Background
LDF is undertaking a critical mission to digitize millions of documents, photographs, and historical artifacts and make them accessible to the public. This initiative, led by the LDF Archives team, faced significant challenges, including tight deadlines, scattered materials, disparate tracking systems, inadequate metadata management, and complex workflows.
Challenges
Massive Data Volume – Millions of archival records stored across various locations
Lack of Metadata & Tracking – Archival records spread across paper files, spreadsheets, and outdated systems, with much institutional knowledge locked within employees' minds.
Complex Digitization Workflows – The process includes moving, scanning, reviewing, redacting, classifying, and storing documents.
Scalable Tools and Processes – The LDF team required user-friendly tools to manage the digitization and publication process, enabling it to scale up its work.
Long-Term Preservation – Storing hundreds of terabytes of data in accessible, modern formats for future generations.
Efficient Public Access – A fast, searchable, and engaging website to showcase the digitised archives.
Solution
To streamline and accelerate digitization, Durable Digital helped LDF to define and codify its processes and then leveraged Umbraco’s composable architecture to integrate it with four key systems:
Microsoft Dynamics 365
A customized Dynamics 365 app was developed to manage the entire digitization process, from tracking physical storage boxes to metadata management, legal review, and website management. This solution replaced and consolidated outdated tracking systems, saving thousands of labor hours.
Preservica
As a leader in digital preservation, Preservica securely stores original documents for long-term preservation while generating accessible versions in modern formats. Innovative integration was needed to ensure real-time web access.
Umbraco
Umbraco was customized to provide a seamless experience for content editors and public users. Integrating with Dynamics and Preservica for DAM, allows LDF staff to browse, embed, and publish content effortlessly. A focus on UX with interactive, fully rendered components featuring live content from Umbraco and Preservica provides an intuitive and engaging content management experience.
A hybrid file provider enables Umbraco to source files from multiple platforms concurrently, facilitating innovative indexing and caching functionality built on Examine and ImageSharp to optimize performance. The provider also ensures that legally sensitive materials remain protected while making documents approved for public release available instantly.
The infrastructure is load-balanced and auto-scales with demand, with bespoke profiling with Application Insights.
Controller API
A comprehensive set of custom-built APIs were developed as a hub connecting Umbraco, Dynamics, Preservica, Azure storage, and AWS S3, enabling a rich feature set supported by a multi-layered and diverse security model.
The APIs support a wide range of required processes, including ingest process management, data synchronisation and collation, content delivery, cross-platform storage browsing, and analytics and monitoring capabilities.
These APIs provide seamless integrations between systems, allow for automation, which significantly reduces manual effort, and provide feedback to users.
Impact
The LDF Archives staff now has the tools and processes required to publish their invaluable records at scale. The entire system is designed to ensure that LDF’s pivotal role in the legal history of the civil rights movement is communicated effectively and that its archives are accessible for generations to come. By blending modern web development with thoughtful automation, an overwhelming task is made achievable, ensuring that LDF’s invaluable legal history is accessible for generations to come.
LDF Recollection was shortlisted for the 2025 Umbraco Jury's Choice Award.
The LDF Archives team received the 2025 Archival Innovator Award from the Society of American Archivists.
“We’re thrilled with the LDF Recollection website and the work that Durable Digital is doing to help us advance our mission and communicate LDF’s pivotal role in the legal history of the civil rights movement in the United States.”
