Category: Digital Curation & Digital Preservation

"What Factors Influence Where Researchers Deposit their Data? A Survey of Researchers Submitting to Data Repositories"

Shea Swauger and Todd J. Vision have published "What Factors Influence Where Researchers Deposit their Data? A Survey of Researchers Submitting to Data Repositories" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

In order to better understand the factors that most influence where researchers deposit their data when they have a choice, we collected survey data from researchers who deposited phylogenetic data in either the TreeBASE or Dryad data repositories. Respondents were asked to rank the relative importance of eight possible factors. We found that factors differed in importance for both TreeBASE and Dryad, and that the rankings differed subtly but significantly between TreeBASE and Dryad users. On average, TreeBASE users ranked the domain specialization of the repository highest, while Dryad users ranked as equal highest their trust in the persistence of the repository and the ease of its data submission process. Interestingly, respondents (particularly Dryad users) were strongly divided as to whether being directed to choose a particular repository by a journal policy or funding agency was among the most or least important factors. Some users reported depositing their data in multiple repositories and archiving their data voluntarily.

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"Digital Forensics on A Shoestring: A Case Study from the University of Victoria"

John Durno and Jerry Trofimchuk have published "Digital Forensics on A Shoestring: A Case Study from the University of Victoria" in Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

While much has been written on the increasing importance of digital forensics in archival workflows, most of the literature focuses on theoretical issues or establishing best practices in the abstract. Where case studies exist, most have been written from the perspective of larger organizations with well-resourced digital forensics facilities. However organizations of any size are increasingly likely to receive donations of born-digital material on outdated media, and a need exists for more modest solutions to the problem of acquiring and preserving their contents. This case study outlines the development of a small-scale digital forensics program at the University of Victoria using inexpensive components and open source software, funded by a $2000 research grant from the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL).

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DSpace 5 Released

DuraSpace has released DSpace 5.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

With a new, modern look and feel for every device, the ability to auto-upgrade from older versions of DSpace, to batch import content and more, the release of DSpace 5 offers its far-flung global community of developers and stakeholders an even easier-to-use and more efficient institutional repository solution.

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Debra Hanken Kurtz Named as DuraSpace CEO

Debra Hanken Kurtz has been named as DuraSpace's CEO.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

It brings us great pleasure to announce that the DuraSpace Board of Directors has chosen Debra Hanken Kurtz to serve as the new CEO for the Organization. Kurtz is currently the Executive Director of the Texas Digital Library. She will begin in her new role on February 16, 2015 and establish an office in Austin, Texas to manage DuraSpace business operations.

Kurtz brings key relevant experience and skills to DuraSpace. As Executive Director of the Texas Digital Library, she managed and grew membership, operations, and services. She participates in working and planning groups for DPN and SHARE. At both Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill Libraries, Kurtz provided leadership and direction for digital collections, public websites, and early planning efforts for both libraries' institutional repositories. She was an active partner within the Triangle Research Libraries Network and has been a voice for Kuali OLE, an open-source integrated library system built by and for academic and research libraries. Kurtz's complete background can be found on linkedin.

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iPres 2014: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Digital Preservation

The International Conference on Digital Preservation has released iPres 2014: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Digital Preservation.

Here's an excerpt:

Papers covered a wide array of preservation topics including migration and emulation, file format management, registries and linked data, funding models, education and training, personal archiving and software-based art, web archiving, metadata and persistent identifiers.

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Digital File Formats for Videotape Reformatting

The Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative Audio-Visual Working Group has released Digital File Formats for Videotape Reformatting.

