Technical Transfer Guidelines
These guidelines are intended to assist archivists and donors who are ready to transfer born-digital content that is not stored on removable media to the Bentley.
Note:
For our purposes, “born-digital content” refers, in general, to inactive archives and records: in any genre or format (e.g., office documents, moving images, sound recordings, etc.); that originated in digital form (born-digital) or were converted to digital form (digitized); that were selected by the Bentley in accordance with its collection development priorities and which have enduring value; and for which the Bentley has assumed long-term custody and responsibility.
Goals in Transferring Digital Content
We have a number of goals when transferring born-digital content from donors to the Bentley, including:
ensuring that processes and procedures are informed by the Producer-Archive Interface Methodology Abstract Standard (PAIMAS), a community standard for identifying, defining and providing structure to the relationships and interactions between a donor and an archive;
imposing as few requirements (e.g., on structure or metadata) on donors as possible while ensuring that key supplementary information needed for interpreting content is maintained;
transferring born-digital content in such a way that its authenticity, integrity and security is retained; and
documenting new accessions and recording key details about the nature and scope of materials.
Note:
For our purposes, we are distinguishing some between the technical process of transferring files to the Bentley (i.e., from a donor’s servers to ours) and the broader activities associated with accessioning.
Before Transferring Born-Digital Content
During any initial contacts with donors (i.e., the “Preliminary” and “Formal Definition” phases of PAIMAS), archivists should seek to identify and define the born-digital content that should be transferred. Asking some or all of the following questions, which may be a mixture of
remote information-gathering and onsite analysis, may help archivists assess a potential transfer.
Note:
We realize that there are also times when it’s not possible for the field archivist to gather this information, in full or in part. The availability of this type of contextual information does not have an affect on our ability to transfer or accession material, although it may have an impact on our ability to appraise or process it.
General questions:
What, precisely, should be transferred?
As much as possible, appraisal and selection decisions should reflect the intellectual, historical or administrative value of content and its suitability for the Bentley’s collections rather than its complexity, format or size (although these are also important considerations).
What is its context within the collection as a whole?
This is not only useful for appraisal/acquisition purposes but should also be communicated to future processors.
What types of files are there? This may range from simple digital content office documents, audio, or video files, to more “complex” or “emerging” digital content like relational databases or computer-assisted architectural drawings.
It especially important to know if this content relies on particular software to be rendered/made accessible to researchers.
How is it organized? How much appraisal has already been done?
If it has been heavily appraised in the field or during the accessioning process (or not), processing archivists need to know.
Is this material replicated in paper form elsewhere in the collection or is it available publicly online?
If so, we only need one version of it.
Are you aware of any sensitive, personal or legally protected information in these files? Is anything under copyright?
If so, which portion(s) contain this information?
Should access to or use of these files be restricted in some way?
Technical questions:
How much is there?
What’s the size (i.e., number of files) or volume (i.e. size on disk) of the digital content?
What operating system (e.g., Windows, Mac, etc.) does the donor use?
This is especially important to know when we will be providing an external hard drive to the donor.
Are there any other technical characteristics of these files we should know about?
For example, we’ve learned that highly compressed files can sometimes be hard for us to deal with, as can password-protected files, especially when we don’t have the password.
Are there any documents that complement this material (e.g., a “box” list or inventory, a metadata spreadsheet, etc.)?
This is not a requirement, but it can really help future processors.
When and how should it be transferred?
See Transferring Born-Digital Content below.
Who should we be in contact with to transfer these files? What kind of technical skills do they have? What’s the best way for us to communicate with them?
These questions and their responses should help the archivist and donor develop an understanding about what born-digital content should be delivered, what complementary elements are appropriate (e.g., a “box” list or inventory, a metadata spreadsheet, etc.), and a timeline or schedule for its transfer, especially for larger or ongoing transfers. This document is not meant to serve as a questionnaire, but rather a tool to gain knowledge about the materials and additional metadata. During this preliminary phase, field archivists may also discover information that may benefit processing archivists later on in the lifecycle of this material. This information should be recorded in the “Content Description” or “Processing Plan” fields in ArchivesSpace; for these purposes, being explicit about knowledge gained is preferred.
Transferring Born-Digital Content
We have made use of following methods to facilitate the actual transfer of born-digital content to the Bentley (i.e., the “Transfer” phase of PAIMAS).
Note:
This list is by no means exhaustive.
External Hard Drive Transfers
What they are: Transfers that make use of an external hard drive, a portable storage device that can be attached to a computer through a USB or FireWire connection.
Why we’ve used them: External hard drives are ideal for larger packages of files located on a computer. They have a faster transfer speed (with USB 3.0) than wireless and wired Ethernet connections.
Drawbacks: External hard drives require users to physically move between multiple computers. They also require users to make two transfers (from the source computer to the external hard drive and from the external hard drive to the destination computer), instead of one.
Special considerations:
Windows-formatted external hard drives have a hard time reading from Mac computers, and vice versa. We can read either at the Bentley, but this is especially important to consider in cases where we provide an external hard drive to donors.
Storage capacity in external hard drives can range from about 2 GB to 4 TB. For reference, computers these days usually come with anywhere between about 250GB and 750GB of hard drive space.
Note:
We have a 1 TB, Windows-formatted external hard drive and a 500 GB, Mac-formatted hard drive that can be used to transfer files. Both have USB 3.0 connections and are equipped with file copying software that ensures the authenticity, integrity and security of files. You can find them in 2500B.
