High-Level Requirements for an E-Archives Processing System

Draft, 10/2010 -- 2CUL

Possible Agile-type Stories  /  "Blue Sky"

Accession / Survey

• Archivist is able to work with a pre-processed 'access copy' of archival content for which file conversions, integrity checks, etc. have already been completed (Preprocessed copy retains the original dates of creation / modification and other attributes of files and directories and any original container information; files and directories have already been assigned persistent identifiers; text content has been indexed for easy search and retrieval, etc.)

• Archivist can easily view / play the content of individual files

• Archivist can generate a 'tag cloud,' automatic summary or keyword extract of text-based files to understand their content; system can preserve this information to enhance discovery in a search and retrieval interface

Organization and Arrangement

• Archivist can view an unmodified, sequestered copy of the 'raw' content for reference during processing, with its original directory structure

• Archivist can create and incrementally modify a collection outline at the series and folder level reflecting the intellectual and physical structure of the e-archive being ingested

• Archivist can easily assign files and directories to specific series and subseries ("physical arrangement") in the collection outline, e.g., by drag and drop tools

• Archivist can flexibly assign descriptive, administrative and rights / permissions metadata to files and directories at any level

• Archivist can use a tool to determine whether two specified files are identical

• Archivist with appropriate privileges can 'weed' files and directories from the collection

• Archivist can generate EAD-compatible container list, with links to digital content, for incorporation into a standard finding aid (e.g., integrated into the paper-based portion of the finding aid)

Workflow Functions

• Archivist can bookmark files and directories to return to later

• Archivist can generate reports of problems encountered in reading / accessing files

• Archivists can have different levels of privileges for different types of functions

• Archivist can record progress in processing a collection

• Supervisors can view information about the processing status of a collection