title: AIA/Oliver Witte Collection: A Digital Preservation Workflow
creators: Elisabeth Genest
abstract: In 2017, the Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA) collaborated with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Yale University to help preserve a collection of architectural software solutions from Oliver Witte, a writer and reviewer of CAD and CAD related software. The project consisted of disk imaging over 700 obsolete software, migrating them in the OAIS-compliant software preservation system, Archivematica, and finally using SCOPE, a born-digital archives access interface built by the CCA and Artefactual Systems. In addition, the CCA aims to use the Emulation as a Service Infrastructure (EaaSI) which would help view documents in their legacy environment. What makes this project unique is the CCA’s collaboration with the AIA, and the considerable volume of the software collection.<br /><br />Elisabeth Genest is a Digital Archives Technician at the Canadian Center of Architecture (CCA). Since joining the CCA in 2021, Elisabeth has been working on the completion of the AIA/Oliver Witte collection project. This consists of disk imaging floppy disks, CD’s and other types of media to stabilize the entire collection while using various software solutions and computer systems.<br />Elisabeth holds a Certificate and Dean's list honour in Archives and Document Management from the University of Quebec in Montreal and a BSc. in Economics from the University of Montreal. This fall, she will be starting a master’s program at the University of Montreal in Information Science (MLIS), with a concentration in archives.<br />
keywords: preservation digital archives access eaasi