DPC/PADI What's new in digital preservation
Issue no. 8 (February - June 2004)
Compiled by Michael Day (UKOLN, University of Bath),
Gerard
Clifton and Jelena Vukovic (National Library
of Australia)
13th July 2004
This is a summary of selected recent activity in the field of digital
preservation compiled from the Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI) Gateway and the
digital-preservation
and padiforum-l mailing lists.
Additional or related items of interest may also be included.
Contents:
- News from organisations and initiatives
1.1
US National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation
Program
1.2 The Universal Virtual Computer at the
National Library of the Netherlands
1.3 Netpreserve.org
(International Internet Preservation Consortium)
1.4 Danish Internet Preservation Project
(Internetbevaringsprojektet)
1.5 UK Web Archiving
Consortium
1.6 The UK Digital Curation Centre
1.7 The UK Digital Preservation Coalition
- Activities and outcomes
2.1 Digital repositories and e-publications
2.2 Preservation of digital and variable media art
2.3
Metadata
2.4 Web archiving
2.5
Copyright Issues
2.6 Optical disc
longevity
2.7 Scientific data
- Other recent publications
- Events
4.1 Recent events
4.2 Forthcoming events
Version 0.2 of the Technical Architecture for the US National Digital
Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) has been released
for review and comment. The document includes improvements suggested by
stakeholders during the previous review, as well as an expansion of goals to
include the need for interfaces for transfer of digital objects or whole
collections between institutions, and the ability for institutions to take
multiple roles simultaneously within the system.
Library of Congress (2004). Technical architecture for
National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program: version
0.2. Washington D.C. : Library of Congress, 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004,
from http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/index.php?nav=3&subnav=12
In addition, NDIIPP has issued a press release on its partnership with
National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund the first grants program for advanced
research into preservation of digital materials. Another press release from the
NDIIPP announces a joint venture with US universities to explore strategies for
the ingest and preservation of digital archives.
Library of Congress press release (14 June 2004) Digital
Preservation Program Launches Research Grants Initiative Retrieved July
13, 2004, from
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/about/pr_061604.html
Library of Congress press release (8 June 2004) Library Of
Congress Announces Joint Digital Preservation Project With Four
Universities Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/about/pr_060904.html
The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) and IBM have, as part of their joint
LTP-Study, developed and described a 'proof of concept' implementation
of the Universal Virtual Computer (UVC). The UVC is envisaged as a
permanent rendering solution for the e-journals that have been stored in the
KB's e-Depot (archiving system for electronic publications). Given that
most of the journals stored are in PDF format, the UVC project is ultimately
interested in developing a tool for rendering these file types. However,
because of the time involved to develop operational solutions for a wide range
of file types, the task is being approached in stages, with the first stage
focused on creating a UVC for images.
In April 2004 the KB and IBM presented the results of the project
Universal Virtual Computer for JPEG. This operational tool enables
permanent, platform independent access for JPEG images, regardless of future
technological changes. The tool may be used to store other file types, such as
PDF, but with reduced functionality, with only an image of the material being
preserved.
Further details may be found on the KB's Web pages for the Universal
Virtual Computer project, retrieved July 13, 2004, at:
http://www.kb.nl/kb/resources/frameset_kb.html?/kb/hrd/dd/dd_onderzoek/uvc_voor_images-en.html
In their report Van Wijngaarden and Oltmans outline in detail the
development and practical use of the Universal Virtual Computer (UVC) for
images:
Van Wijngaarden, H. and Oltmans, E. (2004). Digital
Preservation and Permanent Access: The UVC for Images The Hague,
Netherlands : Koninklijke Bibliotheek, [2004]. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.kb.nl/kb/hrd/dd/dd_links_en_publicaties/publicaties/uvc-ist.pdf
Netpreserve.org (International Internet Preservation Consortium) was
formed in 2003 to provide a framework for international collaboration on issues
regarding archiving and long-term preservation of the Internet
publications.
The Consortium is led by the National Library of France and also
comprises the national libraries of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
Iceland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, The British Library (UK), The Library of
Congress (USA) and the Internet Archive (USA). Netpreserve.org will concentrate
on key objectives, such as selecting, collecting, preserving and providing
access to Internet content, facilitating international coverage of the archive
collections and engaging in international advocacy for Web archiving
initiatives.
