CLIR digital forensics report

Last December, the Council on Library and Information Resources released Digital Forensics and Born-Digital Content in Cultural Heritage Collections. In it, Matthew G. Kirshenbaum (Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, University of Maryland), Richard Ovenden (Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford), and Gabriela Redwine (Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin) detail how investigative techniques and applications developed by law enforcement personnel can be of use to archivists and librarians working with born-digital manuscripts and other types of electronic cultural heritage materials.

I've been aware of this report for some time, but didn't have the chance to skim it until yesterday afternoon. I came away deeply impressed. It provides a handy introduction to the principles and practices of digital forensics, highlights the ways in which digital forensics tools can help to safeguard the authenticity and trustworthiness of born-digital materials, and explains how these tools can help to recover information that has been deleted or stored in legacy formats. Moreover, it explains, clearly and succinctly, a lot of things that archivists who work with electronic records really should know more about, such as how data is recorded onto magnetic media and the differences between and intricacies of file directory structures. It also discusses the ethical implications of using law enforcement tools and techniques to analyze electronic materials created by people who are not accused of wrongdoing, willingly gave their materials to a repository, and might be stunned to learn that the repository can recover financial data and other files that they thought they had deleted prior to transfer.

This report is essential reading for anyone who does hands-on work with electronic records or other types of born-digital cultural heritage materials.

New York in Bloom 2011, part two

As promised, here are more images from New York in Bloom, the annual fundraiser that benefits the New York State Museum's after-school programs. I'm a big fan of New York in Bloom -- it's a sure sign that spring is on its way -- but I'm an even bigger fan of the programs, which have a dramatic impact on the lives of children and teenagers from low-income families. Approximately 4,000 young people have been served by the Museum Club (ages 8-13) and the Discovery Squad (ages 14-18). Every enrollee receives intensive academic support (adults help Discovery Squad members, and Discovery Squad members earn a small stipend for tutoring Museum Club members), goes on educational field trips, and does a lot of hands-on learning using the Museum's collections, and the teens get help preparing for the SAT and Regents exams, exploring careers, and visiting and applying to colleges. To date, every Discovery Squad student has graduated from high school, and 92 percent have been accepted to college.

All of the photographs in today's post were taken in the State Museum's permanent Adirondack Wilderness exhibit.

At the moment, a small section of the Adirondack Wilderness exhibit is devoted to abolitionist John Brown, who bought a farm in North Elba in 1949 and who is buried on the property. Perhaps not surprisingly, there were no arrangements placed anywhere near the panels describing Brown's life and actions or the handful of artifacts associated with Brown and his family; however, I found it interesting that most of the people who left comments in the notebook immediately beneath the panel asking whether Brown was a murderer or martyr were of the opinion that he was a martyr.

The section of the exhibit devoted to logging was home to many arrangements, including this small but arresting composition by Craig Walsh, Jr. of Fleurelite Floral Design. According to the placard next to the arrangement, Walsh used hala leaf, heliconia, crespida, echeverria, and calla lilies; however, I believe that birds of paradise were substituted for the lilies.

Cynthia Campbell of the Blue Creek Garden Club created a basket of gladioli, spider mums, bells of Ireland, hybrid lilies, daisy mums, seeded eucalyptus, salal leaves, amaranthus, and birch, curly willow, and red dogwood branches that simultaneously stands out from and fades into a mammoth black and white photograph of an Adirondack forest.

Two arrangements by Steve Dominiak of Surroundings Floral Studio complement rough-hewn men working with rough-hewn logs. They feature sunflowers, monte casino, pussy willow, aspidistra, cedar, galax leaves, and phimosa fern.

A better view of the second arrangement.

Simplicity can be compelling, as this detail of an arrangement created by Michael Harbison, Kyle Shiland, and Cindy Wood of the Bill Doran Company attests. Phalaenopsis orchids, reindeer moss, river rocks, glass bowls, a metal stand, and bamboo stakes are as arresting as the adjacent Adirondack fire tower.

