Information Playground

EMC Digital Archiving HW for JFK

In this series of articles about the digital preservation effort going on at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, I've yet to describe the actual hardware configuration that is currently in operation.

I've covered the EMC software being used, the archivist's process being used, the crucial role played by Documentum, and the conformance to standards such as OAIS, NARA, and Dublin Core.

This post more fully describes the EMC hardware architecture put in place to make it all happen.

JFK Archiving Using Documentum

My last post about the digital preservation effort going on at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum covered the four basic EMC products working in concert with each other: Documentum, CLARiiON, Centera, and Legato.

From the archivists' point of view, Documentum is their workhorse.  They know that CLARiiON, Centera, and Legato are humming away back there doing something cool, but it's all taking care of itself (until they fill it up, which they've done twice already!). 

So how exactly is Documentum being used?  I'm about to tell you. And quite simply, it's being used to create one thing.

An Archival Information Package.

EMC Solution for JFK Archiving

I've written several posts about the digital archiving effort at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.  I'm planning to write a future post about how the archivists are using EMC products for their workflow.

Before I can write about the workflow I'd like to define the EMC-specific products (software and hardware) that are currently (and successfully) up and running.

The EMC Solution at the JFK Library includes a set of products working in concert together:

Documentum.  CLARiiON. Centera.  Legato.

Mapping the JFK Library Archive onto OAIS

This is my third post about the digital archiving effort at the JFK Library. The effort is less than two years old and already a large amount of JFK's papers and photos have been digitally archived.

The software and hardware being used to process and store the information was donated by EMC, and the process of preserving the artifacts was designed by the archivists working at the JFK Library.

Part of their design process was a consideration of OAIS: an Open Archival Information System. OAIS is a standard that defines the creation of an archive. OAIS provides common terms and comparison points with other, similar archival systems. The team also considered a reference model known as "Trusted Digital Repository" document (see comments from JFK archivist James Roth below).

The attention given by JFK's archivists to OAIS allows me to write this article using terms that are familiar to archivists and digital curators throughout the world. As I've learned about OAIS I find myself focusing on what seems to be an acronym of primary importance: AIP.

The Archival Information Package.

The JFK Archiving Process

The team at the JFK Library scanned over 70 photos and nearly 70,000 documents in approximately six months before they ran out of space (and thus more capacity was added to their Centera).

When I looked around I only saw two scanners. I saw zero scanning elves (magical creatures that run the scanners all night long). I wanted to understand how that many documents ended up on Centera that quickly.

How were the documents initially organized?  Were they re-organized?  What's the scanning process?

The answer to these questions helps to map the JFK archival process on top of the EMC storage infrastructure.

The JFK Library and Centera

This week I had the chance to visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.  It's been nearly two years since EMC and the JFK Library announced a joint effort to digitally preserve massive amounts of JFK's legacy. 

The storage being used at the JFK Library includes CLARiiON and Centera (two products I've helped develop).  I wanted to understand how these two products have been combined with other EMC products to form a digital preservation infrastructure.

I also wanted to meet the team that was performing this digital conversion, and try to understand their process and how it mapped on top of this infrastructure.

In other words, my purpose was to understand the process and the infrastructure for a very ambitious digital preservation effort.

I was not disappointed.