Born-Digital Access Working Group

Welcome! This is the starter page for the Born-Digital Access Working Group (BDAWG).

The DLF Born-Digital Access Working Group (BDAWG), formed in 2017, produces research on and advances the practice of providing access to born-digital collections. Current activities center on researching born-digital access practices, determining levels of access for born-digital materials, and hosting archivist bootcamps to share ideas and tools for providing access to born-digital materials. While our primary focus is currently on participatory archival research & development, we are intentionally situated under the Digital Library Federation to connect across disciplinary silos. We welcome any librarians or other types of workers who are concerned with providing access to born-digital data of any age into our community and projects.

We are continually building on this wiki so check back for updates as we make this a useful tool for the group and all of DLF. In the meantime, read more here about the group's formation and affiliation with DLF.

Community of Practice

This group strives to create a community of practice and engagement around issues related to born-digital access. In 2020, BDWAG published its first three publications. The Levels of Born-Digital Access guidelines are a set of format-agnostic baseline practices for born-digital access, laying out concrete and actionable recommendations that individual institutions can consider implementing according to their needs, resources, and abilities. “Collecting User Experiences, Needs, and Desires for Accessing Born-Digital Archival Collections: Survey Analysis” is an analysis based on surveys of users of born-digital materials on their actual and desired access experiences. Our Access Values aim to establish a shared set of community values around digital access, especially with regard to born-digital archival collection material.

The group’s main mode of communication for all projects is the Google group. All are welcome to join. The group is also planning to use the Slack platform for communication.

The group has also conducted occasional Twitter chats (#bdaccess) to gain insight on how researchers want to access and use born-digital archives. You can read select chat recaps (chat 1 and chat 2), and let us know if you want to help lead a future chat.

Subgroups

Current Subgroups

Providing access

• Visioning Access Systems (Claire Williams, #visioning-access-systems Slack channel)
• Accessibility in Born-Digital Access Tools (co-lead: Lydia Tang; looking for second, #accessibility Slack channel)
• Cloud Storage for Born-Digital Access (co leads: Matt McEniry and Caterina Reed, #cloud-storage Slack channel)
• Remote Site Visits and Transfers (Annalise Berdini,#remote-visits-transfers Slack channel)

Preparing to provide access

• Legal due diligence (Camille Tyndall Watson, #legal Slack channel)

Case studies and tools

• User Studies [further conversations regarding the 2020 access study] (co-leads needed, #user-studies Slack channel)
• Development list of finding aids including Born Digital description (one potential co-lead pending commitment from a second, #finding-aids Slack channel)

BDAWG Maintenance

• Levels maintenance (Brian Dietz and Shira Peltzman, #levels-maintenance Slack channel)
• Communication (Jennifer Wachtel & Abigail Sachs, #communications Slack channel)

Education and Advocacy

• Education and Advocacy (Alex Werner-Colan,#education-advocacy Slack channel)

Former Subgroups

• Access Practices and Outreach
• Levels of Access
• Access Values
• Donor Relations

Deliverables

Sub-Groups of DLF BDAWG are continually producing documents and recommendations from their work. As products are completed, the sub-groups will share the published versions via OSF project pages or through Google Drive.

Past Sub-Group Project Deliverables include: Born-Digital Access Bootcamps Levels of Born-Digital Access Access Practices Access Values

Get Involved

The group meets every 2 months from 2pm to 3pm on the first Tuesday of the month as of Summer 2021. If you are interested in joining in the bi-monthly call, email info@diglib.org for the Zoom information and reach out to the group’s current chairs to be added to the meeting invite. Often during meetings, calls are made for volunteers to join new sub-groups or attendees are asked if they have a sub-group they would like to propose. Getting involved is easy and you can make the experience what you’d like. On Slack, we share announcements and coordinate event schedules. Join the Slack conversation at dlf-bdawg.slack.com. Email the BDAWG Google Group for an invitation to the Slack.

Coordination

DLF BDAWG is co-facilitated by two members who help coordinate activities across the many subgroups, schedule and facilitate bi-monthly meetings, and liaise with DLF staff for community needs. Elections are held once a year to rotate new coordinators. Subgroups have a point person who we also call a coordinator, but for most projects, facilitation and leadership rotates fluidly through the subgroup until the project is complete.

History

Read more about the group's formation and affiliation with DLF here.

Publication Workflow

• Draft and develop a review plan for your publication. Typically BDAWG publications go through internal group review, then a wider public review. Typically BDAWG publications are drafted in Google Drive and then published as a PDF. Include everyone in the subgroup who participated in the project as an author of the publication. Include commenters and feedback providers as contributors to your publication.
• Find out if there is someone in your subgroup who can stage the publication in Adobe Illustrator using DLF’s publishing template.
• As you approach a completion date for editing, reach out to Gayle Schecter, CLIR Program Associate, and copy BDAWG coordinators. If someone on your team has access to Adobe Illustrator, request the DLF Illustrator template. If no one in your subgroup has access to Illustrator, explain this to Gayle and ask what further publication support can be provided. Share your expected timeline for completing the draft to hand over, and any other dependencies you have (i.e., we are hoping to present the publication at a conference on particular date). Let Gayle know approximate dates you’d like to tweet and when you’ll send the tweets.
• If your publication is for a subgroup that has not yet been set up in OSF, set up a subgroup space in OSF. Contact the BDAWG coordinators and Gayle for access. Invite everyone from your subgroup as authors on the OSF project page.
• Draft some Tweets and email announcements to share your publication.
• Once the publication is complete, upload to OSF. Add the link to all your communication templates.
• Share the link with the BDAWG Communications team to be added to the Wiki
• Share your drafted Tweets with Gayle
• Send emails to listservs announcing your published resource, and go forth to share at conferences, events, and anywhere else people care about access!