Archive-It

        Archive-It is a web application that allows partners to collect, catalog, manage, access, search, and archive their institution's digital data collections. Archive-It was launched in 2006 and is a subscription service that provides archives with the ability to build and preserve digital collections. The Archive-It application is a division of the Internet Archive which is the world's largest non-profit public web archive that has been around since 1996. The Internet Archive seeks to provide the accessibility of data from the internet by permanently storing digital content for any one to view at any time.
   
       Archive-It can be used to archive any digital content to allow organizations to create collections to preserve the history of their institutions, archive materials that are no longer offered in print form, keep records to meet university retention polices, collect social media sites, gather web content that enhances other digital or physical holdings, and to harvest online art ephemera. The features of the Archive-It application provide curator controls to apply Dublin Core metadata standards, downloadable reports to review the collection, and automated Quality Assurance Tools. The specific types of digital content that can be archived through this application are html, images, video, audio, PDF, social networking sites, blogs, online newspapers and most other web content. The archived collection is copied and stored at the Internet Archive's data centers and can be downloaded or shipped to the institution.

Internet Archive. (2015). Archive-It Brochure. Retrieved form https://archive-it.org/static/files/archiveit_brochure.pdf. 

             Retrieved from http://anvilacademic.org/announcing-partnership-with-internet-archive-archive-it-service/

OpenWayBack

           OpenWayBack is a software that members of the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) are currently maintaining. The software allows for web archives to play back or be able to view archived Web sites in the archives user's browser. Archives worldwide use this software to be able to allow their users to view content of Web sites. The IIPC members are currently working to create a new open source version of the OpenWayBack software to better address the constantly changing needs of archives and users. By making the software open sourced more archives and users will be able to obtain the software with ease.

       The OpenWayBack software has its own IIPC GitHub homepage where information is offered on developments of the software, specifications of the software, and list other tools that help digital content become archived. The OpenWayBack Wiki provides directions for installation, upgrading. and using the software. There is documentation on building management and technical overview. The site also has an page to track any current issues that users are having with the software. There are ten members of the team that does work on the OpenWayBack software by writing code, testing functions, and submitting patches and suggestions.

International Internet Preservation. (2015). OpenWayBack. Retrieved from http://netpreserve.org/openwayback,

Retrieved from http://netpreserve.org/openwayback

Optical Storage

          Optical Storage is another methods that archives are using to store their digital materials for long term storage. Encyclopedia Britannica defines optical storage as a storage medium that uses lasers to record and retrieve digital content. Optical storage works when a laser bean encodes digital data onto an optical disk on the surface of the disk that has tiny pits arranged in concentric tracks. To read the digital data of the disks a lower powered laser scanner is used to read the pits on the disks surface by the variation of intensity of the reflected light from the pits that is being converted into electric signals.

Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/optical-storage

         The different types of optical storage are CDs, DVDs, and Blue-ray Discs, The standard CD holds around seven hundred megabytes of digital data while a DVD can hold about 4.7 gigabytes (which is the same as 4700 megabytes) of digital data because it can be recorded on both sides of the disc. There are different variations of CDs and DVDs based on their ability to be rewritten. If a CD or DVD cannot be written over it is called a CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. CD-RW and DVD-RWs may be written over multiple times while a CD-R and DVD-R may only be written over once. The Blue-ray disk allows for a higher recording density to hold more digital data because of its blue-laser technology (Optical Storage, Miller School of Medicine University of Miami, 2015).

Britannica, E. (2015, September 11). Optical Storage. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/topic/optical-storage
Miami, M. S. (2008). Optical Storage. Retrieved from Miller School of Medicine University of Miami: http://it.med.miami.edu/x980.xml

Magnetic Tape

         Magnetic tape is a tool used to store digital data for a long period of time. A tape drive is used to write or read data being stored on magnetic tape. As of May 2014, Sony has developed magnetic tape that can hold 185 TB of data. Magnetic tapes have to be stored in low temperature and humidity environment. A benefit of magnetic tape is that it does not have to be powered to keep storing the digital content.  The amount of data that can be stored by magnetic tape and its durability are factors that make it a tool that is appealing to a lot of collecting institutions. Deciding on what tools to use to store data is essential in digital archiving and important factors to consider in these tools are durability and access.
 