Network and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Transfers
What they are: Transfers using protocols that facilitate the transfer of computer files from one computer to another on a computer network.
Why we’ve used them: Transfers on the university’s computer network are particularly (but not exclusively) useful for University Archives transfers. Archivists have been able to connect temporarily to a university donor’s shared drive, for example, and make a copy of files. We can also give university donors access to our “dropbox.”
Drawbacks: To make use of this method, donors may need to have some technical skills and/or the appropriate network access. To use our “dropbox,” for example, they must be comfortable mapping a network drive to their machine.
Note:
The “dropbox” network drive used to transfer files from university donors is located at: “\\bhl-dropbox.m.storage.umich.edu\bhl-dropbox.”
Cloud Transfers
What they are: Transfers using cloud-based content management and file sharing services such as Google Drive (including Team Drive) and Box.
Please note that cloud data is stored on hard drives or servers in much the same way data is usually stored. The difference, however, is that instead of being stored directly on your own personal device (the hard drive on your laptop, for example, or your phone), cloud-based data is stored elsewhere--on servers owned by big companies, usually--and is made accessible to you via the internet.
Why we’ve used them: Many people find storing data on the cloud to be less expensive and more convenient.
Drawbacks: Cloud services, especially personal accounts (Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, iCloud, etc.) may or may not comply with laws, regulations or other policies for sensitive or legally protected information. They’re also generally slower than other methods of transfer, especially for larger transfers. In fact, some services have a limit as to how much can be uploaded or downloaded at a time (Box, for example, has a 15 GB limit).
Special considerations:
Some significant properties (e.g., last modified times) of files may be overwritten when they are downloaded from the cloud. Donors may opt to create an uncompressed ZIP archive of their data to mitigate this risk. Working with cloud transfers can require an additional layer of management, since cloud storage doesn't "fill up" the way that a phsycial box would, or an external storage medium. This means that archivists must ensure that they are on the same page donors as donors about exactly what constitutes a given transfer.
Note:
U-M Box is the University of Michigan's implementation of the Box.com cloud storage and collaboration service. It may be used for university and non-university donors with some types of sensitive data, including Protected Health Information (PHI), if used in the manner which is detailed in the Sensitive Data Guide to IT Services.
Email and Email Attachment Transfers
What they are: Transfers of email.
Why we’ve used them: Email is often the primary way that donors exchange messages with people.
Drawbacks: Our current technical ability to work with email is relatively limited. Email is also messy; it’s typically a mix of business and personal and requires heavy up front appraisal.
Special considerations:
There are two basic options for transferring email:
Export the inbox or the folder/labels in question: In general, we’d prefer the latter. In an ideal world, we'd have them transfer .MBOX files, a platform-independent email file format. That's standard if the donor uses Google Mail, but we're also more than happy to take .PST files if they’re a Microsoft Outlook shop. The following links may be useful:
Download your data for Google Mail email
Export or backup emails, contacts, and calendar to an Outlook .pst file for Microsoft Outlook email
Download a PDF of individual emails. The following links may be useful:
Print Gmail messages for Google Mail email
Save a message as a file for Microsoft Outlook email
There are pros and cons to each of these methods. In general, if it’s a collection of emails, replies, attachments, etc., use the first option. If it’s individual, static emails, use the second.
Note:
The bhl-donors@umich.edu address may be used for recurring newsletters or announcements. Curation staff periodically transfer and accession emails sent to this address.
Course/Project Sites and Content Management System Transfers
What they are: Transfers of born-digital content on university course and project sites like CTools and Canvas or Content Management Systems like SharePoint.
Why we’ve used them: These sites and systems are often the means by which donors manage their files before they’re ready to be archived.
Special considerations:
CTools is being phased out at the university.
Currently, we are only able to download the “Resources” folder from CTools.
When files are managed in SharePoint, we have a program for downloading the files as well as a spreadsheet of system metadata.
Note:
A number of bulk download options exist for getting content out of these systems. We’ve used WebDAV for CTools and Bamboo Products for SharePoint.
G Suite Transfers
What they are: Transfers from G Suite, a brand of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed by Google in use by the university.
Drawbacks: At the moment, there is no one-size-fits all export solution for born-digital content in G Suite--all are imperfect.
Special considerations:
Given the fact that “files” in G Suite are not really files in the traditional sense, a number of significant properties (e.g., text, tables, images, footnotes, links, formatted text, page numbers and colors as well as owner, creation and last modified date, comments, etc.) of documents may be lost when downloaded.
Note:
We have used Google Takeout for G Suite in the past.
Other Transfer Methods
There are many other means of transferring digital content to the Bentley in a way that meets our goals. Please consult with the Lead Archivist for Digital Initiatives if none of the above methods meet your needs.
Validating Transfers
A successful transfer should include a process for validating the transferred born-digital content (i.e., the “Validation” phase of PAIMAS). In practice, the process currently varies from transfer-to-transfer, but it may range in formality from giving the transfer a “once over,” examining it very quickly to see if it looks correct, to ensuring that the checksums of the files reported by the donor match the checksums of the files we received (as is the case with promotion and tenure casebooks).
Next Steps
Once born-digital content has been successfully transferred to the Bentley, archivists will accession it according to our ArchivesSpace Accessions instructions and transfer it to our backlog according to our Transfer to Backlog instructions.