Special Collections Education Series

Introduction to Archival Description & DACS

What is archival description, and why does it matter? This session introduces the concept of archival description as well as a standard to guide this kind of work, Describing Content: a Content Standard (DACS). Viewers will learn what types of information are included in archival descriptions, the different levels of archival description, and how to interpret the guidance of DACS.

DACS Identity Elements: P1

This session begins looking at some of the required Identity Elements (Ch.2) of archival description, focusing on repository information, creator, and title. Viewers will learn what each element is for, what information should be captured for each element, and see a few examples.

DACS Identity Elements: P2

This session continues to look at DACS Identity Elements (Ch. 2), focusing on date, extent, and administrative/biographical history. Viewers will learn what each element is for, what information should be captured, and see a few examples be populated.

DACS Content, Access & Use, and Description Control Elements

This session will look at required elements for three different chapters: Content & Structure (Ch. 3), Conditions of Access & Use (Ch. 4), and Description Control (Ch. 8). For each, viewers will learn what each element is for, what information it should contain, and see examples identifying and/or populating them.

DACS Access Elements

This session focuses on Access Elements, an optimum-level element of archival description. These standardized, specific terms will permit faster and more precise searching of materials. Viewers will learn how to choose access points and use databases to format them consistently, providing the best results for searching and maintaining the description in the future.

Archival Description in Action

Welcome to the final session of this introductory archival description series. Now that all of the required elements of archival description have been reviewed (as well as a few optimum), they will be combined to show how they can be applied, expanded, and reused in the future!

Registered participants can access the course webpage at the following link.

Archival Description Workshop Course Page

*Note: This page is password-protected for the privacy of participants. Participants, the access password was included in the welcome email for the course. Please contact Katelyn Legacy-Roulston (katelyn@nnyln.org) with any questions.

Introduction to Digitization 
October 10, 2024
11:00 am, online webinar (Recording)
What is digitization? This question may seem obvious to many, but there are a lot of factors that should be considered before starting a digitization project. What kind of planning should be done? What resources are needed to complete a successful project? How do you maintain the new digital files that were created?

Nominating Collections for Digitization
October 24, 2024
11:00 am, online webinar (Recording)
How do you choose what to digitize? This webinar will focus on evaluating and assessing collections to determine what materials are the best candidates for digitization. Participants will learn how to develop a basic digital collection development policy, create selection criteria, and assess physical collections for digitization candidates.

Preparing for Digitization
November 7
11:00 am, online webinar (Recording)
The power is in the planning! This webinar will focus on components to include in a digitization plan for your institution to ensure consistency and accuracy for your digitization program whether you do one project or many, do the work yourself or with a vendor. Participants will learn how to assess their own capabilities, make informed decisions about their digitization specifications, and prepare their physical materials for digitization.

Digital Imaging
November 21, 2024
11:00 am, online webinar (Recording)
Lights, camera, action! This webinar will walk participants through the process of digitizing their selected materials to create a digital surrogate. Topics to be addressed include handling material for digitization, applying desired digitization specifications, and establishing digitization workflows for different types of archival materials, including tips and tricks to get a great image.

Processing Digitized Materials
December 5, 2024
11:00 am, online webinar (Recording)
I have digitized materials, so now what? Creating digital files is just the beginning of the road for these new electronic records. This webinar will focus on turning your digitized files into a final product that aligns with your quality standards to be found and used. Topics include post-production (cropping, file naming, file creation), quality control measures, controlled vocabularies, and metadata creation.

Storing & Maintaining Digitized Materials
December 19, 2024
11:00 am, online webinar (Recording)
Digital files require ongoing maintenance to be preserved and used in the future. This webinar will focus on introducing the basics of digital preservation.  Furthermore, it will take a hands-on approach to introduce resources to evaluate your resources and storage options to find a solution that will work best for your institution.