Last summer, I worked as an Archives Assistant – Digital Content for George Brown College Archives. In this position, I developed a collection on the Internet Archive to allow the archives to provide online access to recently digitized college newsletters, student newspapers, annual reports, yearbooks, and images. At first, I was asked to create a collection that could be accessed through the reading room by installing software on a computer in the archives. Instead, I suggested using the Internet Archive as it was free, provided wider access, and was commonly used by other colleges and universities. The archivist accepted my suggestion. I was interested in creating a collection on the Internet Archive for a while, so this was a great learning opportunity for me. The Internet Archive does not have the most straight forward directions on how to upload content and create collections. This presented a challenge for me when starting the collection. I decided to produced an internal guide to using the Internet Archive to assist future contributors to the George Brown College Archives Collection and to provide a reference for myself when developing the collection. See below for this guide.
Uploading Images
– When creating a flipbook of images, files can be uploaded as jpg, jpeg, jp2, tif, tiff, png, gif, bmp or any combination of them. The files must be name sequentially ex: MosaicDecember1980_001, MosaicDecember1980_002, MosaicDecember1980_003
-Create a zip file for images, recommended to use 7-zip (can create zips by selecting images, right clicking images, then selecting “7-zip”)
-Name the zip file imagename_images.zip with no spaces ex: MosaicDecember1980_images.zip
-When entering metadata, language must be specified for OCR to work. Subjects/topics should be separated with a semicolon “;” ex: College and school periodicals; College student newspapers and periodicals
-If done correctly this will create a “Generic Raw Book Zip” which will create a flipbook for a group of images. It can take a few minutes for the images to show, the message “There Is No Preview Available For This Item” may appear at first.
Further Reading:
Preset Metadata
-After entering metadata for an item, you can preset metadata for the next item by selecting “save this metadata” at the bottom of the page
-This will give you a link to a new Beta Uploader page with the preset metadata, copy and paste this link
-Drag and drop/choose file to upload then the preset metadata will appear
Example link with preset metadata (when logged in to collection):
http://archive.org/upload/?description=Student%20run%20newspaper%20at%20George%20Brown%20College.%C2%A0&subject=College%20and%20school%20periodicals%3B%20College%20student%20newspapers%20and%20periodicals&creator=The Dialog Collective&date=2000&collection=georgebrownarchives&language=eng
Further Readings:
Modifying Existing Items
-You can delete or rename files from an existing item by going to: Edit > change the files > right-click or control-click the file > select Delete or Rename > if Renaming type a new name in the filename box > click OK > “Update Item”
-You can upload a new file to an existing item by going to: Edit > change the files > click the “Classic Uploader” button > select file(s) to upload and click “OK” > when the files are completely uploaded click “Update Item”
-You can modify the metadata for an existing item by going to: Edit > change the information > modify/add metadata as desired > click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page.
-You CANNOT delete an existing item, you must send the Internet Archive links to the items you would like to delete (email: info@archive.org)
Creating Collection
-Need to upload a minimum of 50 items (1 item is a web page, either an individual image or series of images)
-Contact Internet Archive to create the collection on your behalf, can also create sub-collection (email: info@archive.org)
-Additional information needed to create a new collection:
• The email address(es) of the account(s) that uploaded the content
• A list of the item links or a search query which will identify your items
• The name and a brief description (to be used on your collection page) of your organization and/or the material housed in the collection.
• A suggested identifier for the collection page (please use meaningful words and it should be 5-80 characters, letters and numbers only, no spaces or special characters)
• At least one Subject tag that describes the collection
• (optional) The logo you would like to display in the upper right hand corner of the collection page and items. Best if it is at least 500p x 500p or, at least 500px wide or high.
• The archive.org account email address(es) that you would like to have administrative privileges for this collection (these addresses will be able to upload directly to the collection as well as edit information about the collection).
Further Readings:
https://help.archive.org/hc/en-us/articles/360017502272-How-to-request-a-collection-
https://help.archive.org/hc/en-us/articles/360016399952-Collections-A-Basic-Guide-