Here's an excerpt:

The project to compare video formats for reformatting is being led by the National Archives and Records Administration with significant input from the Library of Congress. The resulting matrixes offer comparisons of the wrappers AVI, MOV (QuickTime), Matroska, MXF, and MPEG-2 (ad hoc file wrapper), and the following encodings: uncompressed (various types), lossless JPEG 2000, ffv1, and MPEG-2 (encoding). The Working Group's starting point is a useful 2011 report by George Blood for the Library of Congress titled Determining Suitable Digital Video Formats for Medium-term Storage. The inclusion of MXF means that the comparison will complement the FADGI Audio-Visual Working Group's active contributions to the finalization of the MXF AS-07 application specification for preservation and archiving, a "pre-version" of which has been adopted by the Library of Congress as their video preservation format. Nevertheless, as the finalization of AS-07 continues, members of the Working Group and others have expressed interest in evaluating alternate digital file formats. These alternate formats may be appropriate to certain classes of content, for use as interim measures, or suitable for organizations in modest technical circumstances.

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The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model: Introductory Guide (2nd Edition)

The Digital Preservation Coalition has released The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model: Introductory Guide (2nd Edition).

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Emphasising its flexibility and conceptual nature, the report describes the OAIS, its core principles and functional elements, as well as the information model which support long-term preservation, access and understandability of data – highlighting the in-built level of abstraction which makes it such a widely applicable foundation resource for digital preservation.

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Creating and Archiving Born Digital Video

The Born Digital Video subgroup of the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative Audio-Visual Working Group has released Creating and Archiving Born Digital Video.

Here's an excerpt:

The born digital video exploration is being led by the Library of Congress. The documents that comprise Creating and Archiving Born Digital Video provide practical technical information for both file creators and file archivists to help them make informed decisions when creating or archiving born digital video files and to understand the long term consequences of those decisions. . . .

Eight case histories document aspects of the current state of practice in six federal agencies working with born digital video. These case histories not only document deliverables and specifications but also tell the story of each project, and provide background information about the institution and the collection, as well as lessons learned. As the case histories developed, a set of high level recommended practices emerged from the collective project experiences. These recommended practices are intended to support informed decision-making and guide file creators and archivists as they seek out processes, file characteristics, and other practices that will yield files with the greatest preservation potential.

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Fedora 4 Production Release

The international Fedora repository community and DuraSpace have released the Fedora 4 production release.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This significant release signals the effectiveness of an international and complex community source project in delivering a modern repository platform with features that meet or exceed current use cases in the management of institutional digital assets. Fedora 4 features include vast improvements in scalability, linked data capabilities, research data support, modularity, ease of use and more.

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Archival Electronic Records: President Barack Obama Signs the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014

President Barack Obama has signed H.R. 1233, the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Major updates to the Presidential and Federal Records Acts include:

  • Strengthening the Federal Records Act by expanding the definition of Federal records to clearly include electronic records. This is the first change to the definition of a Federal record since the enactment of the act in 1950.
  • Confirming that Federal electronic records will be transferred to the National Archives in electronic form.
  • Granting the Archivist of the United States final determination as to what constitutes a Federal record.
  • Authorizing the early transfer of permanent electronic Federal and Presidential records to the National Archives, while legal custody remains with the agency or the President.

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Digital Curation: Report on Risk, Benefit, Impact and Value

4C has released Report on Risk, Benefit, Impact and Value.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This deliverable of the 4C project work package "WP4-Enhancement" proposes a pragmatic method for estimating costs of digital curation in two different scenarios:

  • A "Current" scenario, where the costs of controls already exist in the repository as a means to reduce the impact of the consequence of a risk/threat, change the likelihood of an event, or reduce the exposure to a vulnerability;
  • A "Future" scenario, where the costs of controls do not yet exist, but where repository managers are able to consider alternative scenarios of repository governance.

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"Curation Costs Exchange: Supporting Smarter Investments in Digital Curation"

Sarah Middleton has published "Curation Costs Exchange: Supporting Smarter Investments in Digital Curation" in EDUCAUSE Review.

Here's an excerpt:

A sizeable canon of research exists on cost modeling for digital curation. Although this research typically emphasizes the cost and complexity of digital curation and preservation, it is in many ways preliminary; the tools and methods developed have seen little uptake. Tools to manage and estimate costs, for example, have not been integrated into other digital curation processes or tools. The question is why? To answer it, a consortium of 13 European partners and cost modeling specialists launched the Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation (4C) project.

