Instructions for records inventory instrument:
This inventory is in three parts: an interview with the contact for the project; an overall look at the
files; and a more granular look at sections of the digital collection. The interview section is at the
moment geared toward the faculty papers. The purpose of the interview is to gain an overall
understanding of the collection itself and the manner in which the creator utilized digital technology.
Areas covered by the interview are: details of the collection itself; the results that the contributors
would like to get out of the repository; details of the careers of the creators; and some basic
technological questions.
The overall look at the files has two main goals: to ascertain the size and scope of the collection
and to gain information regarding the specific technological requirements of the collection. This
stage of the inventory will take place in consultation with the contact for the collection. The method
in which this stage will be completed will vary across the projects in accordance with the contact’s
wishes. The guidelines provided are a minimal amount of information to be drawn from an
overview of the files themselves. As each group discovers the modes of access that they will be
provided, more specific and guided inventory instruments can be developed.
The third step of the inventory will be a more granular look at sections of the collection. The level
of granularity will differ across the collections. As we come closer to this stage of the inventory,
more specific and guided inventory instruments can be developed as needed.
Procedure for providing feedback:
Email Melanie Cofield at mcofield@ischool.utexas.edu. Please use the subject line: Inventory
Feedback. Include the following bits of information when providing feedback: part of inventory
concerned (interview, overview of files, granular look at files), nature of concern (unclear question,
question missing, unnecessary question, other), preferred solutions (if any), and the date of your
next inventory stage. I need to know how fast I need to get back to you. Since this is a large class
and there are several groups, I will need to prioritize the changes so that those who have an
immediate problem get the quickest response.
Part I: Creator Interview
 Creator Name
 Collection Title
 What do you expect to get out of placing your files in an iSchool repository?
 What kind of ownership control do you expect to retain over these materials (can vary
across the collection)?
 What are your main professional areas of interest? (narrative)
 What are the functions served by this material? (Check all that apply)
o Research
o Professional
o Teaching
o University
o Personal
o General Communication
o Public Relations
o Other (specify)
 How does this material complement or relate to your main areas of interest?
 What other materials exist that are not being donated?
o Paper material
o Digital material
o Describe:
 Is there material that is not part of this collection that complements it?
o Published materials for which drafts exist in the collection, etc.
o Possible work by collaborators which has been published or deposited elsewhere
 Inclusive Dates: when was the earliest file created?
 Are you still creating digital files that you might like to deposit into the institutional
repository at a future date?
 Describe technology use.
o When did you begin using digital technology?
o How has your use of digital technology evolved?
 Did it start as word processing and evolve into more complex uses of
digital technology?
 Have your uses of technology remained consistent over the years: using
only a prescribed set of tools, etc.
 Do you create metadata for your files?
 Has this material been moved forward to new hardware and software platforms?
o If so, how many times (approximately, if necessary)? i.e. How many computers
has this information been on?
 How many different software migrations has this material undergone
(approximately)?
 Has it changed drastically (say, a move to a different operating system or
different creating software) or has it stayed with different versions of the
same software?
o Were there any problems with the migrations?
 Artifacts
 Content loss
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 Formatting loss
 Other
Are there any significant collaborators on the material in the collection?
o If yes, list all and describe the nature of the collaboration.
How does the material relate to publications?
o Supporting Material
o Drafts
o Relevant Correspondence
o Pre-prints
o Other (specify)
Are there any access restrictions on this material?
o What material is restricted?
o How long is the material restricted?
o Is the material restricted to a particular user group?
 If so, define user group:
 iSchool faculty
 iSchool students
 iSchool staff
 iSchool community
 Other (specify)
What are your version control methods?
o Overwrite file
o Create new file for each version (if this is the case, is there a naming convention
that you use?)
o Other (please describe)
Has the backup process that you use failed? (i.e. Have you lost information due to some
glitch in the backup process?)
How do your backup procedures relate to version control? (i.e. Is there a method by which
you keep track of the most current version of files? Do you rely on memory?)
Part II: Overview of the files
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What physical mediums do the digital files reside on? (Check all that apply)
o Optical disk (number of disks)
o Magnetic tape (number of disks)
o Personal computer hard disk
o Office computer hard disk
o Main Frame
o Hard disk other
o Networked environment
o Other (please specify)
Operating system
o Windows
o Mac
o Linux
o Other (specify)
Indicate the version of the operating system
Indicate important creating or viewing software and version (if known)
Determine hierarchical (and relational, if exists) structure (i.e.: what’s the file and folder
structure of the collection). Draw a basic map of this.
o Windows hack tool
o Mac users?
o Easily done in Linux or other Unix based system
Part III: Granular look at the files
File folder by file folder (if necessary)
 Date created (this may be deceptive: if the material has been moved forward, the “date
created” in the properties of the document will most likely be the date it was moved onto
that computer, rather than the actual date created. It may take detective work to discover
the real creation date.
 Update frequency:
o Daily
o Weekly
o Monthly
o Yearly
o Event driven (please explain)
o Other (please explain)
 Function: (Check all that apply)
o Personal
o Teaching
 Lecture Notes
 Syllabi
 Other
o Research
 Research/Subject Files
 Drafts
 Data
 Other
o Professional
 Correspondence/Memos
 Reports
 Minutes
 Agendas
 Conference Materials
 Other
o University
 Correspondence/Memos
 Reports
 Agendas
 Other
o Other (please specify)
 Creating Software and version (describe all)
 Viewer exists?
 File specifications exist and are available? If so, where?
 Size (in gigabytes, megabytes, or whatever the appropriate size)
 Relationships to other folders (if known—is this supporting material for another folder, is it
related to another folder in a way not illustrated by the hierarchical map that was drawn?
o Specifically: is this material duplicated somewhere else in the files that we have?
o Is this material duplicated in publicly available information?