chapter 5. 
  18. Thibodeau, Kenneth. “Overview of Technological Approaches to Digital Preservation and Challenges in the Coming Years” (2002).

    19. Optional Reading

  19. Beagrie, Neil.  “Plenty of Room at the Bottom? Personal Digital Libraries and Collections.”  D-Lib Magazine 11:6 (June 2005).
  20. Garfinkel, Simson and Abhi Shelat. “Remembrance of Data Past: A Study of Disk Sanitization Practices” (2003).
  21. Hilton, Christopher, and Dave Thompson.  “Further Experiences in Collecting Born Digital Archives at the Wellcome Library. ”  Ariadne 53 (30 October 2007). 
  22. Monnens, D.  Before It's Too Late: A Digital Game Preservation White Paper. Game Preservation Special Interest Group, International Game Developers Association.  (2009)
  23. Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. “Hamlet.doc: Literature in a Digital Age.” Chronicle of Higher Education (August 17, 2007).
  24. Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008).
  25. Kirschenbaum, Matthew G., et al. “Approaches to Managing and Collecting Born-Digital Literary Materials for Scholarly Use.” NEH Office of Digital Humanities (2008).
  26. 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.
  27. MacNeil, Heather. “‘Picking Our Text’: Archival Description, Authenticity and the Archivist as Editor.” American Archivist 68:2 (Fall/Winter 2005): 264-78.
  28. MacNeil, Heather and Bonnie Mak. “Constructions of Authenticity.” Library Trends 56:1 (Summer 2007): 26-52.
  29. Rinehart, Richard. “The Media Art Notation System: Documenting and Preserving Digital/Media Art.” Leonardo 40:2 (April 2007): 181-187.
  30. 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)
  31. 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)