SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials · 23
The breakdown of FTE hours to staff above reflects one person, the Digital Archivist, working solely on collecting and
managing born-digital materials as well as 5 other staff members spending part of their time to reach the equivalent of
2.0 FTE. These numbers do not include those outside of the special collections unit, such as in preservation, technical
services, and IT units, who help to develop systems like repositories and catalogs that help manage these materials.
There are currently two individuals in our Special Collections Department who play (and will continue to play) a key role
in collecting and managing born-digital materials, but given the primary responsibilities of these individuals, their time
(collectively) does not constitute even a single FTE.
Digital Curation/Repository Staff
Although we are collecting and managing born-digital materials, there are not specific job descriptions within the
archives that are related to such activities. Working with born-digital content is under the purview of archivists and
select staff. The library does have a digital preservation coordinator but that position addresses only select parts of
managing born-digital content.
Archives and Digital Collections both expect to have a role in managing these materials.
We have one professional managing our institutional repository.
We have three collection areas for our repository where we collect and manage born-digital materials. The core
collections manager works with scholarly resources (ETDs, faculty deposits, and general collections), as well as
providing oversight for all born-digital collections. The Digital Archivist oversees Special Collections/University Archives
collections. The research collection manager manages research data. The research associate (new position) assists him
with faculty outreach and collection building. Research data is a rapidly growing area for born-digital materials. The
Digital Data Curator sets digital preservation standards and manages the ingest, durability, and security of all digital
collections and the Digital Projects Coordinator oversees the workflow of all digital collection building. None of these
positions works exclusively with born-digital materials, but all work with some percentage of born-digital materials. We
estimate that born-digital resources represent approximately 20–25% of our current collection ingest. We have many
positions that create metadata and develop tools for the repository but they are not specifically tasked with collecting
and managing born-digital materials.
Various units/unit not specified
Arts Library has 2 FTE plus 2 students at 25% Research Data Curation figures include both librarians who work on
collections and technology staff who build the storage and discovery applications.
Currently .5 plan to hire one FTE this year, and train an existing FTE the following year. So the above reflects this.
Includes Electronic Records Archivists, Digital Curation Librarian, IT Staff.
Institutional Repository (IR) Coordinator, Digital Humanities Librarian, staff in the Digital Development and Web Services
Unit, staff in the Digital Library Center within the Digital Services and Shared Collections Department, and faculty and
staff in the Special and Area Studies Collections Department.
It is difficult for us to break out FTEs for this work, as it is generally integrated with other work. For example, our
Records Manager is responsible for working with digital content from the university our Digital Initiatives Librarian
works with born-digital as well as digitized content, etc. We also have three people outside special collections areas that
spend a portion of their time working with electronic theses and dissertations they are not included in this figure.
Most of the staff involved with these projects participate less than full-time. Group includes librarians, technicians,
developers, and project managers.
The breakdown of FTE hours to staff above reflects one person, the Digital Archivist, working solely on collecting and
managing born-digital materials as well as 5 other staff members spending part of their time to reach the equivalent of
2.0 FTE. These numbers do not include those outside of the special collections unit, such as in preservation, technical
services, and IT units, who help to develop systems like repositories and catalogs that help manage these materials.
There are currently two individuals in our Special Collections Department who play (and will continue to play) a key role
in collecting and managing born-digital materials, but given the primary responsibilities of these individuals, their time
(collectively) does not constitute even a single FTE.
Digital Curation/Repository Staff
Although we are collecting and managing born-digital materials, there are not specific job descriptions within the
archives that are related to such activities. Working with born-digital content is under the purview of archivists and
select staff. The library does have a digital preservation coordinator but that position addresses only select parts of
managing born-digital content.
Archives and Digital Collections both expect to have a role in managing these materials.
We have one professional managing our institutional repository.
We have three collection areas for our repository where we collect and manage born-digital materials. The core
collections manager works with scholarly resources (ETDs, faculty deposits, and general collections), as well as
providing oversight for all born-digital collections. The Digital Archivist oversees Special Collections/University Archives
collections. The research collection manager manages research data. The research associate (new position) assists him
with faculty outreach and collection building. Research data is a rapidly growing area for born-digital materials. The
Digital Data Curator sets digital preservation standards and manages the ingest, durability, and security of all digital
collections and the Digital Projects Coordinator oversees the workflow of all digital collection building. None of these
positions works exclusively with born-digital materials, but all work with some percentage of born-digital materials. We
estimate that born-digital resources represent approximately 20–25% of our current collection ingest. We have many
positions that create metadata and develop tools for the repository but they are not specifically tasked with collecting
and managing born-digital materials.
Various units/unit not specified
Arts Library has 2 FTE plus 2 students at 25% Research Data Curation figures include both librarians who work on
collections and technology staff who build the storage and discovery applications.
Currently .5 plan to hire one FTE this year, and train an existing FTE the following year. So the above reflects this.
Includes Electronic Records Archivists, Digital Curation Librarian, IT Staff.
Institutional Repository (IR) Coordinator, Digital Humanities Librarian, staff in the Digital Development and Web Services
Unit, staff in the Digital Library Center within the Digital Services and Shared Collections Department, and faculty and
staff in the Special and Area Studies Collections Department.
It is difficult for us to break out FTEs for this work, as it is generally integrated with other work. For example, our
Records Manager is responsible for working with digital content from the university our Digital Initiatives Librarian
works with born-digital as well as digitized content, etc. We also have three people outside special collections areas that
spend a portion of their time working with electronic theses and dissertations they are not included in this figure.
Most of the staff involved with these projects participate less than full-time. Group includes librarians, technicians,
developers, and project managers.