Eryngium, leucodendron, liatris, acacia, green trick dianthus, spider mums, protea, and umbrella, sea star, and dingo ferns stand in front of the elk pond. This arrangement was created by June Keane of the Heritage Garden Club.

At top right, a Canada lynx. Front and center, an arrangement of pincushion protea, orange roses, yellow spray roses, preserved oak leaves, wheat, mugo pine, cedar, and mushrooms by independent floral designer Cynthia Weyl.

Larry LaMere of the Schenectady ARC created this arrangement of Gerbera daisies, tulips, lilies, spray roses, alstromeria, solidago, cedar, fir, and birch branches for the section of the exhibit relating to Adirondack geology.

A close-up of LaRose's work. Note the rocks along the edge of the planter.

This sweetly springlike composition by Holly Hemming of Felthausen's Florist is comprised of Gerbera daisies, snapdragons, yellow aster, tulips, lemon leaf, myrtle, pitisporum, birch branches, lemon grass, sheet moss, and Spanish moss.

Sophie Nagengast of Emil J. Nagengast Florist used sweet blackberry, African boxwood, foxtail, magnali, horsetail rush, curly willow, ornito, dendrobium orchids, Kilimanjaro Gerber daisies, hypericum, and French tulips to create this wintry arrangement set up in the hunting, fishing, and trapping segment of the exhibit.

Donald Bennett of White Cottage Gardens created one of my favorites: a simple, inviting arrangement of liatris, boxwood, heather, and iris.

Alas, none of my photographs do justice to this showy, fragrant beauty, which was also created by Donald Bennett. It consists of hydrangea, stargazer lilies, roses, pussy willow, quince, hyacinth, and dusty miller.

This sweet, understated arrangement, created by Jean Smith, sits in the section of the exhibit devoted to tuberculosis sanitariums. It consists of lilies, solidago, eryngium, ferns, greens, and birch branches.

Jean Smith and Cub Scout Pack 350 used solidago, pussy willow, monte casino, delphinium, daisies, and pittosporum to highlight Scouting activities in the Adirondacks.

Another favorite, created by Craig R. Waltz of Fleurelite Floral Design. This loon is swimming amid black pussy willow, curly willow, calla lilies, crespida, oncydium orchids, echeverria, and moss.

Electronic records: essential readings

Last week, I taught an electronic records workshop on behalf of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference. As I was putting together my presentation and supporting materials, I identified three readings that are, in my opinion, absolutely essential. If you're trying to make sense of the predicament in which the archival profession currently finds itself, get a grip on core electronic records theory, or trying to figure out how to put theory into practice, start with the following:

Brian F. Lavoie, The Open Archival Information System Reference Model: Introductory Guide (Digital Preservation Coalition Technology Watch Series 04-01. January 2004).

The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model provides the theoretical foundation of most electronic records and digital preservation projects and programs today, and anyone who works with electronic records must become familiar with it. LaVoie, who works at OCLC Research, has written a straightforward, concise overview that amply covers all of the essentials.

Richard Pearce-Moses and Susan E. Davis, "Knowledge and Skills Inventory," in New Skills for a Digital Era (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006), 1-33.

Pearce-Moses and Davis, both of whom are now archival educators (Pearce-Moses at Clayton State and Davis at Drexel) highlight recent changes in the "information ecosystem" and the archival, information studies, and communications skills that 21st-century archivists must have in order to come to grips with these changes.

Chris Prom, Practical E-Records (Blog)

Chris Prom is the assistant university archivist at the University of Illinois Archives and is currently a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Dundee, Center for Archive and Information Studies, where he is evaluating software tools and conceptual models for identifying, preserving, and providing access to electronic records. The "Recommendations" section of Practical E-Records contains an excellent draft framework for conducting an initial internal assessment, writing an electronic records program statement, developing electronic records submission/acquisition policies, building basic technological infrastructure, and developing preservation and access plans. Detailed reviews of open source software tools are also included.

New York In Bloom 2011, part one

Phaelenopsis orchids, part of a display of specimens organized by the Northeastern New York Orchid Society.

