Digital Preservation: PADI and Padiforum-L to Cease Operation

Established in 1997, the National Library of Australia's PADI subject gateway, which has over 3,000 resources on more than 60 topics, will be shut down at the end of this year.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

As is to be expected with any portal to Web based documents maintenance of web links becomes progressively more demanding over time. Websites are redesigned, migrated to new platforms, URL’s are changed, projects and their websites cease, so called persistent identifiers are not, and even when web documents or pages are archived in a web archive, questions arise as to which version of an archived page to link to (which date or even which archive as copies may be held in multiple web archives with different levels of completeness). The current structure of PADI requires the Library to commit around 0.5 of a fulltime staff member to locate, describe and enter links to new information sources and to maintain links to existing resources. Although originally conceived as a cooperative contribution model, increasingly the burden of adding material to PADI has fallen to the NLA as input from elsewhere has almost ceased.

The information-seeking and information-providing mechanisms of a community also change over time. After reviewing the gateway service the Library has concluded that the existing website, database and list no longer meet the current needs and that the Library’s resources are best invested elsewhere. While there may be more efficient ways of building a service like PADI today, using Web 2.0 tools, the Library is unable to make the investment in converting the existing service.

Reluctantly—because we still find PADI useful ourselves—we believe we cannot sustain PADI, and have decided to cease maintaining it.

A copy of the website has been archived in PANDORA, Australia’s Web Archive. The existing live website will remain available until the end of 2010; however no new resources have been added since the start of July 2010 and the existing links will not be actively managed. The archives of the padiforum-l list will continue to be available, however no new postings will be accepted from 30 September 2010.

The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age

The Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress have released The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age.

Here's an excerpt:

The publication of The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States is a landmark achievement in the history of the archival preservation of audiovisual materials. The authors, Rob Bamberger and Sam Brylawski, have produced a study outlining the web of interlocking issues that now threaten the long-term survival of our sound recording history. This study tells us that major areas of America’s recorded sound heritage have already been destroyed or remain inaccessible to the public. It suggests that the lack of conformity between federal and state laws may adversely affect the long-term survival of pre-1972-era sound recordings in particular. And, it warns that the continued lack of national coordination among interested parties in the public and private sectors, in addressing the challenges in preservation, professional education and public access, may not yet be arresting permanent loss of irreplaceable sound recordings in all genres.

Long-Term Preservation Services: A Description of LTP Services in a Digital Library Environment

The British Library, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and Nasjonalbiblioteket have released Long-Term Preservation Services: A Description of LTP Services in a Digital Library Environment.

Here's an excerpt:

The main focus of this document is long-term preservation, but considered as an integral part of the overall digital library capability within a library and the corresponding workflows. We therefore seek information about long-term preservation within this broader context. Principles and implementation may vary greatly, and we are open to alternative approaches.

The document starts with an overview of all the types of services involved in LTP, and shows how different institutions might draw the boundaries between the LTP and a wider digital library capability. We then take the three core functions of an LTP system (to ingest, retain, and provide access to digital content) and show how the services work together to fulfill each function. Finally, we give a detailed description of each type of service.

Preserving Digital Public Television: Final Report

The NDIIPP-funded Preserving Digital Public Television project has released Preserving Digital Public Television: Final Report.

Here's an excerpt:

The goals of the PDPTV project were to:

  • Design and build a prototype preservation repository for born-digital public television content;
  • Develop a set of standards for metadata, file and encoding formats, and production workflow practices;
  • Recommend selection criteria for long-term retention;
  • Examine issues of long-term content accessibility and methods for sustaining digital preservation of public television materials, including IP concerns.
  • Introduce the importance of digital preservation to the public broadcasting community.

GPO Hires Its First Preservation Librarian

The U.S. Government Printing Office has hired its first preservation librarian, David Walls.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is continuing its commitment to preserving the documents of our democracy by establishing the agency’s first preservation librarian position. GPO’s preservation librarian will be tasked with updating the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) collection management plan for the preservation of federal government documents. David Walls will serve as GPO’s first preservation librarian; he is a member of the American Library Association (ALA) and comes to the agency from Yale University where he worked as a preservation librarian for 12 years. While at Yale, Walls established practices for the digital conversion of library and special collection materials.

Digital preservation is an ongoing initiative for GPO. In 2009, the agency launched GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), a content management system, preservation repository and advanced search engine that provides the public with permanent public access to federal government information. GPO is also a member of LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), a worldwide digital preservation alliance that collaborates with libraries and organizations on preservation initiatives.