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"Video Game Preservation in the UK: A Survey of Records Management Practices"

Alasdair Bachell and Matthew Barr have published "Video Game Preservation in the UK: A Survey of Records Management Practices" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

This study looked at the current attitudes towards preservation in the UK's independent ('indie') video games industry by examining current record-keeping practices and analysing the views of games developers. The results show that there is an interest in preserving games, and possibly a desire to do so, but issues of piracy and cost prevent the industry from undertaking preservation work internally, and from allowing others to assume such responsibility. The recommendation made by this paper is not simply for preservation professionals and enthusiasts to collaborate with the industry, but to do so by advocating the commercial benefits that preservation may offer to the industry.

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"Building Support for Research Data Management: Biographies of Eight Research Universities"

Katherine G. Akers et al. have published "Building Support for Research Data Management: Biographies of Eight Research Universities" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

Academic research libraries are quickly developing support for research data management (RDM), including both new services and infrastructure. Here, we tell the stories of how eight different universities have developed programs of RDM support, focusing on the prominent role of the library in educating and assisting researchers with managing their data throughout the research lifecycle. Based on these stories, we construct timelines for each university depicting key steps in building support for RDM, and we discuss similarities and dissimilarities among universities in motivation to provide RDM support, collaborations among campus units, assessment of needs and services, and changes in staffing.

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"A Perspective on Archiving the Scholarly Web"

Herbert Van de Sompel and Andrew Treloar have self-archived "A Perspective on Archiving the Scholarly Web."

Here's an excerpt:

As the scholarly communication system evolves to become natively web-based and starts supporting the communication of a wide variety of objects, the manner in which its essential functions —registration, certification, awareness, archiving—are fulfilled co-evolves. This paper focuses on the nature of the archival function based on a perspective of the developing future scholarly communication infrastructure.

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Web Archiving in the United States: A 2013 Survey

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance has released Web Archiving in the United States: A 2013 Survey.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The goal of the survey was to better understand the landscape of web archiving activities in the U.S. by investigating the organizations involved, the history and scope of their web archiving programs, the types of web content being preserved, the tools and services being used, access and discovery services being provided and overall policies related to web archiving programs. While this survey documents the current state of U.S. web archiving initiatives, comparison with the results of the 2011-2012 survey enables an analysis of emerging trends. The report therefore describes the current state of the field, tracks the evolution of the field over the last few years, and forecasts future activities and developments.

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"Archiving the Web: A Case Study from the University of Victoria"

Corey Davis has published "Archiving the Web: A Case Study from the University of Victoria" in Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

The University of Victoria Libraries started archiving websites in 2013, and it quickly became apparent that many scholarly websites being produced by faculty, especially in the digital humanities, were going to prove very challenging to effectively capture and play back. This article will provide an overview of web archiving and explore the considerable legal and technical challenges of implementing a web archiving initiative at a research library, using the University of Victoria's implementation of Archive-it, a web archiving service from the Internet Archive, as a case study, with a special focus on capturing complex, interactive websites that scholars are creating to disseminate their research in new ways.

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DataONE Gets $15 Million NSF Grant

DataONE has received a $15 million grant from the NSF.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Founded in 2009 by the National Science Foundation (NSF), DataONE was designed to provide both the tools and infrastructure for organizing and serving up vast amounts of scientific data, in addition to building an engaged community and developing openly available educational resources.

Accomplishments from the last five years include making over 260,000 publicly available data and metadata objects accessible through the DataONE search engine and building a growing network of 22 national and international data repositories. DataONE has published more than 74 papers, reached over 2,000 individuals via direct training events and workshops and connects with over 60,000 visitors annually via the website.

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Digital Preservation in the Age of Cloud and Big Data

Atos has released Digital Preservation in the Age of Cloud and Big Data .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

After introducing the basic concepts of Long-Term Digital Preservation, we show several examples of its importance in different sectors. Then, we explore the challenges that make this technical field a complex one, and in each case, we study the emerging state of the art that will define its evolution in the near future.

