In 2017, the University of Georgia Libraries developed and implemented a redundant, secure, monitored digital preservation storage environment (ARCHive) for its most important digital archival assets. Before ingesting digital content into the new dark archive, members of the University Libraries’ Digital Curation Working Group collaborated to establish general policies and department-specific workflows for preparing digital archival assets for ingest and long-term storage in the digital preservation repository. During this presentation, archivists and librarians from the Digital Library of Georgia, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, and University Libraries Systems discussed the tools, workflows, and strategies they adopted during this process while focusing on topics such as project management (e.g. communication/collaboration strategies, testing, documentation), assessment of digital assets targeted for preservation (e.g. prioritizing content, fixity checking, determining AIP creation levels), packaging digital objects for storage (e.g. using bags, tar/zip formats), and creating and transforming standards-based metadata (e.g. FITS, PREMIS, XSLT). The presentation also included a broader reflection on the problems encountered and how they were or were not overcome, lessons learned, and how the workflow could be adapted to meet the needs of smaller institutions with limited resources.

Conference presentation delivered at the 2018 Society of Georgia Archivists annual meeting held in Athens, Georgia.