Public Access to Digital Content Benchmarking Project Institutional Questionnaire

OMB Control No. 3095-0070
Expiration date: 12/31/2020

Public Access to Digital Content project
NARA, Office of Innovation
Phase 2 Interview Script
Interviews to be conducted by Dara A. Baker, Digital Format Specialist or Deborah Gayle,
Project detailee, Archives Specialist, Electronic Records Processing. Interview done under the
auspices of Office of Innovation, Digital Engagement Division (VE).

Thank you for agreeing to participate in this follow up interview for NARA’s Public Access to
Digital Content project. I will be asking the following questions and typing out your answers as
we go. I will be happy to provide a copy of the document once the interview is completed. We
can go back to any question at any time and you are free to not answer any questions.
The National Archives and Records Administration Office of Innovation is conducting a
benchmarking project on Public Access to Digital Content. The project looks at how cultural
heritage institutions and national archives with archives/records responsibilities in the US and
abroad currently deliver their electronic assets to researchers through their main public access
interface.
This series of questions is geared to gain information and insight on your institution's decisions
and actions to make collections available to the public, what file formats and record/collection
types are made available, and how the public can interact with your content. Our goal is to
understand more about how our fellow cultural heritage and archival institutions are interacting
with their public(s) through our primary means: our digital interfaces.
1. Institutional Mission and Policy
a. How does digital access help you reach your institution’s goals and meet your
institution’s mission?
b. Who do you consider your main audience(s) for your content?
c. How many staff members work on digital public access?
d. How many staff members work to provide reference access to digital content?
2. What would you consider to be your main/primary public interface? What collections are
included there?
a. Does file format or record type influence your decision to make content
available?
b. Has your institution designated a specific location to find digital objects, digitized
content, and/or born-digital materials?
c. Have you specifically identified born-digital formats and digitized formats (e.g.
email, digital photographs, social media)?
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: You are not required to provide the information requested in this interview that is subject to the Paperwork
Reduction Act unless the interviewed provides a valid OMB control number, which is 3095-0070, expiration date 12/31/2020. Public burden reporting for this collection of
information is estimated to be three hours per response. Send comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of the collection of information, including
suggestions for reducing this burden, to National Archives and Records Administration (MP), 8601 Adelphi Rd, College Park, MD 20740-6001. DO NOT SEND COMPLETED
FORMS TO THIS ADDRESS.

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OMB Control No. 3095-0070
Expiration date: 12/31/2020

3. Does your institution’s collection development policy address/include specific guidance
regarding digitization and/or digital formats?
a. Who makes the decisions about what is visible to the public and what goes into
which digital public interface?
4. What file formats/digital record types do you have in your collection? What digital file
types/formats do you currently provide for public access? Do you have plans to
change/increase this within the next 12 months?
5. On file formats:
a. Does your institution have an official policy about file formats and image
resolution for content made available through online public interfaces? Is this
policy public? Is there a difference between access through the “main” catalog
and any speciality websites?
b. Does the file format/resolution differ based on format/record type?
c. How does your institution provide access formats? Are they created on the fly,
stored with/within the access system, created from preservation or reproduction
masters?
d. Who makes the decision about what file format to provide? At what point is that
decision made? Ingest? Processing? Reference?
e. What file formats are available to researchers (on site or remote reference) that
may not be available on the public interface?
f. Ideally, how many formats would you make available to your public? Does this
differ based on which public is included/intended?
6. What born-digital content do you consider to be most critical to your public?
7. What digital content (digitized or born-digital) is most challenging to present to the
public?
8. What is the process for providing access to email, databases, and other born-digital
content that does not have an analog equivalent?
9. What analytics/metrics do you collect and keep on interactions with/access from your
main public interface?
10. What level of processing do you apply to born-digital content? Is the same metadata
created/required for born-digital content and digitized content?
11. Metadata
a. Descriptive metadata:
i.
What metadata schema does your institution follow for digital content?
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: You are not required to provide the information requested in this interview that is subject to the Paperwork
Reduction Act unless the interviewed provides a valid OMB control number, which is 3095-0070, expiration date 12/31/2020. Public burden reporting for this collection of
information is estimated to be three hours per response. Send comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of the collection of information, including
suggestions for reducing this burden, to National Archives and Records Administration (MP), 8601 Adelphi Rd, College Park, MD 20740-6001. DO NOT SEND COMPLETED
FORMS TO THIS ADDRESS.

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OMB Control No. 3095-0070
Expiration date: 12/31/2020

ii.
iii.
iv.

How do you manage the difference in vocabulary for analog processed
material and born-digital digital content?
What level of metadata do you require, at minimum, for inclusion in your
Catalog/system?
What would be an ideal level of metadata?

b. Technical and administrative metadata
i.
When do you collect technical metadata? Is this technical metadata
available to researchers? Is metadata maintained with access copies?
ii.
What metadata, if any, associated with digitization do you collect? What
do you make available to the public?
12. Does your institution indicate whether content is born digital or digitized? Have your
users/public indicated any interest in knowing whether content is born-digital or
digitized? How important do you think this information is to your public?
13. What delivery methods do you have available to researchers?
a. Is bulk download of digital content and associated metadata something your
institution does/is considering/hopes to offer?
b. What value added tools (e.g. IIIF viewer, researcher lists, return to previous
search) have you incorporated into your public interface?
c. Is emulation of interest to your institution for access to digital content?
14. What process do you have in place to prevent the addition of duplicative content or
duplicative metadata within your system?
15. How do you communicate to your public about digital preservation?
16. What functionality do you wish you could provide to users? What functionalities have
users requested?
17. What decisions about file formats and digitization would you make now knowing how
your systems interface/interact?
18. Would your institution follow best practices for public access to digital content if such
best practices existed?

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: You are not required to provide the information requested in this interview that is subject to the Paperwork
Reduction Act unless the interviewed provides a valid OMB control number, which is 3095-0070, expiration date 12/31/2020. Public burden reporting for this collection of
information is estimated to be three hours per response. Send comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of the collection of information, including
suggestions for reducing this burden, to National Archives and Records Administration (MP), 8601 Adelphi Rd, College Park, MD 20740-6001. DO NOT SEND COMPLETED
FORMS TO THIS ADDRESS.

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