         While hard disk drives allow for continuous access because they are constantly running and connected to the system, magnetic tape is more like a physical copy. Magnetic tape has a longer shelf life because it is not a running piece of technology so there is no worry of heat damage. Magnetic tape requires a tape drive to read or write data, so there would be some processing time when accessing the content. However, magnetic tape is much more durable than hard disk drives and is the better choice because of that for long term storage.

Coughlin, T. (2014, June 29). Keeping Data For A Long Time. Forbes Magazine .

Sony. (2014, April 30). Corporate Info. Retrieved from Sony: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201404/14-044E/index.html

Retrieved from http://www.gizmag.com/sony-185-tb-magnetic-tape-storage/31910/

Hard Disk Drives

Find Article Here

             When collecting digital content, it is essential to decide how you are going to store the data. There are many available options such as hard disk drives as suggested by Tom Coughlin in Forbes Magazine. Hard disk drives are recommended because they can be continually connected to the storage network to allow for the information to be easily retrievable. Hard disk drives allow for digital collections to store more content in their collections. When considering the hard ware you will need to store your digital data it is important to consider how much data you will have and how it can be accessed. Using a hard disk drive is efficient for a collection that is large and needs to be rapidly accessible.
 
             The pros of hard disk drives are mass storage and how they can be connected to the network at all times to allow for all the information to be accessible all of the time. Another benefit of using hard disk drives is how they can be combined with flash memory to enhance the overall system performance. However, the cons of using a hard disk drive is that they do wear out between three to five years. Because the device is continuously running, decay is caused by thermal erasure. According to Coughlin's article a open source software and commodity component company, BlackBlaze, created a 180 TB hard disk drive system for $9, 300 which breaks down to $51.67 per TB and 5 cents per GB.

Coughlin, T. (2014, June 29). Keeping Data For A Long Time. Forbes Magazine .

"Hard drive-en" by I, Surachit. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hard_drive-en.svg#/media/File:Hard_drive-en.svg

Digital Forensic Tool- Write-Blocker

Write-Blocker
   
         A write-blocker is a security tool that prevents unnecessary or malicious data from getting into the digital records that are being saved in the collection's computer. Specifically, a write-blocker allows for the computer to pull data from the connected media without the computer sending any information to the connected media, which stops any unwanted data transferring. There are different types of hardware write-blockers, the most common being a write-blocker that connects using a USB port. A specific brand of write-blocker is the T8-R2 Forensic USB Bridge which uses the Tableau IMager (TIM) and has transfer speeds up to ninety percent. The T8-R2 is compatible with USB thumb drives, external USB disk drives, Apple iPod's and USB based cameras with card reader capability. The T8-R2 works with USB 2.0 and FireWire400 to connect to computers which enhances usability with forensic hosts and software tools. Specific operating systems that the T8-R2 works with are Windows, Macintosh OS X, and most Linux distributions. The T8-R2 has a one year warranty for parts and workmanship from the date of purchase.

Goldman, Ben. (2015). Outfitting a Born Digital Archives Program. Practical Technology for Archives. Retrieved    from http://practicaltechnologyforarchives.org/issue2_goldman/.Guidance Software. (2015). Tableau T8-R2 Forensic USB Bridge. Retrieved from Guidance Software: https://www.guidancesoftware.com/products/Pages/tableau/products/forensic-bridges/t8-r2.aspx

Images retrieved from: https://www.guidancesoftware.com/products/Pages/tableau/products/forensic-bridges/t8-r2.aspx

What You Would Need for Your Work Space

Find the Article Here

         This article written by Ben Goldman provides instructions and the costs of how to set up a work space for harvesting digital data. The article is divided into six steps to allow for archivists to set up their space from scratch. Goldman emphasizes assessing the collection to determine whether spending money and time to create a workstation and supporting infrastructure for digital archiving is worth the effort. He suggests completing an inventory to determine current storage needs. The next step is to partner with the institution's IT department to determine technical requirements such as increased amounts of memory, install software, establish dark archive storage or obtain equipment. The workstation being created has to be protected from outside interference such as viruses. Goldman suggests the work space be exempted from other uses and possibly isolated on the local network through firewall specifications. Goldman compares having a quarantined work space to a room that archives use for new acquisitions. Then the computer's hardware specifications need to be considered by making sure the computer has the memory and operating ability for the data that needs to be collected. Obtaining different types of hardware to read floppy disks drives, memory card readers and optical media drives depending on the technology the data in the collection is stored on. Lastly, Goldman discusses different types of software that would be needed such as virus protection and digital forensic tools.

