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The main objective of this case study paper is to describe the State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) implementation strategy and technical architecture model for implementing a sustainable technology platform for the delivery of electronic services as part of its atmitchell.com initiative.

This paper is based on practical experience and knowledge gained by the SLNSW atmitchell.com project team as part of implementing the project strategy i.e. the three main horizons, defining the target technical architecture model and undertaking the technology evaluation to select appropriate technology vendors and products for digitisation, digital asset management, content management and system integration services.

The paper finds that the implementation strategy for atmitchell.com, i.e. to implement the project in three main horizons or phases, was critical to the success of this initiative. Defining a target architecture model to address the key issues and challenges within the SLNSW enterprise was also useful during the technology evaluation and selection process.

This case study paper focuses mainly on the implementation strategy and technical architecture developed by SLNSW to implement the atmitchell.com initiative. The key issues related to data, process and network are specific to the SLNSW enterprise. Cultural institutions with similar information technology (IT) systems and challenges can use the target technical architecture model described in this paper as a reference model to develop their organisation's target architecture model. The findings and lessons learned from SLNSW technology evaluation and tender process combined with the strategy adopted early on by SLNSW to implement the atmitchell.com initiative in three main horizon or phases will be valuable information for solution architects, IT managers and senior management executives of cultural organisations that are planning to embark in to similar initiatives.

While the obstacles of archiving endangered languages are significant, the question of which platform is best for building a digital language archive is constantly present. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and analyse digital language archives development platforms, such as content management systems (CMSs), digital repositories and archival collections management systems (ACMSs) using parameters that have been specified. The authors selected Mukurtu CMS, which is based on Drupal CMS; DSpace as the digital repository software; and ArchivesSpace as an ACMS in this study.

The current research is supported by a study of the literature and a detailed exploration of different systems used to develop digital language archives. The whole research is carried out in three steps: literature searching; identification of relevant literature; and parameter identification, exploration of tools and data reporting and analysis.

Following the technical and feature analysis of these tools, it can be concluded that they are more or less comparable, as well as constantly evolving, updating and having a bigger community base. It may be determined that DSpace is the most popular platform, but the other two, particularly ArchivesSpaces, are fierce competitors.

This study outlines the technical prerequisites for creating a digital language archive, which will be useful to IT personnel working on these projects. The research is also useful for tool developers as it allows them to incorporate missing functionality and technical standards by comparing them to alternatives. The parameters established in this study can be used for similar studies in other domains, as well as for evaluating existing digital language archives.

The findings of this study have broad practical implications, and they can assist archivists, linguists, language communities and library and information science professionals in choosing an appropriate platform for building a digital language archive.

This study finds that there is relatively little effort made towards reviewing digital language archiving and the systems that are used to do it; thus, this study is carried out to assess and analyse digital language archive creation systems based on defined parameters. The parameters were discovered through a combination of the available literature and tool discovery. Using a parametric approach to evaluate tools yields unique insights and quickly reveals system flaws.

In the future, library applications related to traditional functions may increasingly assume some of the roles and characteristics of archives and museums. In this article, the author describes fundamental archival concepts and theories and their evolution in recent times. Basic archival functions—appraisal, arrangement, description, reference, preservation, and publication—are also introduced. Finally, early applications of automation to archives (including SPINDEX, NARS‐5, NARS‐A‐1, MARC AMC, presNET, CTRACK, PHOTO, and DIARY) and automation trends for the future are discussed. The article presents a cogent introduction to archival operations, thereby providing 1) a basis for understanding distinctions between current archival and library practices and 2) insight concerning the possible convergence of selected roles and functions.

The purpose of this study was to examine the strategies for the preservation of archival materials in the International Council on Archives Section on University and Research Institution Archives (ICA SUV) by the members and to make recommendations for the digital archival preservation to continue its accessibility during the national lockdown because of COVID–19.

This study is based on the survey conducted on the ICA SUV members during the national lockdown. The study used a survey research methodology through e-mails as data collection instruments.

The key findings revealed that most of the sections on university and research institution archives lack digitization preservation strategies and most of their records are not accessible online, as most of their collections are still preserved manually through the paper-based system; furthermore, archivists are not fully trained on digital management. The paper recommends universities to develop preservation strategies to migrate records from the paper-based system to electronic records management system.

The population of the study comprised ICA SUV members, who responded to the survey. Therefore, the sample size and geographical spread were inadequate for generalization of the findings. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that accessibility of the archives was dependent on the quality of digitized archives.

This study demonstrates that the development of a preservation strategy enhances access to archival materials during the national lockdown because of COVID–19.

This paper highlights the plight of university archives and reiterates the need for urgent digitization of their archives of universities all over the world.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this paper appears to be the first to review the responsibilities of archivists now and in the future as the result of COVID–19. This study is confirmed to be on the positive side of COVID–19 and change the archive sector by adapting to information communication technology.

This paper aims to advocate that significant human and systems-based capabilities (termed “socio-technical capabilities”) need to be developed in government departments and other public sector organisations to support more effective description of information resources, collections and their context in online environments.

The ideas in this paper draw upon the findings of several action research interventions undertaken within a government department in Victoria in Australia since 2011 as part of a knowledge management initiative. Specific focus is given to the design and development of a new record-centric knowledge curation tool (KCT).

