The InterPARES 2 project (2001-2006) is an international research collaboration on long-term digital preservation and the world largest project of its kind. It brought together 100 researchers from 21 countries, who joined the project with their respective disciplinary expertise, and a large number of graduate research assistants, who contributed to various kinds of research activities. By investigating cases in complex digital environment, where digital information is generated and used to support the conduct of artistic, scientific, and governmental activities, the project has developed both theoretical and methodological knowledge essential to effective preservation of reliable, accurate, and authentic digital records.
The InterPARES policy framework, which contains two sets of complementary principles, is one of the core products of the project. It provides a sound foundation on which preservation policies and procedures can be formulated. Although it is produced based on research examining digital records, for which archival institutions are usually the legitimate preservers, some of them are applicable to other types of digital information such as digital publications, which libraries are charged to maintain. It is believed that the exchange of research findings between libraries and archival institutions – the two major players in the field of digital preservation – will facilitate the preservation of societal documentary heritage and ensure the collective accountability of the memory profession.
As a part of NSTL proposed long-term preservation of digital information network, the National Science Library of CAS (NSLC) constructed a long-term preservation system of electronic journals called CAS E-Journal Archiving System, which was based on OAIS and adapted Fedora as the fundament system. The system chose a certain amount of electronic journals as pilot resources. Through three major system functional components comprising ingest, preservation management and data dissemination, the system took the long-term preservation of digital objects function into practice. The system is designed to be open and scalable. It realized digital objects management and lifecycle management. In this paper we describe the design of the system, and the issues we have learnt about long-term preservation.
MIXED is a digital preservation project. It uses a strategy of converting data to intermediate XML. In this paper we position this strategy with respect to the well-known emulation and migration strategies. Then we detail the MIXED strategy and explain why it is an optimized, economical way of migration. Finally, we describe how DANS is implementing a software tool that can perform the migrations needed for this strategy.
In recent years, opinions have varied on which digital preservation strategy to follow. Although the digital preservation community has now embraced the idea of applying both emulation as well as migration in their strategies, emulation is still looked upon with skepticism due to its technical complexity and initial costs. As early as in 2004, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek – National Library of the Netherlands (KB) – and National Archive of the Netherlands acknowledged the need for emulation, especially for rendering complex digital objects in the future without affecting their authenticity and integrity. For these reasons, a project was started to investigate the feasibility of emulation by developing and testing an emulator designed for digital preservation purposes. In July 2007 this project ended and delivered a durable x86 component based computer emulator: Dioscuri, the emulator for digital preservation.
File format obsolescence is a major risk factor threatening the sustainability of and access to digital information. While the preservation community has become increasingly interested in tools for migration and transformation of file formats, the National Library of Australia is developing mechanisms specifically focused on monitoring and assessing the risks of file format obsolescence. This paper reports on the AONS II project, undertaken by the National Library of Australia (NLA) in conjunction with the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR). The project aimed to develop a software tool which allows users to automatically monitor the status of file formats in their repositories, make risk assessments based on a core set of obsolescence risk questions, and receive notifications when file format risks change or other related events occur. This paper calls for the preservation community to develop a co-operating file format obsolescence community which includes registries, software tool creators and end users to effectively curate digital content in order to maintain long-term access.
This paper gives a comprehensive introduction of National Cultural Information Resources Sharing Project. It discusses the best practices in creation and long-term preservation of multimedia digital resources, and recommends solutions to the key issues in resource selection, standards & specifications and copyright.
The OAIS model has gained widespread acceptance as the fundamental design reference model for an archival system by the digital library community. One of its core entities is Preservation Planning, for which central functional entities are given yet without every detail breaking down into activities requirements. The Planets Preservation Planning approach addresses this by providing a way to make informed and accountable decisions on which preservation strategy to implement in order to most suitably preserve digital objects for a given preservation context. It allows the explicit definition of requirements and goals and offers a systematic way to evaluate preservation strategies.
This paper shows the implementation of the Develop Preservation Strategies and Standards function of the OAIS model through the Planets Preservation Planning approach. Moreover, the paper examines the information flows within the OAIS Preservation Planning entity and with other functional entities with respect to the Planets model.