Six working groups have been established to work on specific topics:
Framework, Researchers Requirements, Access Tools, Metrics and Testbed, Deep
Web and Content Management.
Netpreserve.org Web site, retrieved July 13, 2004, may be found at:
http://netpreserve.org/about/index.php
A report has been issued on The State Library and the Royal Library of
Denmark's joint Internet Preservation Project (Internetbevaringsprojektet),
covering the period from from Oct. 1, 2003 to Feb. 1, 2004. The project focuses
on archiving of the Danish Web space and the report analyses strategies applied
to ensure long-term accessibility of different file formats.
Clausen, L. L. (2004). Handling File Formats Arhus,
Denmark: The State and University Library, 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.netarchive.dk/website/publications/FileFormats-2004.pdf
The UK Web Archiving Consortium project's goal is to look into archiving
solutions to ensure that invaluable scholarly, cultural and scientific
resources published on the UK Web space are not lost for future generations.
Six leading institutions, including the British Library, JISC (Joint
Information Systems Committee), National Archives, Wellcome Trust and the
National Libraries of Scotland and Wales will collaborate on the issues
regarding long-term preservation of the UK Web content. Institutions will
concentrate on collecting different material, for instance the Wellcome Library
will focus on collecting medical sites, the National Library of Wales will
collect sites that reflect life in contemporary Wales, while The British
Library intends to gather sites of cultural, historical and political
importance.
PANDAS software, developed by the National Library of Australia, will be
used to carry out the archiving process.
The project will initially run for two years and it is expected that
approximately 6,000 Web sites will be collected and archived during this
time.
The UK Web Archiving Consortium Web site, retrieved July 13, 2004, may
be found at: http://www.webarchive.org.uk
Start up activities for the UK Digital Curation Centre have commenced,
in preparation for the Centre's formal launch in October, 2004. The Centre's
Web site was recently launched and provides information about the Centre and
its partners, its aims, programs and research agenda, as well as news and
events. The Helpdesk service is also in operation and activities to follow will
include creation of a Web portal, an e-journal, an advisory service, promotion
and outreach programs and the development of registries, testbeds and
tools.
Funding for the Digital Curation Centre began on 1 March 2004. The
Centre will be run by a consortium comprising the Universities of Edinburgh and
Glasgow, UKOLN at the University of Bath and the Council for the Central
Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC). The role of the Centre will be to
support UK institutions in storage, management and preservation of digital data
across the life-cycle of scholarly interest, while supporting reproducibility
and re-use and with attention to data provenance. The Centre will also
establish a research program on wider digital curation issues, promote links
across the existing community of practice and develop services to evaluate
tools and technical information.
The Digital Curation Centre Web site, retrieved July 13, 2004, may be
found at: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/
The second in the Digital Preservation Coalition's Technology Watch
Report series has been released, entitled Institutional Repositories in the
Context of Digital Preservation, written by Paul Wheatley. A description
of the report and a link to the document are included in the Digital
Repositories and E-publications section, below.
The National Archives has been announced as the winner of the 2004
Digital Preservation Award at the Awards Ceremony held at the British Library
on 22nd June 2004. The National Archives won the award for their Digital
Archive initiative. The shortlist of applicants were:
- The UK National Archives Digital Archive
- The CAMiLEON Project
- The JISC Continuing Access and Digital Preservation Strategy
- The National Library of New Zealand's Preservation Metadata
Extraction Tool
- The Wellcome Library/JISC Web Archiving Project
Further details are available from the Digital Preservation Coalition's
Web site, retrieved July 13, 2004, at:
http://www.dpconline.org/graphics/awards/ceremony.html
The topic of repositories again features prominently among recent
activities and publications.
Ware (2004) reviews the recent developments in institutional
repositories and explores the impact that their expansion may have on scholarly
publishing, Crow (2004) provides a second edition of his guide to institutional
repository software, and ERPANET devotes its Topic of the Month page for March
2004 to repositories.
In the second of the Digital Preservation Coalition's Technology Watch
Report series, Wheatley (2004) focuses on the crucial digital preservation
issues for institutional repositories. He outlines the requirements for
effective preservation – that over the long term data can be maintained,
found and delivered to users, and be interpreted and understood – and the
preservation functions required in a repository to achieve these: persistent
identification, object characterisation and metadata creation during ingest,
and maintenance of representation systems to support object rendering. Support
for digital preservation functions in current repository software is examined
and careful consideration and further development in support of digital
preservation needs is recommended.