New York in Bloom, the New York State Museum's annual fundraiser for its after-school programs, was held on 25-27 February 2011. Over 100 floral arrangements designed to complement the exhibits were installed throughout the galleries, a temporary flower shop was set up in the lobby, and flower arranging and other tutorials were held in the classrooms.

Posting New York in Bloom photos is a bit of a tradition on this blog, and in past years I've posted them on the day I took them. However, it just wasn't in the cards this year. I was on the road on the 25th and missed the opening day, staffed the State Archives public reference desk on the 26th and got to spend less than 30 minutes in the State Museum galleries, and felt compelled to post about the death of Frank Buckles and its significance yesterday. As a result, this year's going to be a little different: for the remainder of this week, I'm going to alternate posts about New York in Bloom and posts about electronic records -- lots of interesting stuff has come my way over the past few weeks, but I simply haven't had the chance to post about any of it.

All of the arrangements pictured below were set up in the New York State Museum's West Gallery and West Hall. They were taken down on Sunday, and New York in Bloom 2011 is now a memory. However, its evanescence is part of its charm . . . and within a few short weeks, New York truly will be in bloom.

Exhibits in the West Gallery change frequently. At the moment, it's home to Not Just Another Pretty Place: The Landscape of New York, which "explores the many ways the landscape of New York State has been recorded, romanticized, utilized, and imagined" (and closes on 3 March, so now is a good time to visit!) Evan Euripidou of Anthology Studio created an arrangement of curly willow, Italian ruscus, Florida cedar, sword fern, African boxwood, aspidistra, lemon leaf, rush, tulips, freesia, safari sanset protea, ornithagulum, and trabellium that beckons visitors to venture within.

An arrangement of alstromeia, iris, hydrangea, delphinium, seeded eucalyptus, schefflera, asparagus fern, roses, bamboo and spikes created by Reneta Benenanti of the Garden Club of Kinderhook perfectly complements Albert Pels's Tar Beach (ca. 1938) and Thomas McKnight's Brooklyn Bridge II (1981).

Joan Reilly of Henry Clas Florist used solidago, pittosporum, dianthus, bells of Ireland, trachelium, hypericum, and curly willow to complement a folk art panel and other furniture produced in New York State.

A simple but striking arrangement of strelitz reginae, bird of paradise, oncidium orchid, and New Zealand flax, created by Mary Bohnet of the New York State Capital District Sogetsu Study Group, nicely complements wrought iron fencing and furniture.

Blondin Crossing the Niagara Falls for Lloyd's News, a two-part 1896 lithograph produced by Sir Joseph Caston and Sons, is visually compelling. This arrangement by Erin Brady of Crazy Daisy Florist, which consists of iris, monte casino, thistle, curly willow, and pussy willow, complements both the lithograph and the wrought iron bench sitting beneath it.

Connie Strong Wilbur of the Bethlehem Garden Club produced a landscape of lemon leaf, tulips, ruscus, iris, heather, spider mums, and trachellium that fits perfectly among a series of landscape paintings.

The birds perched amongst the yellow Asiatic lilies, white alstromeria, purple gladioli, and aspidistra arranged by Laurel Rice of Laurel's Flower Shop look as if they might have flown out of J.W. Hill's Adirondack watercolors.

At present, the Research Gallery section of the West Hall is home to Beneath the City: An Archeological Perspective of Albany, which highlights some of the artifacts that came to light when a section of the city's waterfront was partially excavated in preparation for construction of a parking garage. (Yes, in their infinite wisdom, our state and city leaders decided against attempting to capitalize upon Albany's unique past -- never mind that Jamestown, Virginia is attracting more than a few tourist dollars by doing so -- and focused on solving parking problems.)

Above, the remains of an 18th century rum distilling vat, with protea, aspidistra, tulips, bergolia, grape vine, and Spanish moss arranged by Yetta Teo of the Greenport Garden Club.

The stoneware jug that holds the arrangement of lillies, Gerbera daisies, stock, waxflowers, and pittisporum that Donna Vincent of the Schenectady ARC created echoes the adjacent display of crockery fragments recovered from the excavation site.

