Toward an Integrated Plan for Digital Preservation and Access to Primary Anthropological Data (AnthroDataDPA): A Four-Field Workshop

Human Relations Area Files, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the creation of a comprehensive plan for digital preservation and access for primary anthropological data, including fieldnotes, photographs, measurements, and recordings. The goal is a strategic and coordinated plan that includes methods and standards for digitization, long-term preservation of digital objects, ethical standards, and inter-archive interoperability. Without a coordinated plan, the promise of digital access will not be achieved. The first step in this project to hold a broad-based workshop of archivists, anthropologists, and technology specialists to decide on the basics of a strategic integrated plan for primary anthropological data. The second step is to circulate the plan outline, flesh out the details, and disseminate a revised plan on the web. The third step is to liaison with major anthropological organizations and organizations engaged in or planning digital and preservation activities to encourage them to join this integrated effort. The workshop conferees will also discuss practical ways to fund future efforts. Data preservation and sharing are central to all research. The digital age and the web have given anthropological researchers new opportunities for sharing research materials, including unique firsthand accounts of peoples and cultures that no longer exist, accounts unavailable to others because they reside in anthropologists' offices, file cabinets, computers, laboratories, or in limited access repositories. Data sharing depends upon research data being preserved. All too often, primary anthropological data are lost to the scholarly world with the illness or death of the person who collected them. This is a loss of potential long-term benefit from research investment as well as loss of irreplaceable data. Preservation and access to the observations of human life around the world are not just important for anthropology and other social sciences. The public has a strong interest in understanding all aspects of the human condition. The development of a coordinated plan for digital preservation and access should be of interest to libraries, archives, repositories, and information technology specialists and may serve as a model for preservation and access programs in other disciplines.