Johan Steenbakkers (2004) describes the development, infrastructure and
growth of the e-Depot system at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National
Library of the Netherlands, which, through formal archiving agreements with
Elsevier Science, Kluwer Academic and Biomed Central, takes on a global role in
permanently safeguarding these publishers' e-publications. Based on the OAIS
Reference Model, the Digital Information Archiving System (DIAS), which forms
the core of e-Depot, is capable of ingesting over 60,000 articles per day, and
is expected to achieve total holdings of 4.5 million e-journal articles in
2004. Research into long-term preservation strategies and preservation
functions described in the OAIS Reference Model has led to the development of a
Preservation Management component of an envisaged Preservation Subsystem, and a
permanent access tool for viewing images, based on the Universal Virtual
Computer concept.
The February 2004 issue of High Energy Physics Libraries
Webzine featured a number of articles on institutional repositories.
Harboe-Ree and Treloar (2004) argue for a collaborative, integrated
approach to institutional repositories within Australian institutions, note the
roles that Australian university libraries may adopt, and provide background
and overviews of the four national collaborative repository projects recently
funded by the Australian Department of Education Science and Technology: the
Australian Digital Theses Program Expansion and Redevelopment (ADT) project;
the Australian Research Repositories Online to the World (ARROW) project; the
Towards an Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR) project;
and the Meta Access Management Systems (MAMS) project.
MacKenzie Smith (2004) describes the implementation and lessons learned
after almost a year of running DSpace as a service at MIT Libraries. Faculty
acceptance towards deposit and open access has seen an increase in the growth
of the repository's contents and a valuable increase in accessibility to
research documents previously hidden in the 'grey literature'. A brief
description of the DSpace information model and metadata creation is
included.
Beier and Velden (2004) describe the eDoc-Server project, aimed at
providing a central service and software system for use across various
disciplines within the eighty institutions of the Max Planck Society. Two usage
scenarios are supported: eDoc Archival, which is widely used to archive and
disseminate research results and publications, and eDoc Primary Sources, which
is in the early stages of development and seeks to archive primary source
material (images, data sets, etc.). Workflow, version control, metadata, genre
types and files formats, level of preservation support, user interfaces and the
technology platform are described, as are the project's challenges for the
future.
In another recent publication, Jones (2004) details an evaluation of two
open source packages to support development of an Electronic Theses and
Dissertations (ETD) repository for UK institutions, undertaken as part of the
Theses Alive! Project at Edinburgh University Library. The evaluation
compared ETD-db, designed by Virginia Tech specifically for authoring of
E-theses, and the Hewlett-Packard and MIT collaboration, DSpace, which is
designed to aid creation of institutional repositories, in order to determine
whether either package could provide all or part of a solution for a UK ETD
repository service. The packages were compared on aspects of submission
procedures, archiving and access, and administration and security, with the
finding that, in this case, DSpace is better suited to the project's needs.
Beier, G. and Velden, T. (2004). "The eDoc-Server project:
building an institutional repository for the Max Planck Society." High
Energy Physics Libraries Webzine, Issue 9, February 2004. Retrieved July
13, 2004, from http://library.cern.ch/HEPLW/9/papers/4/
Crow, R. (2004) A Guide to Institutional Repository
Software. 2nd ed. New York : Open Society Institute, 2004. Retrieved July
13, 2004, from
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/pdf/OSI_Guide_to_Institutional_Repository_Software_v2.pdf
ERPANET Topic of the Month : March 2004: Repositories.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.erpanet.org/www/products/topic/digitalrepositories.htm
Harboe-Ree, C. and Treloar, A. (2004). "Connecting the dots
downunder: towards an integrated institutional approach to digital content
management." High Energy Physics Libraries Webzine, Issue 9, February
2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://library.cern.ch/HEPLW/9/papers/1/
Jones, R. (2004) "DSpace vs. ETD-db: choosing software to
manage electronic theses and dissertations". Ariadne, Issue 38,
January 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue38/jones/
Smith, M. (2004). "DSpace for e-print archives." High
Energy Physics Libraries Webzine, Issue 9, February 2004. Retrieved July
13, 2004, from http://library.cern.ch/HEPLW/9/papers/3/
Steenbakkers, J. F. (2004). "Treasuring the digital records of
science: archiving e-journals at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek" RLG
DigiNews 8(2), April 15 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=17068#article0
Ware, M. (2004). "Institutional repositories and scholarly
publishing." Learned Publishing 17(2):115-124, April
2004.
