Archives have always been format agnostic and nothing has changed with the introduction of born-digital materials (born-digital materials are those that began life on a computer, rather than as digitized surrogates of real-world artifacts). Managing archives and providing access to them requires a toolkit of flexible strategies and standards that archivists can deploy based on a shifting landscape of institutional priorities and realities. We will explore the range and utility of existing archival standards and approaches to integrate management of born-digital materials into the broader endeavor of keeping archives. Strategies for managing or incorporating digitized surrogates into archival finding aids will not be discussed in any detail. This course assumes a basic understanding of archives and archival management, and builds on concepts introduced in L-95: Born-Digital Materials in Special Collections, though that course is not a prerequisite.

Although we welcome students with varying levels of experience and expertise, in their personal statements applicants should briefly describe any experience they have with born-digital materials (including coursework), tell us about repositories or institutions where they’ve worked with archives, and describe specifically their familiarity with archival description and standards. Most exercises require the use of a computer, and students admitted to this course are expected to bring a laptop to class each day. Lack of access to a laptop should not prevent you from applying to the course, but please indicate in your personal statement if you do not have ready access to a laptop that you can bring with you for the week.