Digital Skills Training for the Long-Term Conservation of Documentary Heritage in México

Academic report Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 Digital Skills Training for the Long-Term Conservation of Documentary Heritage in México Ir a la versión en español OJS DOI: 10.30763/Intervencion.282.v1n27.61.2023 • YEAR 14, NO. 27: 257-267 Índice / Contents Submitted: 22.03.2022 • Accepted: 09.05.2023 • Publicado: 30.09.2023 Armida Guadalupe Escalante Ilizaliturri Joel Antonio Blanco Rivera Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía (encrym), Restauración y Museografía (encrym), Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (inah), Mexico (inah), Mexico orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8118-1509 orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5951-0054 Translation by Lucienne Marmasse ABSTRACT The present academic report examines the integration of knowledge and the development of digital preservation competencies within academic programs in information science, including the conservation of documentary heritage. Certain document management activities in Mexico are explained to highlight the need to incorporate the teaching of computing methods and management for archives and information professionals. Furthermore, this report argues that one of the main components in the development of said competencies is the incorporation of a digital preservation laboratory and describes its relationship with education in the conservation of documentary heritage at the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía (encrym, Mexico). KEYWORDS digital preservation, competencies, documentary heritage, records management T he fact that institutions see a constant increase in the number of digital documents in their collections has transformed the tasks of professionals in this field: organizing, preserv- Digital Skills Training for the Long-Term Conservation of Documentary Heritage in México CONVOCATORIA 2023 CALL FOR PAPERS 2023 257 Academic report Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 OJS Índice / Contents ing and providing access to their content. This demonstrates the need to integrate computing skills within those related to collections management, creating a confluence of knowledge required to perform in a digital ecosystem. Framing the acquisition of skills in a teaching-learning focus that is based on competencies, such as the model used in the encrym’s Maestría en Conservación de Acervos Documentales (mcad, Master’s in Conservation of Documentary Heritage), requires their transversal integration in the digital environment, metadata management and electronic preservation. This work argues that one of the main components of this integration is the use of digital preservation laboratories where students develop skills in document management software, dissemination of digital collections, digital preservation tools, and project management abilities. The first section explains certain fundamental activities of archives and collections management, identifying the core digital preservation competencies needed in the education of the conservation of documentary heritage. The second section presents an overview of the development of digital preservation competencies in library and archival education programs and the development of digital preservation laboratories. Finally, the third section describes both the integration of knowledge on digital preservation in the encrym-mcad, and the plans to strengthen that area of knowledge within the curriculum. This includes the development of a Digital Preservation Laboratory. COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT Traditionally, the organization and conservation of documents have been carried out through registries created manually or in an electronic spreadsheet from a personal computer. In Mexico, the organization of records follows an information structure based on groupings, which facilitates the logical control of the totality of records in the institute’s possession. One of the principles of logical arrangement indicates that documents about a subject should be placed together in a unit called a file, which in turn forms part of a group of subjects or cases related to a procedure or administrative act, a group known as a series. Furthermore, another principle establishes that the file is the unit of information to be registered in the collection´s control instrument, for which the institution must assign a unique identifier, formed by a chain of letters and numbers that link the file and its position within the group of documents. From the point of view of document flow, we will say it begins with individual documents created during Digital Skills Training for the Long-Term Conservation of Documentary Heritage in México CONVOCATORIA 2023 CALL FOR PAPERS 2023 258 Academic report Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2023 JANUARY-JUNE 2023 OJS Índice / Contents the institution’s daily work, in such a way that each must be read and understood by the person responsible for creating the collection, to ensure that they all meet the characteristics required to be integrated into the corresponding file. Regulation indicates that files are stored in a physical space where, upon arrival, relevant preservation actions are applied to avoid deterioration and ensure inalterability. The records retention period varies and is regulated by a displacement mechanism that is part of the document flow, which is activated in accordance with the value of the file’s contents. In other words, when they have lost their value for use in daily work, they are: transferred from the storage within the physical space where they are created to another space, whose function is to keep the files over another period of time or when their final disposition is determined, transferred for their permanent removal, being destroyed or sent for recycling, or kept indefinitely due to their historical value or social or institutional memory. The instrument to control the flow of documents is a list with a registry of the files that are transferred between storage areas. With regard to access and use of the documents, searching is done through the archives’ instrument of control, which contains the minimal indispensable description of its contents; retrieval, on the other hand, is done manually by the archives staff, then handed over to the person who requested the file, filling out a loan slip that must indicate how many pages it contains and the expected date of return to the collection’s storage, which is also recorded, again manually, in the collection’s instrument of control. To summarize, the registration of files in the archive instruments of control, which enables the traceability of documents and their custody and conservation in one or more storage areas, along with the transfer of files, represent some of the central elements of records conservation from the institutional perspecti (...truncated)