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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.

Highly Recommended Reading

  1. AIMS Work Group.  AIMS Born-Digital Collections: An Inter-Institutional Model for Stewardship (January 2012).
  2. Erway, Rickey. “Defining ‘Born Digital.’” OCLC ().
  3. Erway, Ricky.  “Walk This Way:  Detailed Steps for Transferring Born-Digital Content from Media You Can Read In-house.”  OCLC (2013).
  4. Erway, Ricky. “You’ve Got to Walk Before You Can Run: First Steps for Managing Born-Digital Content Received on Physical Media”, OCLC (2012).
  5. Galey, Alan.  “The Enkindling Reciter: E-Books in the Bibliographical Imagination.”  Book History 15 (2012).
  6. Garfinkel, Simson and David Cox. “Finding and Archiving the Internet Footprint” (2009).
  7. Kirschenbuam, Matthew G., et al. “Digital Materiality: Preserving Access to Computers as Complete Environments.” iPres (2009).
  8. Kirschenbaum, Ovenden, and Redwine. Digital Forensics and Born-Digital Content in Cultural Heritage Collections.CLIR (2010).
  9. Redwine, Gabriela, et. al.  “Born Digital: Guidance for Donors, Dealers, and Archival Repositories.” (2013).
  10. Thibodeau, Kenneth. “Overview of Technological Approaches to Digital Preservation and Challenges in the Coming Years.”  CLIR (2002).
  11. Rob Walker, “Cyberspace When You’re Dead.” New York Times. Jan. 5, 2011.
  12. Woods, et al. “Extending Digital Repository Architectures to Support Disk Image Preservation and Access.” JCDL 2011.

Suggested Additional Reading

  1. Blanchette, Jean-François.  “A Material History of Bits.” Preprint (2011).
  2. Carroll, Laura, Erika Farr, Peter Hornsby, and Ben Ranker. "A Comprehensive Approach to Born-Digital Archives." Archivaria 72 (Fall 2011): 61–92.
  3. Casey, Eoghan. Digital Evidence and Computer Crime: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet.  3rd edition. (Elsevier, 2011).
  4. Cochrane, Euan. "Practical Options for Archiving Social Media." Content Summary for ALGIM Web-Symposium Presentation 03/05/11.
  5. 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.
  6. Duranti, Luciana.  “From Digital Diplomatics to Digital Records Forensics.” Archivaria no. 68 (Fall 2009) p. 39–66.
  7. 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.
  8. Garfinkel, Simson and Abhi Shelat. “Remembrance of Data Past: A Study of Disk Sanitization Practices” computer.org/security/ (2003).
  9. Gutmann, Peter. “Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic Media” (1996).
  10. 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.
  11. John, Jeremy L. “The Future of Saving Our Past.” Nature 459 (2009): 775–6.
  12. John, Jeremy Leighton.  Technology Watch Report 12-03: Digital Forensics and Preservation.  Digital Preservation Coalition (2012).
  13. Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. “Hamlet.doc: Literature in a Digital Age.” Chronicle of Higher Education (August 17, 2007).
  14. Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination.  MIT Press (2008).
  15. Kirschenbaum, Matthew G., et al. Approaches to Managing and Collecting Born-Digital Literary Materials for Scholarly Use.  NEH Office of Digital Humanities (2008).
  16. Kraus, Kari and Rachel Donoghue.  "’Do You Want to Save Your Progress?’: The Role of Professional and Player Communities in Preserving Virtual Worlds.”  Digital Humanities Quarterly 6:2 (2012).
  17. 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.
  18. Lowood, Henry.  “Memento Mundi: Are Virtual Worlds History?”  iPres 2009.
  19. Lowood, Henry. “The Hard Work of Software History.” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage 2:2 (Fall 2001): 141–61.
  20. Monnens, Devin, et al.  Before It's Too Late: A Digital Game Preservation White Paper. Game Preservation Special Interest Group, International Game Developers Association (2009)
  21. MacNeil, Heather. “‘Picking Our Text’: Archival Description, Authenticity and the Archivist as Editor.” American Archivist 68:2 (Fall/Winter 2005): 264–78.
  22. MacNeil, Heather and Bonnie Mak. “Constructions of Authenticity.” Library Trends 56:1 (Summer 2007): 26–52.
  23. 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.
  24. Paradigm Project, Workbook on Digital Private Papers, 2005–2007.
  25. Rinehart, Richard. “The Media Art Notation System: Documenting and Preserving Digital/Media Art.” Leonardo 40:2 (April 2007): 181–187.
  26. 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).
  27. Rothenberg, Jeff. “Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Information.” CLIR (1999).
  28. Rothenberg, Jeff. “Renewing The Erl King” (2006).
  29. 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) Especially the Executive Summary and Chapter 5.
  30. Trace, Ciaran B. “Beyond the Magic to the Mechanism: Computers, Materiality, and What It Means for Records to Be “Born Digital.” Archivaria 72 (Fall 2011).
  31. Wilsey, Laura; Skirvin, Rebecca; Chan, Peter; and Edwards, Glynn "Capturing and Processing Born-Digital Files in the STOP AIDS Project Records: A Case Study," Journal of Western Archives: Vol. 4: Iss. 1, Article 1.

Discussion Groups