Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 168
•
Trim: 7½ x 10
978-1-5381-1121-5 • Hardback • October 2018 • $104.00 • (£80.00)
978-1-5381-0678-5 • Paperback • October 2018 • $51.00 • (£39.00)
978-1-5381-0679-2 • eBook • October 2018 • $48.50 • (£37.00)
Jody L. DeRidder is the Director of Metadata Frameworks in the Metadata Strategy and Operations Division of OCLC, Inc., where she is facilitating the development of methods to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of managing various kinds of metadata and information. During the prior 9 years, she was Head of Metadata and Digital Services at the University of Alabama, where she developed practical policies, procedures, and infrastructure for digital preservation, digitization, metadata workflows, and web delivery. There she developed a tiered and targeted approach to digital preservation for constantly expanding holdings, focusing on practical solutions. In 2011 she was one of the first contingent of invited participants in the Digital Preservation and Outreach Train-the-Trainer program, and the webinars she subsequently provided through the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries broke all records for attendance and continue to enjoy hundreds of downloads monthly. In 2014 she was honored to be a keynote speaker for the Best Practices Exchange Conference, which focuses on digital preservation. She both writes and presents about preservation and digital libraries in both the library and archival fields. With a master’s in computer science as well as one in information sciences, she combines technical expertise with theoretical knowledge to master the difficult aspects of digital curation and communicate this knowledge effectively to a broad audience.
List of Tables and Figures
Preface
Chapter 1. What Is Digital Curation?
Chapter 2. What Can I/We Do?
Chapter 3. Models: Which Ones Do I Use When?
Chapter 4. Emulation, Migration, or Encapsulation?
Chapter 5. How do I Identify and Select Content?
Chapter 6. What Foundational Work Will Prepare Content for Preservation and Access?
Chapter 7. Storage, Protection, and Monitoring: What Do I Do?
Chapter 8. How Do I Provide Access Over Time?
Chapter 9. How Can I Leverage the Community?
Appendix. Resources
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Refreshingly, Jody DeRidder’s book never bogs down in theoretical discussions, but instead serves as the practical how-to guide that readers would expect from a reference tool. While it does not focus heavily on theory, it does build upon resources that delve deeply into those topics. Readers wanting to explore more theoretical arguments can mine the footnotes for additional readings to expand. Finally, the diagrams, tables, and additional resources that DeRidder provides, not to mention the practical advice, make it more than worthy to sit on any digital archivist’s, curator’s, or administrator’s shelf.
— Archival Issues
Digital Curation Fundamentals provides a concise overview of the theory and practice of digital curation in libraries and archives. A complex undertaking for any institution and provides depth and breadth of guidance needed to support new projects and programs that meet baseline best practices.
— Technical Services Quarterly
The importance of curating data is not obvious to everyone, though in this era of “fake news” its significance should likely be much more evident. Most people assume that what they want to find will be “on the internet,” though questions of how to provide for the authenticity and provenance of the data there are problematic. DeRidder was for nine years the head of metadata and digital services at the University of Alabama; she is currently the director of metadata frameworks in the Metadata Strategy and Operations Division of OCLC. Her purpose in creating this work was to provide a context for librarians, archivists, administrators, and other library personnel who know little about digital curation but need to grasp the concept and how central it is to librarianship. DeRidder walks us through the various models of digital curation; the pros and cons of emulation, migration, and encapsulation; the identification and selection of content; and the preservation, access, storage, protection, and monitoring of the data. While not avoiding the complexities facing digital projects, the information is presented in a commonsense, well-structured way. This work is essential reading for all librarians and those interested in the future of shared online data.Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students, researchers, and professionals.— Choice Reviews
Digital Curation Fundamentals is an excellent “quick start” guide that presents a solid overview of the issues surrounding the preservation of digital content. Highly recommended for anyone that needs to get up to speed quickly and for those who need a broader context for the decisions they make that impact the preservation of digital content.
— Mary Molinaro, Executive Director, Digital Preservation Network