This handout accompanies the presentation "Adventures in Digital Curation," which outlines some steps for those new to digital curation (i.e., preserving and providing access to digital collections). The presentation was for the Digital Conversion Interest Group, sponsored by ALCTS-PARS, and was given at the American Library Association Conference in Anaheim, California on June 23, 2012. All content in the handout and accompanying presentation are Creative Commons licensed (CC-BY-SA).

1.
Adventures in Digital Curation
Meg Meiman / June 23, 2012
Digital Conversion Interest Group
Initial steps for novice, solo digital curators
These steps may be configured as an iterative cycle for novice, solo curators of born-
digital content.
 Assess or re-assess available resources
(IT support, technology, staff, and funding)
 Determine / refine the scope of curated content
 Prioritize what you absolutely, positively have to curate
(get input from content creators, if appropriate)
 Develop /refine guidelines for content creators
(“front-end” curation)
 Develop / refine “good enough” curation practices, such as file format conversion
and migration, to incorporate into workflow (“back-end” curation)
 Include other collaborators to assist with curation
 Rinse and repeat, if necessary
Digital Curation Sources for training and continuing education
Getting started
Digital Preservation Outreach and Education. Library of Congress.
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/education/curriculum.html
Lazorchak, Butch. “Digital Preservation, Digital Curation, Digital
Stewardship: What’s in (Some) Names?” The Signal: Digital
Preservation. Blog post. August 23, 2011.
http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2011/08/digital-preservation-digital-
curation-digital-stewardship-what%E2%80%99s-in-some-names/
The Signal: Digital Preservation. Awesome blog. Library of Congress.
http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/
Overview of tools and resources
Digital Curation Centre.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/external/tools-services
National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
http://digitalpreservation.gov/partners/resources/tools/index.html

2.
Prom, Christopher. “Practical E-Records.”
http://e-records.chrisprom.com/resources/
Models of data curation
Miles, Alistair. “Zoological Case Studies in Digital Curation – DCC SCARP/
ImageStore.” June 6, 2007. http://alimanfoo.wordpress.com/2007/06/
Prom, Christopher. “Making Digital Curation an Institutional Function.”
International Journal of Data Curation. 6.1 (2011): 139-152. Available online at
http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/169
DCC Curation Lifecycle Model.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/curation-lifecycle-model
LeFurgy, Bill. “Life Cycle Models for Digital Stewardship.” The Signal: Digital
Preservation. Blog post. February 21, 2012. Available at
http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/02/life-cycle-models-for-digital-
stewardship/
Reports, guides, and bibliography of further readings
Bailey, Charles W. “Research Data Curation Bibliography.” April 16, 2012.
http://digital-scholarship.org/rdcb/rdcb.htm
Digital Curation Centre’s SCARP Reports on disciplinary approaches to data deposit.
Reports from 2007-2010 available at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/scarp
“DH Curation Guide: a community resource guide to data curation in the digital
humanities.” Available at http://guide.dhcuration.org/
“Reports on Digital Archives and Repositories.” Center for Research
Libraries: Global Resources Network.
http://www.crl.edu/archiving-preservation/digital-archives/digital-archive-
reports
Walters, Tyler and Katherine Skinner. “New Roles for New Times: Digital Curation for
Preservation.” 2009. Report Prepared for the Association of Research Libraries.
Available at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/nrnt_digital_curation17mar11.pdf