Digital Curation: A How‐to‐Do‐it Manual

Citation

Oliver, G. (2011), "Digital Curation: A How‐to‐Do‐it Manual", The Electronic Library, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 151-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471111111523

A comprehensive and clearly written guide to digital curation, this is indeed a publication, that is very much needed, and it certainly delivers on expectations. But it should be noted that this book is much more than a manual, it is a scholarly work which includes discussion encompassing the nature of digital curation and is chock full of up to date references to supporting literature, as well as providing that useful how‐to‐do‐it guidance. In addition, there is an accompanying website at www.neal‐schuman.com/curation which promises to provide checklists, templates and links to related content.

The four chapters that comprise the first part clearly establish the scope of digital curation, and explain why we need to be active in this domain. Of particular interest here is the chapter describing the changing landscape, which discusses cyberscholarship and the new profession of digital curation. This part concludes by introducing the main conceptual models (the Open Archival Information Systems model and the UK's Data Curation Centre's Curation Lifecycle Model) referred to in the book, and provides a definition of data. Here, the author makes it explicit that “data” in the digital curation sense is not solely limited to scientific data, but includes humanities and social science data.

The remaining two parts of the book use the Curation Lifecycle Model to provide an overall structure. Chapters five to eight address the essential basics for digital curation, and in doing so cover preservation and preservation planning, description and representation information, as well as community watch and participation. The final part deals with actions, ranging from create or receive, appraisal or selection through to access, use, and reuse.

As the title implies, the book is aimed at practitioners who need to incorporate curation principles and procedures into their own practice. The layout of the book facilitates dipping into, rather than restricting reading to a consecutive overview. Each chapter begins with a clear outline of the main points covered, and concludes by summarising the content. In addition, key points are presented in boxed text at appropriate points. The author provides extremely useful syntheses of key information, for instance a comparison of the main digital preservation methods, in tabular form. In short, this book is highly recommended as a comprehensive, readable, and authoritative resource.