This open-ended series by the Society of American Archivists features brief, authoritative treatments - written and edited by top-level professionals - that fill significant gaps in archival literature. The goal of this modular approach is to build agile, user-centered resources. Modules treat discrete topics relating to the practical management of archives and manuscript collections in the digital age. Select modules are clustered together by topic (as they are here) and are available in print or electronic format. Each module is also available individually in electronic format so that readers can mix and match modules that best satisfy their needs and interests. Stay on trend with Trends in Archives Practice! -- from back cover.

Newly revised and updated to more thoroughly address our increasingly digital world, including integration of digital records and audiovisual records into each chapter, it remains the clearest and most comprehensive guide to the discipline.

To meet the demands of archivists increasingly tasked with the responsibility for hybrid collections, this indispensable guide covers contemporary archival practice for managing analog and digital materials in a single publication. Terms describing activities central to the archival process—such as appraisal, acquisition, arrangement, description, storage, access, and preservation—are included. In addition, responsibilities traditionally considered outside the purview of the archivist but currently impacting professional activities—such as cybersecurity, digital forensics, digital curation, distributed systems (e.g., cloud computing), and distributed trust systems (e.g., blockchain)—are also covered. The Handbook is divided into ten sections: current environment; records creation and recordkeeping systems; appraisal and acquisition; arrangement and description; storage and preservation; digital preservation; user services; community outreach and advocacy; risk management, security and privacy; and management and leadership. Some terms touch on more than one category, which made sorting a challenge. Readers are encouraged to consult both the table of contents and the index, as a topic may be addressed in more than one entry. A total of 111 entries by 105 authors are defined and described in The Handbook. The majority (79) of the contributors were from the US, 12 from Canada, 7 from the United Kingdom, 3 from Australia, 1 each from Germany, Jamaica, New Zealand, and the Russian Federation. Because archival practice differs among practitioners in different countries, this work represents an amalgamation. The Handbook was written primarily for archival practitioners who wish to access desired information at the point of need. However, can also serve as a valuable resource for students pursuing careers in the archival profession and information professionals engaged in related fields.

This book addresses the process of maintaining digital objects through time to ensure continued access, an aspect that has become a crucial issue in recent years. It offers a concise yet comprehensive discussion of key concepts and requirements for long-term digital preservation, and presents a pioneering framework for digital repositories that enables the long-term archiving and metadata management for large volumes of digital resources based on a system that has already been completely designed and launched. In the framework, the reliability of information readouts is ensured by the repository with two-level data recording replication and monitoring mechanisms in the repository management system (RMS) and the file systems, and by the RMS’s distributed nature. The advanced RMS allows operations on the archival storage to be scheduled, while also taking into account low energy consumption requirements. After presenting the framework in detail, the book assesses and demonstrates the approach’s viability in terms of delivering accessibility, authenticity and usability. As such, the book offers a valuable resource for information technology (IT) researchers and practitioners, as well as archivists and librarians.

An interconnection of computer networks, telecommunications services, and applications, the National Information Infrastructure (NII) can open up new vistas and profoundly change much of American life. This report explores some of the opportunities and obstacles to the use of the NII by people and organizations. The goal is to express how improvements in the technical foundation upon which all modern communications rests can benefit all Americans by focusing on the uses of the NII and the benefits to be derived by applications of advanced computing and communications technologies. This document describes how the evolving NII can: enhance the competitiveness of our manufacturing base; increase speed and efficiency of electronic commerce; improve health care delivery and control costs; promote development and accessibility of quality education and lifelong learning; improve effectiveness of environmental monitoring and assessing human impacts upon the earth; sustain the role of libraries as agents of democratic and equal access to information; and provide government services to the public faster, more responsively, and more efficiently. In addition to articulating a national vision that can serve as a framework for discussion and dialogue, a second goal is to improve public policy-making, to identify critical barriers, enablers, and the tools of government action most effective in each of these areas. In this way, the benefits of government activities in support of the NII can be maximized, while minimizing unintended or undesirable consequences. Several themes emerge: equity of access; pursuit of demonstrations and pilot projects; standards setting process; privacy and communications security; training and support; identification of long-term research and development priorities; and performance measurements to assess both public and private investments and experiments. It is hoped that careful consideration of the policy questions raised here will both facilitate the development of the NII and guide its evolution so that it best meets public purposes. (MAS)