Las Prácticas Ambientales en el manejo de residuos sólidos

With the wiki assembled, updated, and navigable to the researcher, the archivist must also commit to sustain the archive’s security and upkeep. The ReCAP wiki offers several tools to help archivists curate and protect uploaded materials and topic articles.

Change notes. Each time Studio archivists create a new page or edit an existing article, they may enter a brief note to summarize the change (figure 4.25). These change notes are saved throughout each successive modification, improving a future viewer’s understanding of what was altered between different versions.

Figure 4.25. “Describe your changes” prompt.

Page history. A critically useful capability of wikis is a system to track, view, and even revert changes to pages that have been edited. Every page within the wiki contains a “page history” link at the top right (figure 4.26). Clicking this link displays the Revisions page of the topic article, which records the date, time, and author of each change to the content, as well as change notes entered at the time the page was modified (figure 4.27). The archivist can revert to older iterations of the page by clicking the red “X.” In addition, selecting two of the displayed options and clicking “Compare” allows the archivist to view an annotated version of the page content that marks additions and deletions (figure 4.28). In this manner, the administrating archivist can more easily control the quality of revisions if collaborating with multiple writers, and remove any ill-intentioned attempts to modify the archive’s contents.

Figure 4.26. “Page history” link, visible at the top of every wiki page.

Figure 4.28. Revisions view, showing two versions of a topic article.

Security. The “Settings” tab at the top of the wiki allows the archivist to control sensitive features that protect the archive’s holdings from unwanted viewing or editing. The archivist may elect to make the wiki visible to the public, require potential viewers to request access, or even restrict views to pre-selected visitors (figure 4.29).

Figure 4.29. Security settings panel of wiki.

Tiered permissions. The “Users” tab, also at the top of the wiki, enables the archivist to invite new participants or manage the access of existing users (figure 4.30). In the example of the Writing Studio ReCAP wiki, users may be granted access to: read only a single page; read the entire archive without editing; edit individual pages; edit or modify the organization of the archive’s files; or serve as an administrator with total control over all wiki settings, content, and functionality (figure 4.31). These features offer the archivist finite control over access, allowing differentiation between junior archivists, readers, editors, and even users who need only a single page’s information, allowing the administrator of the archive to restrict visibility of particularly sensitive information. Administrators can also grant page-level access from a link directly on the right side of an individual page’s view by clicking “Control access to this file” (figure 4.32).

Figure 4.30. “Users” tab, showing authorized viewers and editing permissions.

Figure 4.31, left. Permission level prompt.

Figure 4.32, right. Alternative access to individual page permissions prompt.

Unprocessed Archive. Accessible from the front page of the ReCAP Wiki, the

Unprocessed Archive page lists inventoried materials that are planned for inclusion, but not yet tagged and uploaded (figure 4.33). This page must be manually updated as the physical archives are processed, or as archivists plan for new unprocessed materials.

Figure 4.33. Unprocessed Archive page.

Exporting. Also accessible from the “Settings” tab, the archivist can package the pages of the wiki for export (figure 4.34). This functionality, if paired with regular backups of all artifact files, protects the ReCAP wiki from threats to its continuance. All ReCAP pages are exported in HTML format in a single compressed file, which can be easily recopied to a new wiki hosting service. In the event of the PBworks service shutting down or becoming otherwise unsuitable to continue hosting the Writing Studio ReCAP, the process of relocating to a new provider will be minimally disruptive.

Figure 4.34. Export functionality of ReCAP wiki.

ReCAP Guidelines. The final tool the archivist maintains to aid in the upkeep and navigability of the archive is the “ReCAP Guidelines” page. Accessible as a link on the front page, users are directed to a list of three brief guides: “Curating the ReCAP Wiki” (figure 4.35), “Tagging Artifacts and Topic Pages in the ReCAP Wiki” (figure 4.36), and “Style Guidelines for the ReCAP Wiki” (figure 4.37). These guides establish best practices for assembling the ReCAP wiki's contents with consistent organization, objectivity, and sustainability.

Figure 4.35. “Curating” guide on ReCAP Guidelines page.

Figure 4.37. "Style” guide on ReCAP Guidelines page.

The descriptions and screen captures above render the features of the Reifying Center Archive Process wiki as a means of organizing and conveying the archived artifacts of the Georgia State University Writing Studio’s history. This repackaging into a highly interactive wiki system offers only snapshots of the prototype implementation of the Writing Studio ReCAP project, but the wiki’s potential as a tool for archivists is nonetheless clear, even from this

relatively small fraction of the center’s holdings. Using the ReCAP’s orderly system to digitize, organize, and present the contents of the Writing Studio archive is a superior alternative to maintaining the Writing Studio’s current collection of physical originals without organization. Furthermore, the ReCAP wiki’s flexibility in updating the surrogate archive quickly and

continuously, and objectively presenting its contents with searchable, tagged, unifying articles, is superior to a raw digital archive. Such a database, if it were to be digitized and retained locally with manually-updated finding aids, only relocates the same navigational and research

challenges of the physical archive. The prototype Studio ReCAP wiki is now ready for a sample delve that will assess its effectiveness as a researcher’s resource.