OSSArcFlow: Modeling and Synchronizing OSS Workflows. Photo of Disk Imager in black and white.
June 25, 2020

Educopia Releases “OSSArcFlow Guide to Documenting Born-Digital Archival Workflows” and Three Video Learning Modules

By Hannah Ballard

OSSArcFlow Guide to Documenting Born-Digital Archival Workflows. Now available for download. Photograph of OSSArcFlow partners at in-person meeting in Chapel Hill, NC (December 2017)

Educopia Institute is delighted to announce the release of the OSSArcFlow Guide to Documenting Born-Digital Archival Workflows. The Guide aims to make the daunting task of selecting, implementing, and refining born-digital archiving workflows more achievable. It was authored by Alexandra Chassanoff and Colin Post as part of the OSSArcFlow project, which was led by Educopia and generously funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. 

The purpose of the Guide is to encourage and assist collecting institutions of all shapes, sizes, and types to begin documenting their born-digital workflows. The Guide begins by documenting and describing the steps that are commonly included in digital curation workflows, from acquisition to access and preservation. It then provides a process map and detailed guidance to help you produce your own born-digital workflow documentation in both visual and descriptive formats. Finally, the Guide provides a set of use cases for this visual and descriptive documentation, illustrating with case studies and examples how you can use it to help your institution improve its born-digital archiving practices over time.

OSSArcFlow Partner Reflections: ""Participation in the OSSArcFlow project has helped us start the long process of capturing and improving our workflows in a more systematic way. It has inspired us to improve and clarify what we do and put that in a format that is readable and understandable." Quote by Josh Hogan. Photograph of Josh Hogan and Megan Rohleder at OSSArcFlow in-person meeting in Chapel Hill, NC.

To supplement the Guide and increase its usability, Educopia Institute has also released three video learning modules. Each module maps to a section of the Guide and provides high-level guidance on how to create and use born-digital workflow documentation. The modules were created and recorded by Hannah Wang and Colin Post. 

If you are interested in learning more about the OSSArcFlow project, the Guide, or the learning modules, please register for this webinar taking place on July 14 at 11 am ET/10 am CT/8 am PT. The webinar will bring together OSSArcFlow partners, Educopia staff, and authors of the Guide and training modules to discuss lessons learned from the project and future directions for born-digital archival workflows. We hope to see you there!