Mixed Bag: Describing and Publishing a Collection of Open and Restricted Born-Digital Records using Digital Objects

Abstract

Arranging and describing collections with mixed open and restricted content can be tricky, and especially tricky when working with born-digital records. Likewise, as with physical material it is often not practical to describe born-digital material to the item level. This presentation will show a method of representing both the openly accessible and restricted born-digital material within a single collection. The method uses folder-level description combined with the published/unpublished feature in ArchivesSpace’s digital objects. This provides a record for all born-digital files in the collection, with a public link to the repository for open material, and a hidden digital object accessible from the staff interface only. This method balances the need for basic description of restricted content while providing privacy to the donor’s materials, and provides maximum clarity for researchers in what is accessible and what is not. It also allows staff to quickly find and access the material when needed, and any temporarily restricted material can be published and unrestricted easily at a later date. The presentation will show this method using a DSpace repository and DSpace’s published/unpublished feature for objects, but it is applicable to other systems as well.