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Lessons Learned - [Archive Name]

Template for: Digital Archives & Preservation Projects Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD

Project Summary

[What is being archived? Whose work? What time period? What's the preservation goal?]

Collection Overview

  • Total items: [count]
  • Date range: [start] - [end]
  • Content types: [articles, audio, video, images, documents]
  • Primary sources: [websites, publications, personal files]

What Worked

Acquisition Wins

  • [Scraping/crawling approach that worked]
  • [API or data source that was reliable]
  • [Relationship that gave access]

Preservation Wins

  • [Format decisions that aged well]
  • [Metadata schema that proved useful]
  • [Storage solution that scaled]

Access Wins

  • [Search/discovery feature users loved]
  • [Interface design that worked]
  • [Citation/sharing feature]

What Didn't Work

Acquisition Failures

  • [Source that went dark]
  • [Anti-scraping measure that blocked us]
  • [Content that couldn't be captured]

Preservation Issues

  • [Format that degraded or became obsolete]
  • [Metadata gap that caused problems]
  • [Storage/backup failure]

Access Problems

  • [Discoverability issue]
  • [Rights/permissions blocker]
  • [Performance problem at scale]

Key Insights

The Real Problem

[What researchers/users actually needed vs what you built]

Content Lessons

  • [What content was most valuable]
  • [What was missing that people wanted]
  • [Unexpected use cases]

Sustainability Lessons

  • [Ongoing maintenance burden]
  • [Funding/resource requirements]
  • [Institutional support needs]

Rights & Permissions

  • [Copyright status of materials]
  • [Permissions obtained]
  • [Outstanding rights issues]
  • [Takedown requests received]

Recommendations for Future Work

If Continuing This Project

  • [Priority gaps to fill]
  • [Maintenance tasks]

If Starting a Similar Archive

  • [What to prioritize]
  • [What to skip]

Artifacts Worth Keeping

Component Why
[Scraper code] [Reusable for similar sources]
[Metadata schema] [Could be standard for similar projects]

Stakeholders & Relationships

  • [Subject/creator of archived work]
  • [Institutional partners]
  • [User communities]

Technical Notes

  • Storage location: [cloud service, institutional repository]
  • Backup strategy: [approach]
  • Access URL: [if public]

Archives are never "done." Update this as the collection evolves.