Guidelines for preparing a policy for the acquisition and incorporation of private digital archives

Abstract

Acquisition of documents is one of the activities carried out by archival institutions as part of the collection formation process. This activity, also called extraordinary incorporation - which takes place outside the document management process - develops from the donation, purchase, estate, exchange, loan, etc., of documentary collections from different sources. To assist in the performance of this activity, archival institutions seek to establish a Policy for the Acquisition and Incorporation of private archives. This, in turn, will establish evaluation methods and work protocols so that acquisitions and incorporations occur in line with the institution's objectives, and so that there are no future problems, to the detriment of the private origin of the documentation. However, the evolution of technologies and the insertion of the digital environment in the archival field creates the need to rethink archival policies for collections of private origin, in order to include digital documents. In this sense, this research aims to reflect on the processes of acquiring private digital files, taking into account the specific needs of native digital collections and proposed a guideline that guides the development of Acquisition Policies for the Incorporation of Digital Private Files. When we talk about digital files, we are talking about documents that were created in digital environments - that is, born digital - and remained digital throughout their existence. The technical recommendations for preserving the authenticity and context of production and organicity of these collections is that they be kept in the same chain of custody from their production until the end of their useful life, that is, these documents need to be kept in the same management system. Therefore, the transfer of these documents to another institution, and consequently to another chain of custody, may cause irreversible losses to such files. To develop this research, we defined the Multiple Case Study as the method to be used, due to its ability to explore contemporary phenomena. In this sense, the development of the research was divided into four stages: (1) Planning the case study; (2) Bibliographic Survey; (3) Case Study data collection; (4) Analysis of collected data. It appears that research aimed at dealing with the problem of digital documents in a permanent phase is still very incipient. In addition to the issues that are normally part of the necessary scope for developing a Private Archives Acquisition and Incorporation Policy, it is now necessary to incorporate typical specificities of digital collections. However, for this policy to be developed and applied efficiently within archival institutions, it is necessary to previously establish other policies, such as, for example, the digital preservation policy, which will need to be in line with the acquisition and incorporation policy. This study is still in its initial phase, and therefore will be further developed.