Digital Preservation: PARSE.Insight Presentations and Report

PARSE.Insight (Permanent Access to the Records of Science in Europe) has released several presentations and reports.

Research Data Management: Incremental Project Releases Scoping Study And Implementation Plan

The Incremental Project has released the Scoping Study And Implementation Plan. The Cambridge University Library and Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow jointly run the project.

Here's a brief description of the project from its home page:

The project is a first step in improving and facilitating the day-to-day and long-term management of research data in higher education institutions (HEI's). We aim to increase researchers’ capacity and motivation for managing their digital research data, using existing tools and resources where possible and working to identify and fill gaps where additional tailored support and guidance is required. We aim to take a bottom-up approach, consulting a diverse set of researchers in each stage of the project.

Read more about it at "Scoping Study and Implementation Plan Released."

A Guide to Web Preservation

The JISC-funded PoWR project has releasd A Guide to Web Preservation.

Here's an excerpt:

The [JISC PoWR] project handbook was published in November 2008. Since then we have seen a growing awareness of the importance of digital preservation in general and in the preservation of web resources (including web pages, web-based applications and websites) in particular. The current economic crisis and the expected cuts across public sector organisations mean that a decade of growth and optimism is now over – instead we can expect to see reduced levels of funding available within the sector which will have an impact on the networked services which are used to support teaching and learning and research activities.

The need to manage the implications of these cutbacks is likely to result in a renewed interest in digital preservation. We are therefore pleased to be able to publish this new guide, based on the original PoWR: The Preservation of Web Resources Handbook, which provides practical advice to practitioners and policy makers responsible for the provision of web services.

A Future for Our Digital Memory (2): Strategic Agenda 2010-2013 for Long-Term Access to Digital Resources

The Netherlands Coalition for Digital Preservation has released A Future for Our Digital Memory (2): Strategic Agenda 2010-2013 for Long-Term Access to Digital Resources

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The document proposes a dual-axis approach: on the one hand collaboration within domains and information chains must be strengthened. This process is to be facilitated by so-called network leaders: the National Archives for public records, the KB, National Library of the Netherlands, for scholarly publications, Data Archiving and Networked Services for research data and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision for media. A fifth network leader for cultural heritage institutions such as museums, is yet to be announced. The NCDD itself is to facilitate cross-domain cooperation and knowledge exchanges.

See also A Future for Our Digital Memory (1): Permanent Access to Information in the Netherlands.

Presentations from Computer Forensics and Born-Digital Content in Cultural Heritage Collections Meeting

The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities has released presentations from the Computer Forensics and Born-Digital Content in Cultural Heritage Collections meeting.

Here's an excerpt from the meeting's background document:

While such [computer forensics] activities may seem (happily) far removed from the concerns of the cultural heritage sector, the methods and tools developed by forensics experts represent a novel approach to key issues and challenges in the archives community. Libraries, special collections, and other repositories increasingly receive computer storage media (and sometimes entire computers) as part of their acquisition of "papers" from contemporary artists, writers, musicians, government officials, politicians, scholars, and other public figures. Cell phones, e-readers, and other data-rich devices will surely follow. The same forensics software that indexes a criminal suspect's hard drive allows the archivist to prepare a comprehensive manifest of the electronic files a donor has turned over for accession; the same hardware that allows the forensics specialist to create an algorithmically authenticated "image" of a file system allows the archivist to ensure the integrity of digital content once committed to an institutional repository; the same data recovery procedures that allow the specialist to discover, recover, and present as trial evidence an "erased" file may allow a scholar to reconstruct a lost or inadvertently deleted version of an electronic manuscript—and do so with enough confidence to stake reputation and career.

Presentations from the Changing Role Of Libraries in Support of Research Data Activities: A Public Symposium

The Board on Research Data and Information has released presentations from the Changing Role Of Libraries in Support of Research Data Activities: A Public Symposium.

Presentations included:

  • Deanna Marcum, Library of Congress: The Role of Libraries in Digital Data Preservation and Access—The Library of Congress Experience
  • Betsy Humphreys, National Library of Medicine: More Data, More Use, Less Lead Time: Scientific Data Activities at the National Library of Medicine
  • Joyce Ray, Institute for Museum and Library Services: Libraries in the New Research Environment
  • Karla Strieb, Association of Research Libraries: Supporting E-Science: Progress at Research Institutions and Their Libraries
  • Christine Borgman, UC, Los Angeles: Why Data Matters to Librarians—and How to Educate the Next Generation

Read more about it at "National Academies Sees Libraries as Leaders in Data Preservation."

