PROJECT SUMMARY (2 Pages)

PROJECT NARRATIVE

CHARLES BABBAGE INSTITUTE,

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA LIBRARIES

DOCUMENTING INTERNET2: A COLLABORATIVE MODEL FOR DEVELOPING ELECTRONIC RECORDS CAPACITIES IN THE SMALL-SCALE REPOSITORY SETTING

1. Purpose and goals

The Charles Babbage Institute proposes a collaboration with the University of Minnesota Libraries, the University of Michigan School of Information, and administration of Internet2 to:

• survey and develop appraisal criteria for the digital documentation of the history, activities, and organizational functions of Internet2’s headquarters;

• conduct a series of small experimental pilot projects to test appraisal criteria;

• explore the range of available technological models for electronic records management and preservation, along with the costs and benefits associated, and analyze their applicability and practicality in this setting;

• develop a blueprint for the development of an electronic records component of the Charles Babbage Institute’s collecting scope;

• distill lessons learned from this project in a set of principles for appraisal and acquisition of electronic records, designed to support other small repositories seeking to initiate an electronic records program in their own institutional settings;

• create the foundation for an ongoing and sustainable electronic records program at the CBI, within the enterprise technology architecture of the University of Minnesota Libraries’ system

The Partners

The Charles Babbage Institute is jointly supported by the University Libraries and the University’s Institute of Technology. Its archives are generally recognized as the world’s pre-eminent collection of research materials documenting the history of information technology. The largest component of CBI’s collection consists of organizational and corporate records and personal papers. Rare technical and trade publications, market and product research reports, and a variety of audiovisual materials comprise the rest. CBI’s collecting scope is based on a broad definition of information technology; subject areas include the development of mainframe, mini and microcomputing; office automation; software applications and the software industry; and the development of networking and the origins of the Internet. CBI’s archival program is a unit of the University Libraries and is staffed by two full-time archivists, with the support of student workers and the occasional grant funded staff member.

Under the leadership of a new director, the University of Minnesota Libraries is now setting out to define its digital archiving strategy. While the Libraries have been developing digital collections (primarily images) for a number of years, the Libraries now seek both to put those digital image collections on a firmer footing and to expand efforts into the capture of other kinds of digital objects. The Libraries expect to have a repository for digital holdings in place within the next two years, and are committed to developing a new strategy informed by the mission of both libraries and archives. The variety of material represented by the documentation of Internet2 will offer the Libraries an opportunity to explore the full (and practical) dimension of the challenge to develop a repository strategy fully able to accommodate future collections, both library and archival.

The University of Michigan School of Information is a leading graduate school for education and training in electronic records management, appraisal, and digital preservation. SI faculty are leaders in research in electronic records issues and faculty and students conduct multidisciplinary research to discover new knowledge about the interplay between information, technology, and people with the aim of unifying human-centered design approaches and sophisticated technologies.

Internet2 is a not-for-profit consortium of over 200 US organizations and institutions. Its dispersed, collaborative structure, made possible by digital communication, make it an ideal case study and partner for this project – it is, in fact, a model of the kinds of organizations with which archivists will have to work in the future. However, because Internet2 is a very large operation, with many far-flung business activities and associated records, the scope of this project will be strictly limited to the administrative records of Internet2, focusing on its development through the activities and functions of the “heart” of the organization, located at the private non-profit Michigan Information Technology Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Please note: The National Archives is a member of Internet2. However, this project will not include work with any Federal records that may appear in the Internet2 administrative files.)

As an internationally important and pioneering IT organization, Internet2 is a perfect match with CBI’s collecting interests. CBI’s records already include important records on the history and development of the Internet which will complement and be complemented by the organizational records of Internet2. As well, CBI staff have substantial subject area expertise in the development of the Internet (Arthur Norberg’s Transforming Computer Technology: Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962-1986, Johns Hopkins, 1996). This experience, along with important records already in CBI’s holdings, will inform and lay the groundwork for the project team’s work.

The project

Like virtually all archives of its size, CBI has yet to add an electronic records component to its regular program. This is not surprising – to date, almost all electronic records research and projects have been designed by and implemented at large institutions and organizations, and the accumulated body of knowledge is most applicable in a large institutional framework. While these are major accomplishments and several will inform the proposed project, nevertheless, the challenges facing small scale manuscript repositories are in many respects distinct from those confronted by large institutional archives, whether academic, government, or corporate.