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Preservation Statistics: A Survey for US Libraries, FY 2013 Report

ALA has released Preservation Statistics: A Survey for US Libraries, FY 2013 Report.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Results from the 2013 Preservation Statistics Survey are now available. The annual survey gathers data about preventive preservation activities, conservation activities, reformatting and digitization activities and digital preservation responsibilities, as well as how preservation programs are administered.

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"Scaling Up and Scaling Out: Leveraging Preservation Infrastructure and Experience to Benefit the Community"

Portico has released "Scaling Up and Scaling Out: Leveraging Preservation Infrastructure and Experience to Benefit the Community."

Here's an excerpt:

Now well into its eleventh year as a preservation archive and service, Portico's preservation infrastructure—hardware, software, and key data and metadata models and definitions—has been subject to a continual process of re-view and revision that makes it possible for us to leverage our work to benefit the broader community. Since 2012, Portico has been delivering e-journal con-tent to the British Library as part of their legally mandated deposit program, en-abling the British Library to benefit from existing preservation expertise to manage the normalization of e-journal content. In this paper we will discuss Portico's development, the scaling up of our preservation capacity, the chal-lenges and opportunities in our partnership with the British Library, and the value of leveraging and sharing existing preservation infrastructure, skills, and experience for the good of the broader community.

Digital Scholarship | "A Quarter-Century as an Open Access Publisher"

Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach, SPEC Kit 341

ARL has released Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach, SPEC Kit 341.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

ARL has released Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach, SPEC Kit 341, which investigates what methods ARL member libraries use to maintain the relevancy of their locally curated digital library collections, and to continue to sustain, grow, capture return on investment, and enhance existing resources through outreach and assessment. The publication also explores current practices for integrating digital resources into the research, teaching, and learning environment.

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From Theory to Action: Good Enough Digital Preservation for Under-Resourced Cultural Heritage Institutions

POWRR has released From Theory to Action: Good Enough Digital Preservation for Under-Resourced Cultural Heritage Institutions.

Here's an excerpt:

Libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations collect, create, and steward a rapidly increasing volume of digital content. Both research conclusions and professionals' real-life experiences expose the inherent fragility of this content. The cultural heritage and information science communities have developed guidelines, best practices, policies, procedures, and processes that can enable an organization to achieve high levels of digital preservation. However, these protocols are often complex, leaving many practitioners attempting to address the challenge of preserving digital materials feeling overwhelmed. This is particularly true for professionals serving smaller institutions that are often operating with restricted resources like small staff sizes, a lack of specialized expertise, dated technical infrastructures, and/or limited budgets. This white paper is the result of a three year investigation, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, of affordable, scalable digital preservation solutions that can be successfully implemented at under-resourced organizations. It reports the results of large-scale testing of several digital preservation tools and services, suggests pragmatic digital preservation options, including an incremental approach to digital preservation practices, and asserts that communities of practice are key to success.

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"The Integrity of Research Is at Risk: Capturing and Preserving Web Sites and Web Documents and the Implications for Resource Sharing"

James G. Neal has published "The Integrity of Research Is at Risk: Capturing and Preserving Web Sites and Web Documents and the Implications for Resource Sharing" in IFLA WLIC 2014—Lyon.

Here's an excerpt:

Born digital materials, for example websites and web documents, present particular challenges to academic and community libraries and their collection development, discovery and access, preservation, and resource sharing programs. This paper will explore the policy, workflow, legal, governance, financial, and service framework for capturing and preserving web content in the context of expanding collaborative collection development agreements among libraries. The paper will describe the program at the Columbia University Libraries in the area of Web Resources Archiving Collaboration. Columbia has sought to situate its program within the broader mission of its Libraries, collecting content deemed important for current and future research, preserving the content for future scholars, but also providing access in novel ways to foster current use in teaching and research.

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