The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21st Century Scholarship

The Council on Library and Information Resources has released The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21st Century Scholarship.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Idea of Order explores the transition from an analog to a digital environment for knowledge access, preservation, and reconstitution, and the implications of this transition for managing research collections. The volume comprises three reports. The first, "Can a New Research Library be All-Digital?" by Lisa Spiro and Geneva Henry, explores the degree to which a new research library can eschew print. The second, "On the Cost of Keeping a Book," by Paul Courant and Matthew "Buzzy" Nielsen, argues that from the perspective of long-term storage, digital surrogates offer a considerable cost savings over print-based libraries. The final report, "Ghostlier Demarcations," examines how well large text databases being created by Google Books and other mass-digitization efforts meet the needs of scholars, and the larger implications of these projects for research, teaching, and publishing.

JISC Project Report: Digitisation Programme: Preservation Study, April 2009

JISC, the Digital Preservation Coalition, Portico, and the University of London Computer Centre have released JISC Project Report: Digitisation Programme: Preservation Study, April 2009.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The digital universe grew by 62% in 2009, but those adding to these resources need to think long term if they want to make best use of their public funding. Clearly stated preservation policies are essential in guaranteeing that researchers in the future will be able to access and use a digital resource, according to a new report funded by JISC. But the responsibility needs to be shared between funders, who must articulate the need for data curation, and universities, who need to implement a preservation policy for each digital collection. . . .

Alastair Dunning, programme manager at JISC, said: "Although our initial goal was to examine our own projects, the recommendations and outcomes are relevant to funders and projects in many different sectors."

Dr William Kilbride, Executive Director of the Digital Preservation Coalition, said: "JISC challenged us to work in fine detail and in broad strokes at the same time. We immersed ourselves in the detail of sixteen different projects with a brief to support these projects and use that experience for a strategic and lasting contribution based on hard empirical evidence."

The results of this work published today contain recommendations for institutions, funders and those assessing funding projects and programmes. The authors anticipate that the template used to survey the projects could also form a useful blueprint for funders and assessors in the future.

Digital Preservation: Data-PASS Project Gets Matching IMLS Support for $1.6 Million Project

The Data-PASS Project has been given "one-to-one matching funds for the $1.6 million dollar project" by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has generously supported members of the Data-PASS Alliance through an award to develop a policy-based archival replication system for libraries, archives and museums. . . .

The archival community has largely recognized that a geographically – and organizationally – distributed approach is necessary to minimize long-term risks to digital materials. The new system will provide a way to ensure that replicated collections are both institutionally and geographically distributed and to allow for the development of increasingly measurable and auditable trusted repository requirements. This result will be to enable any library, museum or archive to audit its content across an existing LOCKSS network and will allow groups of collaborating institutions to automatically and verifiably replicate each others' content.

The Data-PASS partnership was established as part of a previously funded Library of Congress NDIIPP program and the replication system builds upon a prototype developed through that project. Data-PASS network model

Tools and training to facilitate the creation of archival replication policies and the auditing and management of a replication network will be released this year. We will also release extensions to the Dataverse Network System that enable curators of dataverse virtual archives to easily participate in these replication networks. These tools will be distributed as open source, and as self-contained packages for non-technical users.

Digital Preservation: Open Planets Foundation Established

The four-year Planets (Preservation and Long-term Access through Networked Services) project is ending. To build on its work, the Open Planets Foundation has been established.

The initial members are:

  • Austrian Institute of Technology
  • The British Library
  • Det Kongelige Bibliotek (The Royal Library of Denmark)
  • Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The National Library of the Netherlands)
  • Microsoft Research Limited
  • Nationaal Archief (The Dutch National Archives)
  • Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (The Austrian National Library)
  • Statsbiblioteket (The State & University Library, Denmark)
  • Tessella plc

Read more about it at "Welcome to the Open Planets Foundation."

Planets Project Deposits "Digital Genome" Time Capsule in Swiss Fort Knox

The Planets project has deposited a "Digital Genome" time capsule in the Swiss Fort Knox.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Over the last decade the digital age has seen an explosion in the rate of data creation. Estimates from 2009 suggest that over 100 GB of data has already been created for every single individual on the planet ranging from holiday snaps to health records—that's over 1 trillion CDs worth of data, equivalent to 24 tons of books per person!

