Presenters

• Julia Corrin, Associate Dean for Distinctive Collections, Carnegie Mellon University
• Kathleen Donahoe, Interim Lead Archivist for The Robotics Project, Carnegie Mellon University

Description

How do you archive a robot? Is a robot machinery or code? Is it the academic paper discussing it, or the video capturing its work? Or is it something else entirely? While working to document the innovative work of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries’ Robotics Project has been trying to answer that question. With funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and with the input of roboticists, the project has developed best practices for documenting complex robotics projects and worked to establish collecting policies for the future.

The presenters will discuss the process of establishing a robotics archive at CMU, the challenges that come with multimodal collections, and how the outcomes of this project can inform other complex collecting initiatives.

This webinar will be of interest to special collections and archives professionals, administrators with archives, special, and distinctive collections units in their portfolios, and anyone thinking about collecting and documenting evolving and complex collections.

All affiliates of OCLC Research Library Partnership organizations are invited to participate.