ID: 80

BERTRAM, Cara

Curriculum

Work Experience

University of Illinois Archives . Archival Operations and Reference Specialist. Urbana-Champaign, IL 1/2013-Present

Yellowstone National Park. Archives Technician. Gardiner, MT 2/2012-9/2012

National Museum of the American Indian. Archives Intern. Suitland, MD 6/2011-8/2011

Education

Western Washington University. MA in History/Archives 2009-2012. BA in History 2005-2009.

Thesis: “Avenues of Mutual Respect: Opening Communication and Understanding between Native Americans and Archivists”

Presentations and Papers

Presentation at American Library Association Midwinter Meeting: American Library Association Institutional Repository. Philadelphia, PA 2014

Papers at Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference

“The Call to Justice, When No One is Around to Answer: Selection and Appraisal of Archival Documents and the Control of History Through Colonial Archives” Seattle, WA 2011

“Native American and Archives: Taking Control of Cultural Heritage” Anaconda, MT 2010

Title:

Preserving Librarian History in the Digital Age: Developing the American Library Association Institutional Repository

Brief summary:

In 2013, the American Library Association Archives started a pilot project to launch a digital repository to manage and preserve digital records. This paper will provide background on the project including an overview of its implementation, structure, preservation, workflow, and outreach.

Content:

This case study will demonstrate the application of a digital repository that builds upon and shows the change in the collaborative relationship between the University Illinois and the American Library Association through archives and the increase of born digital records. The American Library Association Archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the official repository of the American Library Association (ALA), including its offices, sections, round tables, and members. In recent years, electronic records have presented problems to the ALA and ALA Archives in terms of ease of depositing, access, and preservation of records. Responding to these needs, the ALA Archives recently implemented a digital repository as a one-year pilot project. This case study will cover the result of the pilot project, the American Library Association Institutional Repository (ALAIR), which is an open access repository that collects, stores, and provides access to publications and born digital records. The case study will detail the initial planning and early efforts in preserving digital records. It will also investigate work with DuraSpace, using their DSpaceDirect service to host and provide support for ALAIR, and methods of digital preservation with cloud storage. Finally, it will cover the development of the organization and branding of the site, creation of a workflow, training materials, and outreach efforts.

Scientific contribution:

This case study investigates the implementation of an institutional repository for a large professional organization, the American Library Association, and its utilization as a supplemental service for digital preservation of born digital records. The digital repository operates on a structure typically used by academic institutions to collect and preserve scholarship from librarian professionals, along with other archival materials from the organization. This work will demonstrate archival practices being complemented by digital preservation technologies from the library community. It also explores the usage of third party hosting for an institutional repository. This includes concerns and work in regards to archival preservation via cloud storage, metadata standards, user access, and cost of subscription versus cost of in-house implementation and support.

Keywords:

digital records, digital preservation, institutional repository, DuraSpace, American Library Association