Yet research by the European Commission co-funded Planets project, co-ordinated by the British Library, highlights deep concerns regarding the preservation of these digital assets. Findings suggest that as hardware and software are superseded by more up-to-date technology, and older formats become increasingly inaccessible, the EU alone is losing over 3 billion euros worth of digital information every year.

Looking to ensure the preservation of our digital heritage, on 18 May 2010 the Planets project will deposit a time capsule containing a record of the "Digital Genome" inside Swiss Fort Knox—a high security digital storage facility hidden deep in the Swiss Alps—preserving the information and the tools to reconstruct highly valuable data long after the lifeline of supporting technology has disappeared.

Inside the Digital Time Capsule:

  • Five major at risk formats—JPEGs, JAVA source code, .Mov files, websites using HTML, and PDF documents
  • Versions of these files stored in archival standard formats—JPEG2000, PDFA, TIFF and MPEG4—to prolong lifespan for as long as possible
  • 2500 additional pieces of data—mapping the genetic code necessary to describe how to access these file formats in future
  • Translations of the required code into multiple languages to improve chances of being able to interpret in the future
  • Copies of all information stored on a complete range of storage media—from CD, DVD, USB, Blu-Ray, Floppy Disc, and Solid State Hard Drives to audio tape, microfilm and even paper print outs . . .

Since 2007 the volume of data produced globally has risen from 281 exabytes to over 700 exabytes—much of this is now considered to be at risk from the repeated discontinuation of storage formats and supporting software. Current studies suggest that common storage formats such as CDs and DVDs have an average life expectancy of less than 20 years, yet the proprietary file formats to access content often last as little as five to seven years and desktop hardware even less. Backing up this data is a start, but without the information and tools to access and read historical digital material it is clear huge gaps will open up in our digital heritage.

To meet this threat, in 2006 the European Commission established the Planets project—Preservation and Long-term Access through Networked Services—bringing together a coalition of European libraries, archives, research organisations, and technology institutions including the Austrian National Library, the University of Technology of Vienna, and the British Library to develop the software solutions to guarantee long-term access. Marking the end of the first phase of the project the deposit of the Planets "Digital Genome" in Swiss Fort Knox will help to highlight the fragility of modern data and help to protect our digital heritage from a whole range of human, environmental and technological risks.

University of Virginia Library Gets $870,000 Grant for Born-Digital Materials Preservation Study

The University of Virginia Library has been awarded a $870,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study how born-digital materials can be best preserved.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

"Born-digital" materials include the works of contemporary writers and architects, as well as archives of current political figures and organizations. These materials are quickly becoming significant collections that require careful, planned stewardship to ensure their preservation and availability to scholars now and in the future, said Martha Sites, an associate University librarian and a principal investigator for the grant.

Programmers and archivists from U. Va. are working with counterparts at Stanford and Yale universities, as well as from England's University of Hull, to create a model for digital collection management that can be easily shared among research libraries and other institutions charged with preserving rare materials. . . .

The universities plan to use 13 "born-digital" collections as their test base for the project. Examples from the U.Va. Library include "papers" that are actually correspondence, drafts and other materials in digital form from former Virginia Sen. John Warner and from author and critic Alan Cheuse, who is also a book reviewer for National Public Radio, creative writing professor at George Mason University and a former U.Va. English professor. The results will make these collections accessible to researchers for the first time.

The grant also provides for four digital archivists and a programmer who will explore and test how to process, preserve and deliver different digital collections across multiple institutions. The common approaches devised to archive born-digital "papers" will not only be designed to be used by different institutions, but they will also be demonstrated and proven in practice by the four partner universities. The work will include the creation of Web-based tools and services to let librarians, archivists and eventually users themselves describe, link, preserve and deliver digital information.

Digital Information Management Podcasts/Videos from DigIn

The University of Arizona Digital Information Management (DigIn) certificate program has released a series of podcasts and videos about information management topics.

Here's the press release:

The University of Arizona Digital Information Management (DigIn) certificate program recently hosted a series of talks by members of the program's national advisory panel. The resulting podcasts offer an in-depth discussion of critical themes we explore regularly in the DigIn courses as we help information professionals meet the challenges we face in the digital environment today.

All podcasts are available at:

http://digin.arizona.edu/presentations.html

Friday, April 23, 2010
University of Arizona Main Library

"Career Paths for Information Professionals: Looking Ahead to 2020"

A panel discussion with members of the national advisory panel for the Digital Information Management (DigIn) graduate certificate program. This discussion examines the evolving role of the information professions today, and focuses on the skills and knowledge professionals need to build effective careers in a fast-changing environment.

