This documentation describes how to connect devices to a processing computer in order transfer digital collections material so that we have it in an accessible digital format in a storage location managed by the Department of Distinctive Collections.

Preliminary Steps

The first task is to identify the type of media you are imaging or transferring files from. The University of Texas, San Antonio has created a guide that is helpful in identifying common types of media, it is available here: http://lib.utsa.edu/knowyourmedia/

Preliminary Accession record

Create an accession record for the digital material that you are working with, for now it will just be a brief record so that you have an accession number to use with the resulting digital package. This will be one accession for all of the media contained in an unprocessed portion of a collection or a new unaccessioned transfer. If it is part of an unaccessioned transfer with analog records, everything will be accessioned together.

  • Follow the steps in the Creating Accession Records in ArchivesSpace manual. This accession record will be updated as you go through this workflow, at this point it is important to have an accession number which you can use for folder naming purposes. 

  • Once you have your stub accession record, create a folder in the shared folder and title it with the accession number with an underscore instead of a dash and acc at the end, for instance: 2020_029acc. If accessible in BitCurator (sometimes won’t show up) or using Windows, the folder can be created either C:\ArchProcessing or on the FRED, C:\Users\DSLabAdmin\ArchProcessing. If not accessible on BitCurator, you can use an external hard drive.

Label and photograph the media

We will want to label each piece of media in order to keep track of where the files came from and for easy identification. If the item is just a transfer device, we will end up not keeping the media. We will label each item as we’ll label each of the resulting packages: Accession Number underscore item number. For instance 2020_029_001 would be what you write on the first item labeled.

  • For 8’’, 5.25’’, and 3.5” disks, write on the disk label. 

  • For USB devices or hard drives, you can use photo envelopes, artifact tags, or writing on it with a Sharpie (for things like larger external hard drives).

  • For optical media, write with a Sharpie on the inner ring of the disk (the portion without a reflective surface on the back). You should also write on the housing (sleeve or jewel case).

Before starting on the transfer process, photograph the outside of the media for reference when describing the object later. If the media has hand-written text on the label or other contextual information, we will retain this photograph along with the transferred files.

Connecting drives and devices


MIT. Libraries. Distinctive Collections.
Archives Processing Manual.