Following the release of our personas and user stories last month, we’ve been moving forward on several fronts to map out the next steps for Project Electron. This includes developing user scenarios, requirements and an annotated bibliography on data modeling.

First, we took the twelve personas we developed, and built out some detailed user scenarios, which describe how the persona might interact with the system in the course of their regular job responsibilities. For example, Nashmia Khan might want to transfer files stored on her organization’s cloud storage service to an archive. Annette Johnson, on the other hand, might want to accession a collection consisting of both physical material and digital files from a department at her college, or Won Young Lin might want to see a detailed list of all the records transferred from her organization to the archive in the past year. We’ve largely focused on user scenarios and personas relevant to the transfer, appraisal and accessioning of digital records, but as we continue with Project Electron we’ll build out these scenarios to cover other activities and personas.

In addition, we’ve started working on defining the various systems and components that will make up Project Electron. One of these will be a repository, or a place where we can store digital records and manage ongoing preservation activities. We’re in the process of developing requirements for this system, so that we can evaluate existing tools and choose the one that best meets our needs.

Last, and certainly not least, Patrick has published an annotated bibliography that represents an enormous amount of reading and learning he’s done over the past six months on various aspects of data modeling. These citations are also available in a Zotero library. Please let us know if you have suggestions of other things we should read!