Moderator:
Peter Botticelli
Director, DigIn program
http://digin.arizona.edu/

Panelists:
Charles Bailey, Jr.
Publisher, Digital Scholarship
http://www.digital-scholarship.org/

Richard Pearce-Moses
Past President, Society of American Archivists
Deputy Director for Technology and Information Resources,
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records

Christine Szuter
Professor of Practice and Director
Scholarly Publishing certificate program,
Arizona State University

Pete Watters
Technology Officer
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records

Friday, April 23, 2010 James E. Rogers College of Law

Roberta I. Shaffer Law Librarian of Congress

"Digitization and the Future of Law Libraries"

Legal Information is increasingly born digital and presents challenges of authenticity and preservation that are critical because of the role of legal authorities in establishing the "rule of law." This presentation by Roberta I. Shaffer, the Law Librarian of Congress, will discuss unique challenges that face law makers, law practitioners, and information professionals who are the stewards of our legal legacy. Ms. Shaffer will also discuss developments at the Library of Congress that are designed to address some of the concerns.

Friday, April 23, 2010 University of Arizona Main Library

Richard Pearce-Moses
Past President, Society of American Archivists
Director of Digital Government Information,
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
http://rpm.lib.az.us/

"Curating the Digital Past: Lessons from the PeDALS Project"

As the volume and complexity of digital information continues to grow, archivists and librarians have begun to develop the tools needed to preserve society’s legacy of digital records. This presentation by Richard Pearce-Moses will discuss the PeDALS project, a nationally-recognized digital preservation initiative funded by the Library of Congress, National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) as part of its Preserving State Government Information initiative. This initiative focuses on capturing, preserving, and providing access to a rich variety of state and local government digital information.

DigIn is part of the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science. Major funding for the program comes from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which has also provided scholarship funding.

Additional details on the program, including course descriptions, admissions requirements and application forms may be found on the program website:

digin.arizona.edu

Applicants may also contact the DigIn staff at:

digin@email.arizona.edu

Survey of Digital Preservation Practices in Canada: Final Report

Library and Archives Canada has released Survey of Digital Preservation Practices in Canada: Final Report.

Here's an excerpt:

In 2008, Library and Archives Canada commissioned a survey on digital preservation practices in Canada in order to gain a clearer understanding of the current state. The intent was to determine existing practices and resources for digital preservation as well as to identify gaps and challenges. This report presents the results of this survey. . . .

The survey was divided into six sections: (1) Introduction, (2) Information about the repository, (3) General policies and practices, (4) Preservation practices, (5) Preservation resources, and (6) Challenges. Respondents who rated their organization's preservation capacity as very low were re-routed to an abridged version of the questionnaire.

The survey received 61 full responses from a variety of types of organizations: libraries, archives government departments/agencies, museums, research institutes, across a number of sectors: academic, governments and not-for profit. Although invitations were sent to several organizations in private industry, no responses were received from this sector.

Respondents' repository collections ranged from discrete collections of digitized monographs, images, or audio files, to data repositories, to broader scope, multiple format collections. The repository collections were also wide ranging in terms of size with the smallest collection having 70 objects and the largest collection containing over 8 million objects. 95% of respondents indicated that the content in the repositories was predominantly Canadian. That is, the content was produced in Canada or was about Canada.

Keeping Research Data Safe 2

JISC has released Keeping Research Data Safe 2.

Here's an excerpt:

The first Keeping Research Data Safe study funded by JISC made a major contribution to understanding of long-term preservation costs for research data by developing a cost model and identifying cost variables for preserving research data in UK universities (Beagrie et al, 2008). The Keeping Research Data Safe 2 (KRDS2) project has built on this work and delivered the following:

  • A survey of cost information for digital preservation, collating and making available 13 survey responses for different cost datasets;
  • The KRDS activity model has been reviewed and its presentation and usability enhanced;
  • Cost information for four organisations (the Archaeology Data Service; National Digital Archive of Datasets; UK Data Archive; and University of Oxford) has been analysed in depth and presented in case studies;
  • A benefits framework has been produced and illustrated with two benefit case studies from the National Crystallography Service at Southampton University and the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex.

Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography, Version One

Version one of the Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship.

This bibliography presents over 360 selected English-language articles, books, and technical reports that are useful in understanding digital curation and preservation. Most sources have been published between 2000 and the present; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 2000 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to sources that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints for published articles in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories. Note that e-prints and published articles may not be identical. (See the scope note for further details.)

