SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials · 75
Most files are kept on disk space managed by the Carolina Digital Repository, but extremely large or numerous files are
kept on a tape-based storage system.
Not within Special Collections, but other units in the library are using other systems (Bepress, Luna).
Secure file system storage and Fedora are for dark archive material and deep storage. Fedora use is still in test stages, so
it may also be used for access copies of digital content at a future time.
The institutional repository (DSpace) manages simple files. Secure file systems storage is used for complex datasets with
access through DSpace. CONTENTdm manages curated special collections.
There are three repositories currently in use, although none of them are recommended for preservation, only access.
The Libraries uses CONTENTdm for access to born-digital archives and special collections (e-Archives), the NanoHub for
access to born-digital faculty research data sets (PURR-Purdue University Research Repository), and Digital Commons
from Bepress (e-Pubs) as an institutional repository for access to faculty research articles, pre-prints, electronic theses
and dissertations, etc.
Theses and dissertations repository provided by library consortia uses DSpace. Everything else managed on original
media and/or file system storage.
We can’t put everything in our Access digital repository. Collections such as copyright protected sound recordings,
audiovisual material, sound files are only available on a case-by-case basis in-house or through limited time hosting
platform (Omeka exhibit).
We have Scholar Commons for access to faculty documents that are born-digital and we have CONTENTdm that
might be used for born-digital library collections, but has not really yet. There are a few films and oral histories in
CONTENTdm, but that database is not for preservation, just access.
We manage preservation and access of books digitized by Google and Microsoft in Hathi Trust.
We use a Digital Asset Management system to catalog and manage multi-media material (mostly photographs and
some audio and video). This system is for back-end use only. We export from it to other delivery systems as appropriate.
We use a DSpace repository for our text-based, born-digital archival materials as well as for some content exported from
our DAMS. The California Digital Library’s Web Archiving Service is used for managing web-based content.
We use an institutional repository to manage scholarly content, CONTENTdm for managing our digital collections and
OJS for managing journal content.
We’re moving from scattered RAIDs, servers, etc. to the Isilon.
While we don’t currently use different repository systems, Special Collections/University Archives plans to purchase an
electronic records management system in the near future, which will probably be a commercial system independent of
the library’s Fedora repository. However, records of scholarly value that can be made openly available will be shared
with RUcore.
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