Wheatley, P. (2004). Institutional
Repositories in the Context of Digital Preservation. DPC Technology Watch
Series Report 04-02. University of Leeds and Digital Preservation
Coalition, March 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.dpconline.org/docs/DPCTWf4word.pdf
Variable media art, including digital, electronic, interactive and
installation art is the focus of several preservation projects.
The Variable Media Network is a collaboration between cultural
organisations including the Guggenheim Museum, to preserve variable media
artworks by adapting preservation concepts such as migration and emulation
within the context of installation art. Not restricted to digital artworks
alone, the Network focuses on working with artists to capture the key ideas of
a work and to define ways in which works may be re-interpreted in the future
that are acceptable to the artist. A recent publication by Depocas et
al. (2003) details and demonstrates the Networks's approach with a number
of case studies.
Supported by the Daniel Langlois Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum
(2004) presented from 19 March to 16 May 2004 the exhibition "Seeing Double:
Emulation in Theory and Practice", which pairs original art installations with
emulated versions. An online version of the exhibition is available on the
Variable Media Network Web site.
The V2_Organisation (2004), a Rotterdam-based centre for culture and
technology, used two major electronic art projects as case studies to focus on
the documentation aspects of preserving electronic art. The research project,
"Capturing Unstable Media", is funded by the Mondriaan Foundation and the
Daniel Langlois Foundation. The project results were made available in March
and resulted in a series of recommendations on documentation strategies for
electronic art, formal modelling and metadata, and archive
interoperability.
Also available are the results of the PANIC project (Preservation and
Archival New Media and Interactive Collections), a similar research project
undertaken by MAENAD (Multimedia Access across Enterprises, Networks and
Domains) (2004) at the Australian Distributed Sytems Technology Centre. The
project had several objectives, including using case studies to compare various
approaches to multimedia preservation, investigating ways to ensure longevity
of the access to multimedia objects, determining optimum media formats and
developing guidelines and metadata schemas for multimedia creators. Along with
the case studies, results of the investigations include a preservation metadata
schema and input tool, based on METS and MODS and informed by the work of the
Variable Media Initiative.
The development of the Database of Virtual Art at Humboldt University in
Berlin, and the detailed documentation collected about works on the database
are described in an article by Grau (2003). Supported by the German Research
Foundation (DFG) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF), the
Database has been developed to document and provide access to digital
installation art. Its documentation system focuses on information about
technical requirements, installation settings, and software and hardware
configurations, and has a Web interface to allow artists to contribute directly
to the Database.
Database of Virtual Art, retrieved July 13, 2004, may be found
at: http://virtualart.hu-berlin.de/list.do
Depocas, A., Ippolito J. and Jones, C. (2003). The variable
media approach: permanence through change. New York : Guggenheim Museum
Publications, 2003. [ISBN 0-9684693-2-9]. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.variablemedia.net/pdf/Permanence.pdf
Grau, O. (2003). Database of Virtual Art for an Expanded
Concept of Documentation. Berlin: Humboldt University, 2003. Retrieved
July 13, 2004, from http://www2.hu-berlin.de/grau/database.htm
MAENAD (2004) PANIC Project: Preservation and Archival New
Media and Interactive Collections. Brisbane : Distributed Systems
Technology Centre, 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://metadata.net/newmedia/
Solomon R Guggenheim Museum (2004). Seeing Double:
Emulation in Theory and Practice, 19 March to 16 May 2004. Retrieved July
13, 2004, from http://www.variablemedia.net/e/seeingdouble/home.html
Variable Media Network Web site. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.variablemedia.net/
V2_Organisation (2004) Capturing Unstable Media.
Rotterdam : V2_Organisation, 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.v2.nl/Projects/capturing/
Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images
An updated version of the RLG white paper Automatic Exposure:
Capturing Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images has been released
(2004) and includes revisions based on input from community experts. The study
reviews technical metadata creation by hardware capture devices and metadata
harvesting tools developed by various institutions to implement the NISO draft
standard Z39.87, and presents the results of a survey into preferred storage
locations of captured metadata, either within the image files or in external
metadata files. The survey indicated a need to identify a mechanism which both
puts the metadata into the image file itself and provides for its import into a
database system.