The following recent Digital Scholarship publications may also be of interest:

"100 Million Hours of Audiovisual Content: Digital Preservation and Access in the PrestoPRIME Project"

Matthew Addis et al. have self-archived "100 Million Hours of Audiovisual Content: Digital Preservation and Access in the PrestoPRIME Project" in the ECS EPrints Repository.

Here's an excerpt:

We report the preliminary results of PrestoPRIME, an EU FP7 integrated project, including audiovisual (AV) archives, academics and industrial partners, focused on long-term digital preservation of AV media objects and on ways to increase access by integrating media archives with European on-line digital libraries, specifically Europeana. Project outcomes will result in tools and services to ensure the permanence of digital AV content in archives, libraries, museums and other collections, enabling long-term future access in dynamically changing contexts. PrestoPRIME has a special focus on digital preservation in broadcast environments, where very large files of digital video must be preserved at high quality (suitable for future re-use in an AV production environment) in affordable distributed and federated archives. The adoption of standard solutions for digital preservation processes (metadata representation, content storage, digital rights government, search and access) enables the interoperability of the proposed preservation framework and guidelines. OAIS model was chosen for the reference architecture, METS is adopted as wrapper for metadata representation, while relevant standards (e.g. W3C, ISO/IEC and others) are used for content and rights description. Project outcomes will be delivered through a European networked Competence Centre, to gather knowledge and deliver advanced digital preservation advice and services in conjunction with Europeana and other initiatives.

The Digital Divide: Assessing Organizations' Preparations for Digital Preservation

Plants has released The Digital Divide: Assessing Organizations' Preparations for Digital Preservation.

Here's an excerpt:

  • The volume of digital content that organizations expect to archive will increase 25-fold over the next ten years.
  • While seventy per cent of organizations hold less than 20 terabytes (TB) of data now, by 2019 seventy per cent of organizations expect to hold over 100TB.
  • Digital information comes in a range of types, and while over 80% of organizations already need to preserve documents and images, by 2019 over 70% will need to preserve databases, websites, audio and video files as well.
  • Only 27% of organizations think that they have complete control over the file formats that they will accept and store in their digital archives. Since the choice of format affects how easy it is to preserve digital content, producers need to be more involved in digital preservation.
  • The digital preservation message has spread far and wide: 93% of respondents indicated that their organisation is aware of the challenges of managing digital information for the long-term.
  • Organizations are taking account of digital preservation: 76% include it in their operational planning, 71% in their business continuity planning and 62% in their financial planning.
  • By setting out a digital preservation policy, 48% of organizations are actively planning how to tackle digital preservation.
  • Organizations are only starting to commit to funding digital preservation, as just 47% have allocated a budget to it.

Read more about it at Survey Analysis Report.

Digital Curation and Preservation Policies in Scottish HEIs: Survey Results

The Digital Curation Centre has released Digital Curation and Preservation Policies in Scottish HEIs: Survey Results.

Here's an excerpt:

The survey showed that repositories are still relatively young, and that preservation is not yet the highest priority for them. The situation with preservation policies also reflects the early stage of repository development, where the need to apply explicit curation policies is only beginning to be acknowledged.

The survey did not identify any institution level preservation policies, but given the heterogeneity of digital information across any higher education institution, it is not surprising that institution-wide preservation policies have yet to be formulated. Repository level policies were found to be in place at four institutions that also reported to be offering preservation services.

The survey reported a very low level of awareness of both existing preservation policies and digital preservation issues in general, especially amongst administrative and research staff. Enforcing preservation policies and making them effective are challenges that all HEIs face; at the same time, this formative period could be considered an opportunity for the ERIS project to develop supporting tools and guidance, especially since the prospect of additional guidance and the possibility of centralised services for preservation were welcomed by the respondents.

Planets Releases 7 Digital Preservation Training Videos and Related Materials

Planets (Preservation and Long-term Access through NETworked Services) has released seven training videos, an annotated reading list, and a set of technical summaries about digital preservation.

Here's a list of the digital videos:

  • Introduction to Digital Preservation: Why Preserve? How to Preserve?
  • The Preservation Action Cycle: Introduction to Planets
  • How to Preserve?
  • Tools: How to Understand Files
  • Testbed: A Controlled Environment for Experimentation and Evaluation in Digital Preservation
  • Digital Preservation: How to Plan: Preservation Planning with Plato
  • Tools: How to Integrate the Components of Digital Preservation