Special Collections receives a large amount of born-digital material every year—this year, more than 10 terabytes and counting. Special Collections and Born Digital Preservation Lab (BDPL) staff work together to image and process the digital material we receive, with the ultimate goal of making this material available through Stanford’s catalog. Here are some highlights of the digital materials we’ve opened for research over the past year.
The ePADD+ Project team is pleased to announce the release of ePADD Version 9.0, along with an update
The Department of Special Collections is thrilled to announce the hire of two new staff members into continuing appointment positions as processing archivists. The positions are funded by the Harold Hohbach Program Endowment, which was created from a gift by the Harold C. and Marilyn A. Hohbach Foundation. These positions will focus on making available collections highlighting the history of science, technology, and those that document changes and developments in Silicon Valley and further afield.
Following the first Version 9.0 Alpha release from the ePADD+ project, a volunteer group of community testers assembled to exercise the new features and offer feedback on bugs, potential enhancements, and documentation. In past ePADD releases, users were openly invited to use the most recent release and report back through Github issues.
The ePADD+ Phase 4 project team is giddy to announce the alpha release of ePADD Version 9!
Special Collections is pleased to announce that the Dennis Witmer collection of Alaska as the Measure (MSS PHOTO 0660) is open for research. The collection consists of the 75-plate photograph portfolio “Alaska as the Measure,” a digital version of the same portfolio, and a series of 41 digital artist books made by Witmer.
The Lighting the Way project team is pleased to announce the publication of Facilitating and Illuminating Emergent Futures for Archival Discovery and Delivery: The Final Report of the Lighting the Way Project. Lighting the Way focused on exploring how networks of people and technology impact archival discovery and delivery (how people find, access, and use material from archives and special collections) and focused on engaging directly with practitioners – archives, library, and technology workers – involved in this work, across roles, job functions, areas of expertise, and levels of positional power. Through a series of in-person and virtual events, the project applied participatory, generative facilitation methods to allow participants to develop future-oriented visions of how to transform archival delivery while also bringing their own experience to bear. The final report is available through the Stanford Digital Repository at its DOI (doi:10.25740/jm302fq5311) and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Lighting the Way project team is pleased to announce the publication of The Lighting the Way Handbook: Case Studies, Guidelines, and Emergent Futures for Archival Discovery and Delivery, edited by M.A. Matienzo and Dinah Handel. It represents the synthesis of the work of participants in the Lighting the Way Working Meeting, a practitioner-focused strategic thinking opportunity intended to explore topics related to archival discovery and delivery. The Lighting the Way Handbook includes case studies on work at specific institutions, chapters exploring the impact of standards and best practices on archival discovery and delivery, and descriptions of emergent opportunities that advocate for new programmatic work, as well as an introduction that contextualizes the chapters, draws thematic connections between them, and provides concrete recommendations about how to advance work on archival discovery and delivery.