DROID - a guide to recent product enhancements

DROID is an open-source tool used by thousands of archives to support their Digital Preservation workflows. It allows large volumes of files to be characterised to determine the precise format of each digital file, and to capture important technical parameters including creating checksums using a variety of algorithms to help enable trust in the end-to-end integrity of digital records.

The National Archives (UK) have been working on some significant improvements to DROID in the last year. These have focused on addressing some of the main problems that users (particularly those who are new to using DROID) encounter with the application. Most importantly though, has been the addition of a new feature to allow DROID to generate customisable, templated metadata manifests which can be used as an early step in cataloguing digital files or preparing them for processing. It arose from real-world challenges facing archivists and records managers handling large collections, and allows the removal of complex manual steps in some current workflows. The feature has been designed to be applicable to a wide range of users and customisable to the needs of different institutions.

Although the feature will be documented in the DROID 6.8.0 instructions, this Lightning Talk will give an overview and visual walkthrough of the new capability, to spread awareness and allow more people to benefit from this feature, and to begin conversations about how to develop this further in future releases.