The Country Florist's Jan O'Brien assembled a very spring-seeming collection of flowers: alstomeria, aster, carnation, daffodil, liatris, roses, croton leaves, moss, myrtle, and sea star fern.

This arrangement by Sue Dillhoff of the Greenport Garden Club sits in a transitional space between the Beneath the City exhibit and the permanent Adirondack Wilderness exhibit that occupies most of the West Hall. At the moment, this space highlights the State Museum's holdings and research activities, and the Asiatic lilies, alstromeria, Gerbera daisies, snapdragons, leather leaves, lencodendron, asparagus fern, and antique-looking jug and glasses bring into it the oranges and yellows of Behind the City.

This simple but dramatic arrangement of hydrangea, lilies, roses, wax flowers, and bear grass was created by Michelle Peters of Ambiance Florals and Events.

The space outlining the State Museum's holdings and research activities quickly gives way to the vast Adirondack Wilderness exhibit. This wintry exhibit of green and purple trachelium, quince, ming fern, foxtail, flowering branch, curly willow, gypsophilia, and star of Bethlehem, created by Emily Pecora of the Albany BOCES, marked one point of entry into it.

Tomorrow's post will highlight some essential electronic records readings, but I'll post more photographs from the Adirondack Wilderness exhibit on Thursday.

Frank Woodruff Buckles, 1901-2011

I woke up today with the intention of posting about the electronic records workshop that I taught last week and about New York in Bloom 2011, but I learned this morning that Frank Woodruff Buckles, the last American veteran of the First World War, died yesterday at the age of 110. The last surviving French and German veterans died in 2008, the last surviving British soldier died in 2009, and the last surviving Canadian veteran died last year; as a result, Claude Choules, who served in Britain's Royal Navy, and Florence Green, who served in the Women's Royal Air Force, are likely the last living people who served in any capacity during the First World War.

Buckles led a fascinating life. A native of Missouri, he lied about his age in order to enlist in the Army and was sent to England and France, then came home and found work in an Oklahoma City post office, the Toronto offices of a steamship company and a telegraph firm, and a New York City bank. Upon realizing that he most enjoyed working in the shipping industry, he took jobs on passenger and cargo ships sailing to South America. In 1940, he accepted a shipping industry job that took him to Manila. He was taken prisoner when the Japanese invaded the Philippines, and spent three and a half years in prison camps. After the Second World War ended, he lived in San Francisco for a time, got married, and decided to purchase a farm near Charles Town, West Virginia, where his forebears had initially settled. He spent the rest of his life working his farm -- he gave up driving a tractor in 2006 -- and as it became known that he was one of a handful of surviving First World War veterans, he began speaking out about the need to honor the men and women who had served in the 20th century's first total war.

The War to End All War has never captured the American public imagination in the way that the war that followed it has. We entered the First World War late and thus were spared the horrific casualties that the other combatant nations suffered. Moreover, most Americans have few moral qualms about our nation's role in the Second World War: we were fighting aggressive regimes that repressed their own people, oppressed the peoples living in the nations they conquered, and, in the case of the Nazi regime, committed genocide. It's a lot harder to construct such a compelling narrative around our entry into the First World War.

However, the war's influence can still be felt all around us. The manner in which the peace was brokered ensured that Europe remained perilously unstable. The continent again plunged into war twenty-one years after the War to End All War ended, and Soviet communism, another product of the First World War, survived in Europe until 1989. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire created the modern Middle East, which is still struggling toward stability and responsible governance. The war gave rise to a genocide -- a word that became depressingly familiar as the 20th century wore on. As Paul Fussell brilliantly explains in The Great War and Modern Memory, the readiness with which we see raunchy double entendres in innocent statements, our appreciation of irony, and the cynical humor with which we often regard various social and political institutions are the result of cultural changes wrought by the First World War.