The LIFE project creates a digital lifecycle model based on previous work undertaken on the lifecycle of paper-based material.Web Archiving, Voluntarity Deposited Electronic Publications (VDEP), and E-Journal are chosen as case study for application and evaluation of the LIFE Mode.Case studies show its potential for further use in a numble of roles,such as improving assessment of the financial commitment,more effective planning for preservation activities etc.The LIFE Mode will be revised and refined in LIFE2 Project.
This presentation focuses on the complex issue of managing digital rights for long-term preservation. It describes the strategy and the methodology adopted within the SPAR project (French National Library), which rely on a special kind of knowledge-based system.
National and international publishers have been depositing digital publications at the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) since 2003. Until recently, most of these publications were deposited in the Portable Document Format. New projects, for example the Web archiving project, force the KB to handle more heterogeneous material. Therefore, the KB has developed a quantifiable file format risk assessment method. This method can be used to define digital preservation strategies for specific file formats. The choice for a specific file format at creation time or later in the life cycle of a digital object influences the long-term access to the digital object. The evaluation method contains seven sustainability criteria for file formats that are weighed for importance. There seems to be consensus on the sustainability criteria. However, as the weighing of these criteria is connected to an institution’s policy, the KB wonders whether agreement on the relative importance of the criteria can be reached at all. With this paper, the KB hopes to inspire other cultural heritage institutions to define their own quantifiable file format evaluation method.
Operating an international archive for digital information resources by a relatively small organization as the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) asks for a firm foundation of its policy. Continuing research and development efforts to secure permanent preservation and access to electronic information on a national and international scale require substantial financial, technical and staffing commitments. Cooperation in sharing resources and knowledge is called for.
In the national context of the Netherlands the KB recently took the initiative to build the National Digital Preservation Coalition. All relevant sectors of Dutch society are represented. Its aim is to develop a national infrastructure and to assign clear responsibilities.
In the European arena the KB, together with the British Library, started the European Alliance for Permanent Access to the Records of Science. The Alliance works towards the widespread and joint responsibility for maintaining the records of science by all major stakeholders, including national governments and the EU.
In the global context the KB developed the concept of the “Safe Places Network”. This Network will include a limited number of institutions with certified digital archives for scientific publications, sharing responsibility for complete, world-wide coverage and allocate tasks accordingly.
Because of its commitment to keeping the digital contents accessible, institutional repository plays an important role in the long-term preservation of intellectual output of the institution. However, digital preservation in institutional repository is faced with severe legal issues, especially the intellectual property problems. This paper focuses on the copyright issues involved with long-term preservation of digital resource in institutional repositories. It begins with a brief introduction to the relationship between the institutional repository and digital preservation. Based on this background information, the paper analyzes the related laws and regulations in China that affect the long-term preservation of digital resource in institutional repository. Then the authors discuss in details what kind of the copyright risk there may be, if we realize the long-term preservation of digital resource in institutional repositories. There may be different legal hazards, according to the various types of the digital output collected by institutional repository. The paper ends up with several suggestions to avoid the legal risk in digital preservation of institutional repository. Firstly, to utilize fair use is a feasible way. Secondly, also most safely, is to get the permission from the copyright owner. This is involved in the long-term preservation contract and open license.
The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) was initiated in December 2000 when the U.S. Congress authorized the Library of Congress to work with a broad range of institutions to develop a national strategy for the preservation of important at-risk born digital content. Guided by a strategy of broad collaborations and iterative learning, the Library of Congress began catalyzing a national network of partners dedicated to collecting and preserving important born-digital information. Over the last six years, the Library and its partners have been engaged in learning through action. Our investments in preservation partnerships, public policy deliberations related to intellectual property challenges, basic technical research, and network architecture models have increased our understanding of the sustaining roles and functions for a national network of diverse stakeholders. The emerging network of networks is complex and inclusive of a variety of stakeholders: content producers, content stewards and service providers from the public and private sectors.
