Glynn Edwards
Assistant Director Special Collections
Stanford University
ePADD is a free and open source software, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), that enables institutions to collect email of potential historical or cultural value, screen it for sensitive, confidential, or legally-restricted information, and make it discoverable and accessible by scholars. The software primarily accomplishes this goal by incorporating techniques from computer science, including natural language processing and named entity recognition. Glynn Edwards, Assistant Director for Special Collections and Director of the ePADD project, will discuss ePADD in the context of providing access to the email of important historical figures. ePADD allows account holders to review their email before depositing it in a repository, archivists to “process” it for restricted and sensitive data, and complicated searches by researchers.