Goldman, Ben. (2015). Outfitting a Born Digital Archives Program. Practical Technology for Archives. Retrieved from http://practicaltechnologyforarchives.org/issue2_goldman/.

Image retrieved from: http://practicaltechnologyforarchives.org/issue2_goldman/

Interview with Kam Woods of BitCurator

Find the Interview Here           

          Kam Woods, who is the Technical Lead for BitCurator, was interviewed by Butch Lazorchak in May of 2015. The interview discusses the latest efforts to apply digital forensics to digital preservation. Woods began working on BitCurator late in 2010 when he started using open source digital forensics tools that were written by a coworker. Woods noticed the uses these tools could have in digital preservation. Woods defines digital forensics as "the process of recovering, analyzing, and reporting on data found on digital devices" (Lazorchak, paragraph 6). He goes on to describe how digital forensics is usually a term related to law enforcement and security practices that helps identify items of interest. Digital forensics relates to archival practices such as providing accurate chain of custody, showing provenance and storing data in a way that lessens the chance of tampering, destruction or loss. Woods states that a goal of BitCurator Access is to give collecting institutions better ways to approach the contents of complex digital objects such as disk images. The current software BitCurator is developing will run as a web service and allow any user to run the software in a web browser to be able to navigate collections of disk images in various types of formats. 

Lazorchak, B. (2015, May 15). Digital Forensics and Digital Preservation: An Interview with Kam Woods of BitCurator. The Signal. Library of Congress. Retrieved from http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2015/05/digital-forensics-and-digital-preservation-an-interview-with-kam-woods-of-bitcurator-2/

Image retrieved from http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2015/05/digital-forensics-and-digital-preservation-an-interview-with-kam-woods-of-bitcurator-2/

BitCurator

BitCurator's Web Page    
     
       BitCurator is a project that is a collaboration between the School of Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities to implement digital forensics tools in collecting institutions. From 2011 to 2014 the project was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the project's ongoing maintenance and software development is done by the BitCurator Consortium. The project also has two external partners: a Professional Expert Panel and a Development Advisory Group. The Professional Expert Panel is made up of individuals who are implementing digital forensics tools and methods in each of their own collecting institutions to find better ways to implement digital forensic tools in to workflows of collections and collection management environments. The Development Advisory Group address the need for using digital forensics to make collections publicly accessible. The Development Advisory Group are individuals who have significant experience with software development. 

     The software that BitCurator releases is free and open sourced under an open source license so that any library or archive may have access to the tools. The BitCurator software can be installed in a Linux environment, run as a virtual machine in most current operating systems, or the software can be used as individual software tools, packages, support scripts and documentation. 

The Current Features of BitCurator are:
       - Pre-imaging data triage
       - Forensic disk imaging
       - File system analysis and reporting
       - Identification of private and individually identifying information
       - Export of technical and other metadata 

BitCurator Consortium. (2015, October 29). About the Project. Retrieved from BitCurator:  http://www.bitcurator.net/bitcurator/

BitCurator Consortium. (2015, October 29). Software. Retrieved from BitCurator: 
 http://www.bicurator.net/bitcurator/

Image retrieved from: http://www.bitcurator.net/

Why Archives Need Digital Forensics

Christopher Lee's article "Digital Forensics Meets the Archivist (And They Seem to Like Each Other)"

          More and more archives are having to collect materials that are born digital. Archivists are having to determine the best ways to harvest all of this digital content. Digital forensic practices are tools that can make collecting digital content more efficient and less time consuming. Whenever collecting institutions are dealing with digital content, there is usually a lot of it since there is typically a lot of content on external hard drives. Digital forensics allows for archivists to navigate through digital materials while maintaining provenance, original order and chain of custody. Digital records have multiple levels of representation that range from "aggregations of records all the way down to bits as physically inscribed on a storage medium" as Christopher Lee puts it in his article Digital Forensics Meets the Archivist (And They Seem to Like Each Other). Each of these levels have to be considered when archiving digital content to determine whether or not the information is significant to the record and therefore the collection itself. Information exists in the structures of the computer systems where the materials were made that can be used not only to better understand the content of the materials, but to provide access to more metadata for the record. 

Lee, C. A. (2012). Digital Forensics Meets the Archivist (And They Seem to Like Each Other). Provenance: The Journal Of The Society Of Georgia Archivists, 302-7.

                                                        Image retrieved from: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-forensic5.htm