Research Initiatives and Community Contributions
TARC engages in research projects and other initiatives to explore new areas of knowledge and practice in the fields of archives management, records management, digital preservation, and digital library and repository services. These projects are intended to further the knowledge of these professions and enhance our collective understanding of our work as well as develop tools and system that benefit these communities.
Archives and Digital Library Software Development
ArchivesSpace Assessment Module
TARC staff worked with members of the archives community to refine a specification for an ArchiveSpace module designed to support archival collections assessment - the systematic, purposeful gathering of information about archival collections. TARC subsidized the project, coordinated with Hudson Molonglo who performed the development work, and worked on the specification and testing with a number of institutions including the Smithsonian, Smith College, University of Michigan Special Collections Library and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Additional Information is available via the ArchivesSpace website: http://archivesspace.org/archives/2836
Research Grants
Linked Archival Metadata (LiAM)
Linked Archival Metadata (LiAM) was a planning project funded by IMLS and explored strategies for archives to adopt linked data to improve usability of archival description.
TAPER: Tufts Accessioning Program for Electronic Records
TARC undertook an electronic records Program Expansion Project grant funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (Grant number: RE10005-08).
FEDORA and the Preservation of University Records
The NHPRC awarded an 18 month Electronic Records Project grant to the TARC, in partnership with Manuscripts & Archives of Yale University, to support work to synthesize electronic records preservation research with digital library repository research in an effort to test the potential of Fedora to serve as the architecture for an electronic records preservation system.