Mason Bright
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Adam Rountrey
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Museum of Paleontology / LSA
Program: CG
Session: Session 1 (9:00am – 9:50am)
Authors: Mason Bright, Adam Rountrey, Jennifer Bauer
Abstract
The University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology’s archives contain a wide assortment of field notes, books, scholarly articles, card catalogs, and photographs collected by university researchers dating back to the nineteenth century. Museum archives differ from many conventional archives in the sense that archival materials often relate to objects in the museum’s collection, as well as to people and events significant to the museum’s history. Currently, the archives are largely unorganized, and the majority of the material has not been digitized. Using methods and standards derived from archival and library best practice guidelines, including Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), Library of Congress preservation guidelines, and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, among others, the Museum of Paleontology Archive Digitization Project will establish the process for reorganizing and digitizing the archives in a way that maintains critical links to associated museum objects while enhancing findability. To do this, we researched the aforementioned standards and best practices and assessed their suitability in the museum archive context before applying our findings to the digitization process. This will result in a digital archive optimal for use by both museum staff and visiting researchers.