Research Libraries Group (2004). Automatic Exposure:
Capturing Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images. Mountain View, CA :
Research Libraries Group, 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.rlg.org/longterm/ae_whitepaper_2003.pdf
PREMIS
Brian Lavoie (2004) describes the work of the PREMIS group (PREservation
Metadata Implementation Strategies) in a recent article in D-Lib
Magazine. The group is due to finalise its activities in June 2004, and,
to that end, activities of the Core Elements subgroup, will focus on finalising
its recommended set of core preservation metadata elements, and creating a data
dictionary and associated XML schema to support their practical use. Activities
of the Implementation Strategies subgroup will include publishing the summary
results of the recent implementation survey, to be followed by studies to
identify and evaluate implementation strategies already in use in the
community, in the context of the core element set.
Lavoie, B. F. (2004). "Implementing metadata in digital
preservation systems: the PREMIS activity." D-Lib Magazine, 10(4),
April 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april04/lavoie/04lavoie.html
Several articles related to activities in Web archiving are
available.
Hanley (2004) provides an overview of the practical aspects of the
archiving process undertaken by the PADI Safekeeping project at the National
Library of Australia, which seeks to preserve significant digital preservation
resources using the PANDAS Web archiving system.
Rein (2004) presents an interview with Brewster Kahle on the history,
philosophy and experiences of the Internet Archive, in which he comments, among
other topics, on ways in which sites could be made "more archivable". The role
of the Internet Archive is also discussed in an article by Edwards (2004).
The importance of HTML compliance and validation of published resources
to enable wide accessibility is noted by Kelly (2004), who introduces a method
using logs to prioritise HTML quality improvements for a Web site's most
popular non-compliant pages.
Christensen-Dalsgaard (2004) analyses Web archiving activities in
Denmark, including a brief history of legal deposit for digital material, as
well as the related Web harvesting experiments. Web archiving strategic and
technical issues are examined in detail.
Christensen-Dalsgaard, B. (2004). "Web Archive Activities in
Denmark" RLG DigiNews, 8(3), 15 June 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004,
from http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=17661#article0
Edwards, E. (2004). "Ephemeral to enduring: the Internet
archive and its role in preserving digital media." Information Technology
and Libraries, 23(1), 3-8.
Hanley, M. (2004). "PADI (Preserving Access to Digital
Information) and Safekeeping." High Energy Physics Libraries Webzine,
Issue 9, February 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://library.cern.ch/HEPLW/9/papers/2/
Kelly, B. (2004). "Web focus: improving the quality of your
HTML." Ariadne, Issue 38, January 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue38/web-focus/
Rein, L. (2004). "Brewster Kahle on the Internet Archive and
People's Technology." OpenP2P.com, 22 January 2004. Retrieved July 13,
2004, from http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2004/01/22/kahle.html
Further papers are available on the work of the Copyright and Licensing
for Digital Preservation (CLDP) project at Loughborough University, which ran
from September 2002 to March 2004. The project looked at the rights
implications of digital preservation methods and legal barriers to
preservation, and sought ways to overcome them.
Ayre, C. and Muir, A. (2004). "The right to preserve: the
rights issues of digital preservation." D-Lib Magazine 10(3), March
2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march04/ayre/03ayre.html
Muir, A. (2004). "Digital preservation: awareness,
responsibility and rights issues." Journal of Information Science
30(1): 73-92, February 2004.
In addition, copyright and legal deposit have been a topic of a number
of articles. Legal issues regarding depositing as well as automatic harvesting
of the digital material are investigated from the country specific point of
view.
Charlesworth (2003) examines legal constraints concerning Web archiving
in the UK . He analyses different approaches that EU countries, Australia and
the US have taken in order deal with the legal implications of the archiving of
the Web. EU countries have established legal deposit, while the US and
Australia do not have such legal clarity and have to deal with copyright issues
on a case-by case basis.
Harris (2004) analyses implications of the introduction of the Legal
Deposit Libraries Act 2003 in the UK. To comply with the act publishers are
required to deposit electronic material with the UK library system. The article
also touches on other similar legislation in other European countries.
Olsen (2004) raises concerns regarding the United States Federal
Depository Program's failure to preserve all government electronic
publications. He warns that since these publications are not deposited via the
existing library deposit legislation they are at a risk of being permanently
lost for the community.
