In January 2010, the MSU Digital Curation Planning Team (DCPT) will begin an in-depth analysis of the digital photographs and digital video held by University Relations. It is expected that curation guidelines resulting from this analysis will be applicable to digital assets held by other units on campus.
As the public relations arm of Michigan State, University Relations creates and maintains digital photographic and video records that document the history of the university. The records of historical value properly belong in the custody of the Archives, many other files have no historical value but remain of short-term use to University Relations, and many others have no current value and should be disposed of to free up server space.
The digital photos and video will be inventoried and appraised, permanent archival records identified, retention schedules for temporary files created, and selection guidelines recommended for new records as they are created. Metadata structures and file naming conventions will also be examined, with recommendations for improvements made if necessary. In addition, DCPT will work with Academic Technology Services (ATS) to develop storage, transfer, and access solutions for the files accessioned by the Archives and kept in temporary storage at University Relations.