Digital Preservation Coalition

Cambridge University Library

Excerpt from DPC Annual Report 2008-2009

Grant Young took up the newly-established post of Digitisation and Digital Preservation Officer in the library in August 2008, working closely with the DSpace@ Cambridge team. In May 2009 he initiated, with Elin Stangeland, the CUPID 1 Project, a series of activities intended to scope out the requirements for a preservation service based on DSpace@Cambridge. It represents a particularly interesting case among repositories for its emphasis on collecting research data and multimedia content as well as e-publications. It also receives the outputs of digitisation projects and institutional administrative records. Both TRAC and DRAMBORA audits will be carried out and there will be a survey of preservation needs across the university. Following this initial scoping study, due for completion in March 2010, CUPID will continue with a planning stage in which technical specifications and policies will be mapped out, and an implementation phase. The project is intended to draw on developments elsewhere, notably the Planets and LIFE projects.

The library also collaborated in the JISCfunded project, Keeping Research Data Safe 2, led by Neil Beagrie, which commenced in March 2009. It will identify long-lived datasets for the purpose of cost analysis and build on the work of the first “Keeping Research Data Safe” study completed in 2008.