This class will generally be run like a seminar, with discussions focusing on the assigned readings, assigned student presentations on receot technology items, and tasks carried out outside of class. There will be lectures and discussion in class on key areas of interest in digital records throughout the course. Course requirements consist of class attendance and participation, including active contributions to class discussions, a recent technology presentation, the preparation of a personal digital records management plan, and the preparation of a digital records business plan as a member of a small team.

Class participation (15% of grade)

Class attendance is expected for all students barring illness or religious holy days; multiple absences will affect a student's final grade for the course. Each student is expected to complete the required readings on a weekly basis and be able to discuss them in class, to demonstrate that the reading has been done and understood. This is a serious requirement and can make a letter grade's difference (do the math if you are concerned about grades). We have fourteen class meetings; the first class meeting will be taken up with a preliminary discussion of the topic of the course, while the last will include presentations of the team business plans; during the remaining classes we will discuss readings, current developments in the information realm that affect the creation and management of digital objects, and, once the semester has begun, progress on both your digital preservation business case and your personal digital archive management plan.

Recent technology report (15% of grade)

For most of our discussion classes , we will have a presentation on a new technology that has emerged relatively recently. Small student groups will be assigned a topic relating to a new technology to research (find out if it is legitimate, find out how successful it is, test it out if appropriate, then seriously figure out what kind of digital objects are created by or otherwise concerned in its use, what happens to them, who keeps them, etc. etc.) and all students assigned to each technology report will present in class. You will talk about the subject for ten minutes (ppt presentations are not required [though you can use them], but you do need to present the technology in some way--talk, call up pages from the Internet, and/or stage demonstrations if appropriate) and then you will lead the class in discussing the impact of the technologies on recordkeeping--your own and that in other settings (so you'll need to prepare some questions about the technology to spark discussion--okay to borrow from discussions you may have seen online and also to come up with issues that occur to members of the team). Student teams will also provide a "documentary package" to be added to the Resources page for other students to have access to (for example, a copy of the ppt presentation you gave, a set of URLs linking to websites relating to the topic, relevant readings you have found, etc.).

Digital Preservation Use Case Project (35% of grade)

Each student will be part of a team working on a project for digital preservation based on an ongoing effort by the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records, which now has a project to which we will contribute to recommend best practices to academic and professional anthropologists for the preservation of the records of their observations and research. Rach team will be assigned to a faculty member or PhD student from the Anthropology Department and will interview that person about digital recordkeeping practices and plans for preservation of observational data and scholarly work, including a site visit to their preferred computer workplace. You will use a modified version of the questionnaire that will guide you in your own personal management plan (see below) and there will be some assigned readings to go along with this project. The projects for this semester will be announced at the first class.

Digital Preservation Use Case Reports are due December 5 (Last Class Day).

Personal Digital Archive Management Plan (35% of grade):

Each student will write a report outlining a personal digital archive management plan developed during the semester. The framework for this plan will be discussed in class and a handout will be provided early on. We will also discuss your progress and we will workshop some of the elements of the plan in class as the semester progresses.

Personal Digital Archive Plans are due November 16.