Email Preservation in Collecting Repositories: Some Suggested Strategies

Pieczko, Brandon T.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/114421 Copy

Description

Title

Email Preservation in Collecting Repositories: Some Suggested Strategies

Author(s)

Pieczko, Brandon T.

Issue Date

2012-03-03

Keyword(s)

email; digital preservation; archives; library and information science

Abstract

Paper presented at “Back to the Future: Reconciling the Past, Present, and Future in Archives and Special Collections—A Conference for Graduate Students and Beginning Professionals in Archives, Rare Books, and Special Collections,” Indiana University Bloomington, on March 3, 2012. Personal correspondence has long been recognized by manuscript curators, archivists, and their researchers as an invaluable resource for gaining insight into the lives of individuals and the broader sociocultural and historical environments they inhabit. However, as the personal and professional communications of many people have become increasingly electronically-mediated, the future existence of contemporary correspondence in collecting repositories is dependent on the ability of archivists to successfully meet the challenges associated with preserving electronic correspondence and making it accessible to researchers. This paper examines the preservation and long-term accessibility of electronic correspondence in collecting repositories as a microcosm of the challenges that are inherent in preserving born-digital personal records in general. In particular, it will look at the challenges associated with email preservation from the perspective of smaller collecting repositories which have limited staff and resources necessary to implement and maintain the kind of ideal digital archives systems that are promoted throughout the digital preservation literature.

Type of Resource

• text
• still image

Language

en

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/114421

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/114421

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