Charlesworth, A. (2003). "Legal Issues Relating to the
Archiving of Internet Resources in the UK, EU, USA and Australia: a Study
Undertaken for the JISC and Wellcome Trust". Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/archiving_legal.pdf
Harris, S. (2004). "New Legal Deposit Laws Include Digital
Data". Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.researchinformation.info/rimayjun04legaldeposit.html
Olsen, F. (2004). "Crisis for Web Preservation ". Retrieved
July 13, 2004, from
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0621/pol-crisis-06-21-04.asp
Two recent industry news articles by Applefeld Olsen (2004) and Fist
(2004) report the progress of investigations by the US National Institute for
Standards and Technology (NIST) into standards for reliable long-term storage
media, including DVD.
NIST's recommendations for handling, storage and labelling of optical
discs are presented in a quick reference guide available from their Web site
(NIST, 2004).
Applefeld Olsen, C. (2004). "NIST unit to set criteria for
'archive-grade' DVDs". Inside Digital TV, January 2004. Retrieved July
13, 2004, from:
http://digitaltelevision.com/articles/article_47.shtml
Fist, S. (2004). "Another not-so-permanent archive".
Australian IT, 2 March 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8836696%5E15418%5E%5Enbv%5E15309,00.html
National Institute of Standards and Technology (2004).
Digital Data Preservation Program: CD and DVD Archiving: Quick Reference
Guide for Care and Handling. Gaithersburg, MD : National Institute of
Standards and Technology, 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/disccare.html
Long-term preservation, access and management of scientific data
featured in a few recent articles.
The final report by Lord and Macdonald (2003) on the curation of digital
research data within the UK e-Science context, prepared for the JISC Committee
for the Support of Research (JCSR), is now available.
Burnhill also discusses curation of digital scientific data in his
article on Digital Curation Centre in the UK. He critically examines issues
regarding scholarly data, providing a description of the key objectives of the
centre and an overview of the DCC's main research priorities.
The final report from the University of Virginia on their Supporting
Digital Scholarship project provides a different angle on long-term
accessibility of scientific projects, focusing on cooperation between creators
and the collectors. Legal and policy matters are discussed in detail, including
analysis of aspects of preservation metadata.
In addition, ERPANET / CODATA Workshop held at the Biblioteca Nacional,
Lisbon, 15-17 December 2003 focused on the selection, appraisal and retention
of digital scientific data. Both the official ERPANET report on the event
(ERPANET, 2004) and Day's detailed analysis of the presentations held (Day,
2004) are now available.
Burnhill, P. (2004). "Digital Curation: Should we be Prepared
to Face a Future Without Digital Curation?" Research Information,
Issue 11, May/June 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from:
http://www.researchinformation.info/rimayjun04digitalcuration.html
Day, M. (2004). "The Selection, Appraisal and Retention of
Digital Scientific Data: the ERPANET / CODATA workshop". Ariadne,
Issue 39, April 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from:
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue39/erpanet-rpt/
ERPANET (2003). The Selection, Appraisal and Retention of
Digital Scientific Data: Final Report. Lisbon : Biblioteca Nacional, 2003.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from:
http://www.erpanet.org/www/products/lisbon/LisbonReportFinal.pdf
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University
of Virginia (2004). SDS Final Report. Charlottesville, VA :
University of Virginia, 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from:
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/sds/SDS_AR_2003.html
Lord, P. and Macdonald, A. (2003). E-Science Curation
Report: Data Curation for E-Science in the UK: an Audit to Establish
Requirements for Future Curation and Provision. Twickenham : Digital
Archiving Consultancy, 2003. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/e-ScienceReportFinal.pdf
Digital preservation and libraries was the topic of a special issue of
VINE, which featured articles on digital preservation activities by
experts from a range of institutions worldwide:
Caplan, P. (2004). "Building a digital preservation archive:
tales from the front." VINE 34(1): 38-42.
Cordeiro, M. I. (2004). "From rescue to long-term maintenance:
preservation as a core function in the management of digital assets."
VINE 34(1): 6-16.
Lawson, D. and Spies, P. B. (2004). "Developing a trusted
digital repository: the OCLC experience." VINE 34(1):
27-32.
Oltmans, E. and Van Wijngaarden, H. (2004). "Digital
preservation in practice: the e-Depot at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek."