Effective functioning of KCT relies upon the input of well-structured, standards-based metadata used to describe collections, information resources and their context. The central claim is that the move towards standards-based descriptions will fundamentally change the capabilities required to manage, search for and disseminate knowledge and records.

In addition to the capabilities discussed, management of records and knowledge through time requires commitments to stable repository, workflow and administrative systems, and working with contemporary systems involves technical knowledge such as the use of application programming interfaces. These aspects are not discussed here.

The capabilities discussed in this paper are socio-technical in nature. This means there is a requirement to shift current perspectives about who is responsible for managing organisational information as collections.

While some of the concepts discussed will be familiar to information professionals, the paper provides a unique description of how existing archival and recordkeeping practices are being integrated in innovative ways within organisations outside the information management professions.

The topic of personal archives has mainly been discussed by two research traditions in information science: archives and records management, and personal information management. The purpose of this paper is to compare a corpus of the archival literature written by the archival community with the concepts and challenges posed by Catherine Marshall, who exemplifies the personal information management approach. Many of the personal digital archiving challenges that Marshall identifies are related to discussions within the archival community.

In order to demonstrate the similarities between Marshall's work with the archival discussion about personal archiving, Marshall's challenges, tasks and attributes of personal digital archiving were compared with a total of 33 articles from two library and information science databases.

Many of the personal digital archiving challenges that Marshall identifies are related to discussions in the archival community. The author suggests that certain aspects of the archival literature may be utilized to address Marshall's identified challenges. Lastly, future collaborations between members of the archival community and members of the personal information management community may prove useful in addressing the challenges of personal digital archiving

The paper demonstrates that two areas of information science share ideas about how to address the issues related to personal archives, but rarely consult one another when writing about personal digital archiving. The author highlights the archives and records management tradition in an attempt to introduce the literature to the broader discussion on personal digital archives being had by the personal information management tradition.

This paper aims to examine the attitudes and experiences of information professionals with descriptive standards and collection management systems (CMSs) used for managing documentary heritage collections held by cultural heritage institutions in New Zealand (NZ). The aim is that such insights will inform decision-making around promoting documentary heritage collections discoverability and accessibility, in terms of advocating for appropriate system requirements when procuring or updating CMSs, and application of descriptive standards.

A qualitative design was applied to investigate the attitudes and experiences of information professionals working in libraries, archives and records management institutions, museums and public galleries. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with thirteen participants who worked across ten different cultural heritage institutions.

The findings reveal that variances among metadata in libraries, museums, public galleries, archives and records management institutions continue to lead to challenges around discovery and access of documentary heritage. If opportunities for connecting documentary heritage collections in the age of linked data are to be realized, the sector needs to work collectively to address these variances along with consideration of the CMSs used. The study findings highlight issues currently affecting the NZ cultural heritage sector goal to make collections discoverable and more widely accessible.

The findings highlight a need for deeper research into CMSs used by the cultural heritage sector as these systems have an impact on metadata management including constraining the application of appropriate descriptive standards for documentary heritage collections.

Archives and records are important resources for individuals, organizations and the country. The academic archives are created and maintained for the effective execution of university educational and corporate functions. The archives management practices in universities are being studied in the developed countries; however, a scarcity of empirical research is observed in the context of developing countries, for instance, Pakistan. Thus, the purpose of this study is to assess the archives management practices performed in the archival units of University of the Punjab (UoP), Lahore, in association with the successful execution of university educational functions.

A structured survey questionnaire was developed to collect responses from the record-keepers and archives monitoring staff using a complete enumerative (census) approach. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS 23.0 in addition to structural equation modeling (SEM) run in AMOS 22v.

The findings of this study revealed an inconsistency regarding the policies and procedures, arrangement and filing records and access and retrieval due to the practice of self-developed procedures in the UoP archival units. Although archives management practices have significant impact on university academic as well as research-related functions, however, there is lack of centralized and standardized practices for archiving records in the UoP. Lack of professional/trained staff and policy document are key limitations in building systematic and standardized archives management system in academic intuitions, particularly in the UoP.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study in Pakistan that has explored archives management practices used in university archives. It also contributes theoretically and methodologically through the underpinnings of archival principles in association with university functions and developing a validated scale to explore archives management practices in universities. The findings of this study may be helpful for the concerned bodies, university administrations and archives managers to establish, manage and improve the academic archives systematically.

University archives (UA) are the bridge between the past and the present and serve as a beacon for highlighting the contribution of academic institutions to society. Although the UA topic was introduced and formalized in the 1950s, the scientific research interest has increased significantly in the past two decades. This paper aims to provide insights into the UA research topic during the previous 15 years.

The combination of two well-established methods for performing literature review was deployed, aiming to identify, select and assess the research documents. Based on the selection criteria, 49 documents presenting research efforts around the UA topic were finally examined from the Scopus citation index. The selected studies have been classified into three main topics: strategic management of UA and the derived challenges, the educational contribution of UA and the strategic information systems for UA.

Some of the main findings are the lack of well-defined administrative policies, the low level of awareness and archival consciousness within the universities, the inadequacy of university archivists’ educational and training background, the need to use UA for building relationships with alumni and society, and finally, the need for metadata standardization by the UA management systems.

As a literature review around UA has not been conducted before, the reader will gain insights into the methods and research designs that other scholars had already applied to designate useful findings and results.