Institutional archives, for the most part begin with a larger pool of resources to draw from. Small manuscript repositories, almost by definition, do not have the same levels of funding, staffing or organizational apparatus to support the investments in new technologies that will sustain new approaches to electronic records.

Moreover, institutional archives often begin with an institutional mandate to document their own activities and histories. Small manuscript repositories have no such mandate, and therefore are not well placed to participate in the “design phase” of the electronic records creation process. This means that they must find ways to cope with the records and recordkeeping practices that they inherit. CBI, for example, provides a permanent archival home and administers public access to historically valuable records, many of which were created in institutional settings, but cannot be preserved in one. Examples include the records of professional organizations that disband, user groups that cease to exist, corporate records of companies undergoing mergers and acquisitions, and the personal papers of innovators in the field who have had no long term affiliations with institutions.

As well, small repositories tend to be staffed by very limited numbers of professional archivists who often are perforce subject matter experts before all else. They know the history and ins and outs of their collections, but, due to the constraints on their time and the already demanding, varied nature of their responsibilities frequently cannot provide or master all the special technological skills pertaining to electronic records.

All of these distinctions point to the promise of an electronic records program based on a partnership model. In this context, the smaller archives do not have to do it all. What this project proposes to explore and demonstrate is how, with a technologically sophisticated partner such as the University Libraries, CBI can participate in testing and use of available technologies. The University of Minnesota will act as the service provider, with the technological expertise and infrastructure lacking at the level of the small repository. CBI staff could play to its functional strengths, in a role suitable to its resources, focusing especially in the areas of appraisal and description, as well subject matter expertise. The University of Michigan School of Information will provide its own, notable and specialized expertise in the area of electronic records, enabling this project and extending the reach of CBI. Internet2, of course, provides the records. Last, but not least, CBI can test a role as facilitator and enabler of collaborative arrangements, coordinating the activities of its partners and evaluating, through its appraisal of the value and use value of the records, the ultimate business driver for the project

To move beyond appraisal and to examine the practical technological aspects of an electronic records program, the partners in this project will evaluate the variety of extant solutions for preserving and providing access to the electronic records. The options here range from the very ambitious (preserving records in an architecture as complex as, for example, MIT’s D-Space project, or using tools such as the Storage Resource Broker developed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center) to the conventional (copying everything onto DVDs and storing them in climate controlled stacks). Working closely with the University Libraries, the project staff will evaluate all potential models to determine which aspects of each are best suited to the needs of CBI’s researchers and the mission and resources of CBI as an institution.

2. Significance in relation to the NHPRC’s programs and goals

The proposal is aligned with the NHPRC’s history of supporting “research and development on appraising, preserving, disseminating, and providing access to important documentary source in electronic form.” The partnership and the records it seeks to preserve respond precisely to the NHPRC’s priority of working to “overcome the obstacles” and “take advantage of the opportunities posed by electronic technologies.” The most distinctive aspect of this project is that it offers the assurance that the NHPRC’s goals will be addressed in a new setting.

In effect, the project seeks to build upon the specific accomplishments of prior NHPRC-funded projects and to test their suitability and applicability to smaller repositories. These earlier projects are particularly pertinent:

NHPRC Grant #87-47 to the University of Minnesota resulted in CBI’s 1989 publication The High Technology Company: A Historical Research and Archival Guide. Conducted as part of CBI’s mid-1980s National Collecting Strategy for preserving the historic records of computing, the guide provided CBI with much-needed appraisal guidelines to continue its work in documenting computer technology. The guide also lived out its promise and became an indispensable tool for appraisal of business records in a variety of settings. This publication also solidified CBI’s role and reputation as a clearinghouse of information about technology archives.

NHPRC Grant #00-37, to the Rhode Island State Archives, includes an important section on a development model for creating an electronic records program, as well as a starter’s manual for small state archival programs.

“Expanding the Options: Strategies for Preserving Electronic Records of Collaborative Processes,” (NHPRC Grant #97-3265, in progress), provides a series of findings and recommendations for documenting collaborations which will directly inform efforts to appraise the records of Internet2. (See Botticelli, Peter, “Records Appraisal in Network Organizations,” Archivaria 49, Spring 2000.)