VINE 34(1): 21-26.
Semple, N. (2004). "Developing a digital preservation strategy
at Edinburgh University Library." VINE 34(1): 33-37.
Woodyard, D. (2004). "Significant property: digital
preservation at the British Library." VINE 34(1): 17-20.
Other publications
Bausenbach, A. (2004). "Character sets and character encoding: a brief
introduction" RLG DigiNews 8(2), April 15 2004. Retrieved July 13,
2004, from http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=17068#article2
Bellinger, M., Kircher, P., Surface, T., & Houser, L. (2004) "OCLC's
digital preservation program for the next generation library".Advances in
Librarianship27, 25-48.
Defines the third generation digital library and introduces the
OCLC Digital Archive.
Dale, R. (2004) "Consortial actions and collaborative environments:
RLG's preservation program". Advances in Librarianship27, 1-23.
Describes RLG's preservation activities since the 1970s,
including its digital preservation initiatives.
Darlington, J. (2004). "A national archive of datasets."
Ariadne, 39, April 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue39/ndad/
Provides overviews for a range of current standards in
information management, including standards for identifiers, metadata and
information resource sharing and search and retrieval, and covers each
standard's purpose, sponsoring agency, stage of development and pros and cons.
Each standard is presented by an expert author.
Galloway, P. (2004). "Preservation of digital objects".Annual Review
of Information Science and Technology 38, 549-590.
Review article of recent research and development. Topics
include: practical examples, stakeholders, recent research, trusted
repositories, preservation strategies, metadata standards, and a look at future
directions.
Grotke, R. W. (2004). "Digitizing the world's largest collection of
natural sounds: key factors to consider when transferring analog-based audio
materials to digital formats." RLG DigiNews 8(1), February 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/v8_n1_feature1.html
This article provides an overview of steps undertaken by the
the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at Cornell University in converting its
analog tape-based sound collection to digital storage and describes the
Library's choices in digital media and data format selection, quality standards
for data creation, monitoring of the archive and long-term
storage.
Guy, M., Powell, A. and Day, M. (2004). "Improving the quality of
metadata in Eprint archives." Ariadne, Issue 38, January 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue38/guy/
Kalbitzer, S. (2004)."Novel concepts for mass storage of archival
data".Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam
Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 218, 343-354.
This paper is looking at the use of ion beams of heavy rare
gases for the compact 'write-once' recording of digital data.
Paterson, N. (2004). Museum of Software Project Web site. Fyfe: St
Andrews University, School of Computer Science, 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004,
from: http://mos.dcs.st-and.ac.uk
The School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews
have announced the start of a project to establish a Museum of Software. While
still in the early stages and seeking funding, the statements of values, vision
and mission for the project may be found on the project Web site. A mailing
list for updates on the project is also available.
Seaman, D. (2004) "The Global Digital Format Registry." CLIR
Issues, 37, January/February 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.clir.org/pubs/issues/issues37.html#reg
Various authors (2004) "A Dozen Primers on Standards". Computers in
Libraries, 24(2), February 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/feb04/primers.shtml
Breaking Boundaries: Integration and Interoperability - 12th Biennial
Conference and Exhibition of the Victorian Association for Library Automation
(VALA 2004).
