ARK as a Bridge Between Digital Access and Preservation

Abstract

In line with the Marriott Library's mission to present digital collections online as well as preserve them long term, a multi-dimensional team collaborated to create an information and metadata packaging and submission tool (SIMP) for the purpose of ingesting the Library's digital collections into its new digital preservation system (ExLibris Rosetta), while simultaneously maintaining its longstanding digital asset management system (CONTENTdm). The parallel use of two disparate systems for access and preservation posed a unique challenge to the team - what exactly should be ingested into each system and how? The full metadata record could not be placed into each as any alteration to the metadata in one would not sync across systems and invariably result in multiple outdated versions. In the response to the question, the team designed the SIMP tool to assign an Archival Resource Key (ARK) to both the access and preservation copies in order to identify and locate matching content across systems. This poster visually represents the collaborative efforts of various Library divisions in developing an adaptable tool for the packaging of files, creation of metadata, and ingest of data into different information systems, always with the ARK as a bridge between digital access and preservation.