Working with Email Records

Working with record creators and donors to transfer emails

It is preferred that emails are transferred to SCRC as Mbox or PST packages. In some instances, it may be appropriate to accept PDF copies of emails messages.

Record creators can prepare their emails for transfer by exporting them from their email service. For some email services, this process is quite simple. For others, it can require many steps and may require that they migrate their emails to a local email client. The Digital Services unit is available to assist record creators with this process. Instructions for exporting emails from services are often maintained by the services themselves. In addition, you can find third party guides like those managed by the How to Archive It project.

In general, it may not be practical to accept an entire email inbox of a record creator. It is preferred that record creators curate their inboxes to prevent the transfer of personal, private, or out-of-scope emails.

Using Mailbag to Prepare Emails for Ingest

The Mailbag project is a draft specification and mailbagit open source tool for preserving email archives using multiple formats, such as MBOX, PDF, and WARC.

Documentation for Mailbag is maintained by the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives, University at Albany, SUNY

Using Mailbag in a Docker container

When creating PDF and or WARC derivatives, Mailbag should be run in a Docker container to minimize security concerns.

Providing Access to Emails

TBA