Papers from VALA 2004, held in Melbourne, Australia on 3-5 February
2004, are now available from the conference Web site. Keynote speakers included
MacKenzie Smith (MIT Libraries), Herbert Van de Sompel (Los Alamos National
Laboratory), Catherine Lupovici (Bibliothèque nationale de France) and
Lorcan Dempsey (OCLC). A selection of papers from the conference include:
Pearce, J. and Berko, M.(2004). "The hybrid library revisited"
Paper presented at VALA 2004: Breaking boundaries: integration and
interoperability, 12th biennial conference and exhibition of the Victorian
Association for Library Automation, 3-5 February 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004,
from http://www.vala.org.au/vala2004/2004pdfs/53PeaBer.PDF
Quenault, H. (2004). "VERS: building a digital record
heritage." Paper presented at VALA 2004: Breaking boundaries: integration and
interoperability, 12th biennial conference and exhibition of the Victorian
Association for Library Automation, 3-5 February 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004,
from http://www.vala.org.au/vala2004/2004pdfs/13Quena.PDF
Sokvitne, L. (2004). "STORS: the development and implementation
of a multi-function Open Archive service for Tasmanian electronic documents"
Paper presented at VALA 2004: Breaking boundaries: integration and
interoperability, 12th biennial conference and exhibition of the Victorian
Association for Library Automation, 3-5 February 2004. Retrieved July 13, 2004,
from http://www.vala.org.au/vala2004/2004pdfs/12Sokvit.PDF
Proceedings of the conference are to be published shortly. The VALA 2004
conference Web Site, retrieved July 13, 2004, may be found at
http://www.vala.org.au/conf2004.htm
Preservation and Access for Electronic College and University Records
(ECURE 2004)
Speaker's presentations from the ECURE 2004 Conference, held in Tempe,
Arizona, USA, on 1-3 March 2004, retrieved July 13, 2004, may be found at
http://www.asu.edu/ecure/2004/
The ECURE Conference Web site, including archives of past conferences,
retrieved July 13, 2004, is available at:
http://www.asu.edu/it/events/ecure/
ERPANET events
Briefing papers and presentations are available for recent ERPANET
events from the ERPANET Web site:
ERPANET Workshop: Audit and Certification in Digital
Preservation, Antwerpen, Belgium, 14-16 April 2004.
Retrieved July 13,
2004, from
http://www.erpanet.org/www/products/antwerpen/antwerpen.htm
File Formats for Preservation, ERPANET Training Seminar,
Vienna, Austria, 10-11 May 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.erpanet.org/www/products/vienna/vienna.htm
Presentations are also available from the following events:
Museums and the Web 2004, Arlington, Virginia, USA, 31 March – 3
April 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2004/sessions/
13th International World Wide Web Conference, New York, USA, 17-22 May
2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from http://www2004.org/
July:
AusWeb04: The Tenth Australian World Wide Web Conference, Gold
Coast, Queensland, Australia, 3-7 July 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw04/conf/
Joint Information Systems Committee/Coalition for Networked
Information Meeting 2004, Brighton, UK, 8-9 July 2004.
Retrieved July 13,
2004, from http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/jisc-cni-2004/
Digital Preservation Management: Short-Term Solutions to
Long-Term Problems, 2004, Ithaca, New York, US, 19 - 23 July 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.library.cornell.edu/iris/dpworkshop/
August:
ISEA 2004: the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art ,
Scandanavia - various locations - see URL for details, 14 - 22 August 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from http://www.isea2004.net/
Collecting and Managing Web Resources for Long-Term Access :
Web Harvesting and Guidelines to Support Preservation (ICABS Actions 3.3 and
3.4) , Buenos Aires, Argentina , 22 - 27 August 2004.
Retrieved July 13,
2004, from http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla70/prog04.htm
International Congress on Archives 2004 : Archives, Memory and
Knowledge, Vienna Austria, 23 - 29 August 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004,
from http://www.wien2004.ica.org/fo/index.php
September:
ECDL 2004 : European Digital Library Conference 2004, Bath, UK,
12 - 17 September 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.ecdl2004.org/
4th International Web Archiving Workshop (IWAW04), Bath, UK, 16
September 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.iwaw.net/04/callforpapers.html
October:
Ensuring the Long-Term Preservation and Adding Value to the
Scientific and Technical Data, Frascati, Italy, 05 - 07 October 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from http://www.congrex.nl/04a08/
Optical Storage Symposium 2004,San Francisco, United States of
America, 18 - 19 October, 2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from
http://www.osta.org/oss/index.htm
November:
Archiving Web Resources : Issues for Cultural Heritage
Institutions : International Conference, Canberra, Australia, 09 - 11 November
2004.
Retrieved July 13, 2004, from http://www.nla.gov.au/webarchiving/
A comprehensive and frequently updated list of forthcoming events is
available from the PADI Web site:
http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/format/event.html
Last updated: July 13, 2004
Links last checked: July 13, 2004
Warning! Web site links tend to have very short lifetimes, as documents
are frequently updated or deleted, Web sites are restructured, domains are
renamed or moved, etc. The compilers of this bulletin, therefore, cannot
guarantee that all of the URLs in this document will successfully resolve to
the resources described here. However, in these cases, try searching for the
same resource on the PADI gateway (http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/), which will
provide updated URLs wherever possible.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA,
Canberra, ACT 2600, AUSTRALIA
Telephone + 61 2 6262 1111; Facsimile +61 2 6257 1703;
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