Processing Information

Actions and conventions include but are not limited to reconstruction of provenance, maintenance, reconstruction, or alteration of original order, devising titles for materials, weeding, redaction, and maintenance or provision of control numbers or container numbers.

Describe in this note actions taken and by whom. Insert a sentence at the end stating, if you would like more details about DDC's processing procedures, please see the processing manual or contact Distinctive Collections.

Examples

Example 1

Some materials in this collection were formerly designated as the Technology Dames records (MC-0384). Between 1994 and 1995 the collection was renamed the Technology Community Wives records (AC-0320). The collection was again renamed in 2017 as the Tech Community Women records.

Example 2

Arrangement of the collection was partly reconstructed based on Hal Abelson's "File Index" which was arranged alphabetically. Additional information added to some file level descriptions to better describe contents. Some duplicate and transactional materials were discarded during processing.

Example 3: disk imaging

Digital files originally housed on 25 3.5-inch floppy disks. Greta Suiter, processing archivist, imaged the disks using Guymager and migrated to Distinctive Collections storage. Once files had been extracted, disk images were deleted.

Example 4: logical transfer

Digital files transferred from network drive using Exactly, original last modified dates were not maintained or recorded.

Example 5: digital weeding

• Duplicate files were identified by MD5 checksum match and Joe Carrano, digital archivist, removed duplicates from the collection.
• Collection scanned for PII using the bulk_extractor tool and digital bank account statements found. Processing associate, Chris Tanguay, deleted files containing those numbers from the collection.
•  Virus scan run using Clam AV and 12 malware files found. Women@MIT project archivist, Alex McGee, documented and deleted those files from the collection.

Example 6: digital rearrangement

There were a large number of unfoldered digital files in the Lisa Peattie’s top-level directory on her hard drive (2020_029_047). Digital archivist, Joe Carrano, moved those files into one folder called “unfoldered_office_files” to improve researcher access.

Example 7: digital redaction

Collection scanned for PII using the bulk_extractor tool and social security numbers found. Original files restricted but access copies were redacted by Processing Team manager, Rachel Van Unen using Adobe Acrobat.

Example 8: digital renaming

Files have been renamed using Archivematica as per name normalization conventions. For more information, see the Archivematica documentation.

Example 9: digital file conversion

Video files were originally stored on a DVD. Digital archivist, Joe Carrano, created an .ISO image of the disc using the Brasero software tool and then converted the files into a single .mp4 file using Handbrake. The .ISO image was then deleted.