Moreover, the First World War does have an object lesson for us. In discussing the impact of the First Battle of the Somme, which saw 60,000 British troops killed or injured in a single day, Paul Fussell notes that:

Whatever the main cause of failure, the attack on the Somme was the end of illusions about breaking the line and sending the cavalry through to end the war. Contemplating the new awareness brought to both sides by the first day of July, 1916, [English poet Edmund] Blunden wrote eighteen years later: "By the end of the day both sides had seen, in a sad scrawl of broken earth and murdered men, the answer to the question. No road. No thoroughfare. Neither race had won, nor could win, the war. The War had won, and would go on winning."

Sometimes -- most of the time, actually -- war wins, and everyone and everything sucked into its maw loses. We forget that at our peril.

Approximately 16 million people died as a result of the First World War, and roughly 21 million people were wounded. It's hard to make sense of those numbers, but it's a lot easier to grasp the enormity of the loss when focusing on the individuals -- breathing, warm-fleshed beings with needs, aspirations, dislikes, passions, and plans -- who were caught up in the war and, all too often, never made it out. Frank Buckles, who quietly led an extraordinary life, was a living reminder of the war's enduring impact, as were all of the other men and women who were drawn into the conflict, survived, and went on to lead quietly extraordinary lives.

Thankfully, Frank Buckles's life will likely not be forgotten: a documentary film about his life is in the works. The lives of other American veterans of the war are documented in archives throughout the United States (my own repository among them) and in productions such as the superb radio documentary created by the World War I Living History Project. As an archivist, I would be the first to argue that the documentary record constitutes an essential, inextricable, vivid tie to the past. It is nonetheless sad and sobering to see the documentary record become the only thing that connects us to a given point in the past.

Requiescat in pace, Frank Buckles.

U.S. Federal Cloud Computing Strategy released

Last week, the Chief Information Officer of the United States released the Federal Cloud Computing Strategy, which outlines how the federal government anticipates saving money, increasing the efficiency of its IT operations, and delivering better service to the public via cloud computing.

This strategy, which will help federal agencies migrate at least some of their IT infrastructure to commercial or government cloud environments, is intended to:

• Articulate the benefits, considerations, and trade-offs of cloud computing
• Provide a decision framework and case examples to support agencies in migrating towards cloud computing
• Highlight cloud computing implementation resources
• Identify Federal Government activities and roles and responsibilities for catalyzing cloud adoption (p. 2)
  

I haven't had the chance to give this document a close reading and likely won't have the chance to do so for a couple of weeks, but I have skimmed it and was pleased to note the following:

Storing information in the cloud will require a technical mechanism to achieve compliance with records management laws, policies and regulations promulgated by both the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the General Services Administration (GSA). The cloud solution has to support relevant record safeguards and retrieval functions, even in the context of a provider termination (p. 14) [emphasis added]

As a state government employee, I'm also intrigued by this statement:

Federal Government contracts will also provide riders for state and local governments. These riders will allow all of these governments to realize the same procurement advantages of the Federal Government. Increasing membership in cloud services will further drive innovation and cost efficiency by increasing market size and creating larger efficiencies-of-scale (p. 29) [emphasis added].

And this one:

To effectively manage these governance issues in the long-term, the Federal Government needs to lay a stable governance foundation that will outlast single individuals or administrations. To the best extent possible, individuals or committees should have explicitly defined roles, non-overlapping responsibilities, and a clear decision-making hierarchy. These steps will empower the government for action, minimize unnecessary bureaucracy, and ensure accountability for results.

The following bodies will therefore have these roles and responsibilities:

• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will lead and collaborate with Federal, State, and local government agency CIOs, private sector experts, and international bodies to identify and prioritize cloud computing standards and guidance . . . . (p. 31) [emphasis added]

I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this plays out.

A brief history of [portable] data storage

Format: A Brief History of Data Storage from Alan Warburton on Vimeo.

For your Sunday morning viewing pleasure: a brief, fun overview of data storage media from the punchcard to the USB keychain drive. As creator Alan Warburton freely admits, this video is not comprehensive. You won't see any 8-inch floppies, Zip disks, DVDs, or many other types of portable media, and it makes no mention of the internal hard drives that have enabled us to manage vast quantities of data. However, it nicely covers than 60 years of technological evolution in slightly less than two minutes.

HT to Rosemary in ND for drawing this video to my attention.