Overall, the project will have a national impact, as it focuses on the organizational records of an internationally respected cutting-edge technology organization; a practical, professional impact, as it provides a model of a small archives developing plans for an electronic records program which can be presented as principles for wider application; and an intellectual impact, demonstrating how multiple professions and organizations can collaborate in an innovative cross-boundary partnership.

3. Plan of work

The project will occur over the course of 17 months. Each of the project partners will have responsibilities specific to its area of expertise. CBI staff will administer the grant and will have the principal responsibility of coordinating and synthesizing each partner’s work products. Meetings of the project staff and advisory board, supplemented by the use of a project listserv and project web site, will ensure that all participants have every opportunity to follow and review the progress of the effort.

The project itself will have four components:

• initial planning and preparation
• survey and appraisal of records
• evaluation and testing of technological options
• analysis of results and completion of work products

I Initial planning and preparation: The project will begin in January 2004, when Margaret Hedstrom will select and hire a graduate student research assistant (GSRA) to serve on the project staff. In February, the project staff (Kaplan, Hedstrom, Celeste, GSRA) will meet in Ann Arbor to review the project work plan and pay an initial visit to Internet2 offices. The GSRA will be fully introduced to the project and personnel at this meeting. Based on their discussions and site visit, the project staff will draft a survey instrument for appraisal of Internet2’s organizational records. The partners will review and refine the plan of work and identify issues to discuss and resolve at the advisory board meeting. The initial meeting of the advisory board will take place in Ann Arbor in March 2004. Its purpose will be to articulate and examine thoroughly the theoretical and intellectual underpinnings of the grant, and to evaluate the practical components of the project work plan. To facilitate this, Seib will set up the project web site and listserv. She will post interim reports and draft products to the site as appropriate.

II Survey and appraisal of records: From approximately January 2004 - January 2005, the project’s graduate student, under the direction of Margaret Hedstrom and with the assistance of Internet2 staff, will conduct a survey to identify existing electronic records that document Internet2; test and evaluate appraisal criteria; and analyze various methods for transferring electronic records from Internet2 to CBI. During the summer of 2004, Hedstrom will spend one month analyzing the initial results of the inventory and developing appraisal and transfer methods. CBI staff, Kaplan and Seib, will draft, review and refine appraisal criteria appropriate to CBI’s overall collection planning. In the dialogue with the project staff in Michigan, these criteria will be fully fleshed out in a documentation strategy for Internet2.

III Evaluation and testing of technological models: From October 2004 through March 2005, as electronic records are identified, appraised and selected for testing, Eric Celeste will review and evaluate digital archives and library technologies that are practical and feasible options to explore. With the cooperation of Internet2 staff, Celeste will extract and load samples of electronic records in the test models. At the same time, CBI staff will develop metadata standards and EAD formatted finding aids for the records, so that the appropriate descriptive information can be tested as well. In collaboration with Hedstrom, and with input from the advisory board, the project staff will evaluate the test results and begin to calculate the costs and benefits of the different options.

IV Analysis of results and completion of work products: In February 2005, the project staff will begin to draft a final report and evaluation of the work. The preliminary conclusions will be presented at the second meeting of the advisory board in March 2005, in Minneapolis. Through the end of the project in May 2005, the project staff will complete a number of products based on this material. These will include:

• a proposal for a sustainable CBI electronic records program, for presentation to the CBI director and the director of the University Libraries
• a set of guidelines and principles for small archives electronic records program
• a final report formatted as an article suitable for the American Archivist or a comparable publication.

All of these products will be formatted for and made available through the project web site, hosted by the CBI and the University Libraries.

4. What products or publications will be produced during the grant period?

The final products of the project will be designed to optimize its educational potential through wide distribution to the archival profession, and to situate CBI’s electronic records program in a practical and sustainable framework. All products will be formatted for and made available through the project web site, hosted by CBI and the University Libraries. We will:

• create and continually update a project web site that will provide access to all reports and documents generated by the project as they are completed

• propose a session for the Midwest Archives Conference Fall 2004 meeting as a method for interim reporting and opportunity to solicit feedback from the profession;

• develop a proposal for a sustainable CBI electronic records program, for presentation to the CBI director and the director of the University Libraries

• develop guidelines and principles for small archives electronic records program

• prepare a final report formatted as an article suitable for the American Archivist or a comparable publication.

5. What are the qualifications of the personnel?