Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials, SPEC Kit 329 (August 2012)

Nelson, Naomi L.; Shaw, Seth; Deromedi, Nancy; Shallcross, Michael; Ghering, Cynthia; Schmidt, Lisa; Belden, Michelle; Esposito, Jackie R.; Goldman, Ben; Pyatt, Tim

SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials · 171
University of Michigan
Quality Assurance for BHL Web Archives
http://bentley.umich.edu/dchome/webarchives/BHL_WebArchives_QAguidelines.pdf
Quality Assurance for Bentley Historical Library Web
Archives: Guidelines and Procedures
Version 1.0 September 21, 2011
Michael Shallcross
Nancy Deromedi
Bentley Historical Library
Digital Curation Division
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 2
ASSESSING QUALITY: DEFINITIONS AND METRICS 3
KNOWN TECHNICAL ISSUES IN WEBSITE PRESERVATION 3
REVIEW OF STRATEGIES AND METHODOLOGIES 4
THE BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY’S APPROACH TO QA 6
EVALUATION GOALS FOR ALL PRESERVED WEBSITES (U OF M AND MHC) 6
EVALUATION GOALS FOR HIGH PRIORITY U OF M AND ALL MHC WEBSITES 7
QA PROCEDURES FOR BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY WEB ARCHIVES 8
COMMON ISSUES AND PROBLEMS WITH WEB CAPTURES 13
VERSION HISTORY 15

Previous Page Next Page

SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials (August 2012) resources

Extracted Text (may have errors)

SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials · 171
University of Michigan
Quality Assurance for BHL Web Archives
http://bentley.umich.edu/dchome/webarchives/BHL_WebArchives_QAguidelines.pdf
Quality Assurance for Bentley Historical Library Web
Archives: Guidelines and Procedures
Version 1.0 September 21, 2011
Michael Shallcross
Nancy Deromedi
Bentley Historical Library
Digital Curation Division
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 2
ASSESSING QUALITY: DEFINITIONS AND METRICS 3
KNOWN TECHNICAL ISSUES IN WEBSITE PRESERVATION 3
REVIEW OF STRATEGIES AND METHODOLOGIES 4
THE BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY’S APPROACH TO QA 6
EVALUATION GOALS FOR ALL PRESERVED WEBSITES (U OF M AND MHC) 6
EVALUATION GOALS FOR HIGH PRIORITY U OF M AND ALL MHC WEBSITES 7
QA PROCEDURES FOR BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY WEB ARCHIVES 8
COMMON ISSUES AND PROBLEMS WITH WEB CAPTURES 13
VERSION HISTORY 15

Help

170 · Representative Documents: Workflows
University of Michigan
BHL Web Archives: Methodology for the Acquisition of Content
http://bentley.umich.edu/dchome/webarchives/BHL_WebArchives_Methodology.pdf
August 2, 2011 9
Tags
WAS also allows archivists to “tag” archived websites with one or more subject
terms to facilitate user access to content. Archivists have therefore created tags that
identified significant groups of interrelated content: for example, the “College of
Engineering” tag identifies all archived websites that are created, maintained, or
associated with this particular college. When browsing the site list of a public
archives, a user may select a tag to review only those archived websites associated
with a specific subject (see Figure 7).
Figure 7
Tags are currently employed in both the Bentley Historical Library Web Archives
additional ones will be created as the collections continue to expand and as
archivists receive feedback from users. Management features in the curatorial
interface allow archivists to modify or delete tags all sites that are denoted by the
affected tags will inherit these changes (see Figure 8).
Figure 8
Many sites in the web archives do not have tags because they do not fit into these
established categories and tagging is only effective when there are a significant
number (i.e. five or more) of related sites. Archivists may, however, add tags to
existing archived websites should the need arise.
With the inclusion of description, metadata, and tags, the archivist may initiate the
web crawl and successfully conclude the workflow for content acquisition.
Archivists regularly meet to discuss the status of the web archives and review
difficult appraisal and content management decisions.

Previous Page Next Page

SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials (August 2012) resources

172 · Representative Documents: Workflows
University of Michigan
Quality Assurance for BHL Web Archives
http://bentley.umich.edu/dchome/webarchives/BHL_WebArchives_QAguidelines.pdf
9/21/2011 2
Introduction
Quality assurance (QA) refers to the systematic evaluation of an activity or product
“to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained.”1
BHL staff involved in the preservation and QA of archived websites should have a
some understanding of the design and architecture of websites (including links,
embedded content, web forms, navigational menus, etc.) as well as basic knowledge
of HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript (JS), and other significant web page
features. A familiarity with the curatorial interface and basic functions of the
California Digital Library (CDL)’s Web Archiving Service (WAS) is also important.
In performing QA on websites preserved by the University Archives and Records
Program (UARP) and Michigan Historical Collections (MHC), the Bentley Historical
Library (BHL) seeks to ensure the accuracy and integrity of its web archives
collections.
During this process, a BHL QA specialist will:
• Identify incomplete, inaccurate, or unsuccessful web captures
• Determine the underlying causes or issues that led to the substandard
captures. This step may require the QA specialist to:
o Verify crawl settings
o Review crawl reports and logs
o Inspect the content, layout, features, and source code of the target site
• Document:
o Any technical limitations, robots.txt exclusions, or other issues that may
have prevented a faithful and accurate capture of a website.
o Contact information for webmasters (if necessary)
o Recommendations to delete captures or initiate new crawls
Given the inherent challenges of various content types and the technical limitations of
the WAS infrastructure, it is not feasible to perfectly preserve the content,
appearance, functionality, and structure of all targeted websites. Although QA may
not resolve all issues with a given archived website, careful documentation will help
to establish the provenance of content and record actions taken by the archives.
Information gathered during QA will also enable the library to revisit problematic
captures as web archiving technology continues to mature.
The CDL’s release of additional quality assurance tools and reporting features for
WAS in late May/early June 2011 will require the revision of these guidelines and
procedures. This document will also be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that
the information and procedures contained herein are current and applicable.
1 “Quality assurance.” Wikipedia (May 5, 2011). Retrieved on May 6, 2011 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_assurance.

Previous Page Next Page

Page 9Survey Results click to expand contents

Page 91Representative Documents click to expand contents

Page 93Job Descriptions click to expand contents

Page 113Collection Policies click to expand contents

Page 121Gift/Purchase Agreements click to expand contents

Page 127Format Policies click to expand contents

Page 153Workflows click to expand contents

Page 197Selected Resources click to expand contents

SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials (August 2012) resources

All section downloads (PDF) click to expand contents

Extracted Text (may have errors)

Help

loading

SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials (August 2012) resources

SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials (August 2012) resources