Tool Integration: From Pre-SIP to DIP

The digital curation “ecosystem” is made up of any number of tools and systems that perform small, discrete tasks, cover particular file format groups or functional areas of models like the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model, and that even claim, at least, to be more or less comprehensive. This ecosystem is in a constant state of flux, and digital archivists are responsible for stewarding more and more—and more complex—digital content. Despite our wish for a “silver bullet,” all of these tools necessarily specialize in one function or another, and none of them do it all. Managing such a high number of what silos of information and resources are effectively, especially the handoffs of data and metadata between them to support archival workflows, can be overwhelming. 

The good news, at least when it comes to technology, is that many systems these days are designed to connect with one another, and systems integration can “knit” disparate systems together to support a wide variety of archival needs, creating efficient workflows from accession to ingest to access. 

In this course, you can expect an overview of the what, why, and how of systems integration and its role in “knitting” disparate systems together to support a wide variety of workflows in the archival enterprise. If you’re starting from scratch, it will help you design your integrated technical ecosystem and choose tools and systems to comprise it that “play nicely” with others. This will include deeper dives into technologies like common metadata standards and application programming interfaces (APIs), as well as data interoperability protocols and other methodologies that get systems to “talk” to one another, as well as numerous real-world examples of systems integration “in the wild” to inspire you. If you’re starting from an existing workflow that makes use of siloed systems, this course will help you make better use of the affordances of technology to get those systems to work together, better. 

The last module will be devoted to exploring issues at the intersection of archives and technology.