The Nevada State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) is pleased to announce the first of the winners of the 2024 Scholarship for archivists and associated professionals working to preserve Nevada's historical documents to attend the 2024 CIMA annual meeting and any workshops offered as part of the conference. This scholarship was funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
Congratulations to Kassandra Andicoechea-Schmaling, Imaging and Preservation Manager at the Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records!
Kassandra Andicoechea-Schmaling working in the Digitization Lab
Attending the Preserving Digital Archives pre-conference workshop at the Conference for Inter- Mountain Archivists (CIMA) was an invaluable professional development opportunity, made possible through the generous support of the Nevada State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) Scholarship. The workshop focused on initiating digital preservation programs within organizations, addressing the challenge of managing digital records.
In Nevada's state government operations, digital content creation is always occurring, resulting in a significant mass of digital records. Managing these records, from creation through preservation, poses substantial organizational and storage challenges. The Imaging and Preservation Services (IPS) at the Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records digitizes analog materials. The resulting digital outputs, comprising thousands of images and PDFs, require continuous care to ensure their long-term accessibility and usability.
Equipped with newfound knowledge from the workshop, I now feel empowered to assist state agencies by offering insight into a perceived daunting task. The workshop provided a foundational understanding of Digital Preservation, which I aim to share with the state agencies that come to IPS for services. It highlighted the importance of developing a Digital Preservation Plan tailored to each agency’s needs, despite common constraints such as limited manpower, technology, funding, and time. Discussions on "The Five Organizational Stages of Digital Preservation" by Anne R. Kenney and Nancy Y. McGovern underscored the steps agencies can take to establish preservation plans, a great source to ease their hesitations and validate their efforts. Instructor Daniel Noonan stressed the importance of initiating preservation efforts at any scale, emphasizing that taking action, no matter how big or small, is preferable to no action.
Many of the state agencies we support have begun moving through the outlined preservation stages: Acknowledgement (Stage 1) of digital archive necessity, Action (Stage 2) through digitization efforts, and Consolidation (Stage 3), where the focus shifts to securing long-term resources and infrastructure. Stages 4 (Institutionalization) and 5 (Externalization) are the next phases of their preservation journeys. Understanding these stages enables IPS to validate the agencies’ progress and assist them in advancing their preservation plans.
Again, thank you so much to the Nevada SHRAB and the NHPRC for their funding support, which enabled me to attend this workshop, connect with peers in the field, and advance my development in digital preservation practices.
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