Digital Preservation Coalition

RCUK

Excerpt from DPC Annual Report 2008-2009

Science and Technology Funding Council (STFC) STFC has been coordinating two major European projects advancing digital preservation: CASPAR and PARSE.Insight. CASPAR has been running for three years and has developed a framework for digital preservation, based on the OAIS standard and applied and tested in the domains of scientific data (from ESA and STFC), cultural heritage (from UNESCO) and performing arts (from IRCAM and others), all of which bring their own unique problems and requirements for preservation. STFC is of course itself a major holder of scientific data, often accumulated over many years of observations. CASPAR developed a framework, methods and infrastructure to support preservation, which themselves will be sustained beyond the life of the project itself. The project’s website is at: www.casparpreserves.eu  

PARSE.Insight started in 2008 and completing in 2010 aims to survey a wide variety of scientific disciplines with respect to digital preservation and produce a comprehensive roadmap for the future of digital preservation in Europe. As well as a general survey, there are three in-depth case studies in high energy physics, social sciences and earth science. The other partners include high-profile organisations such as CERN and the European Space Agency. The project has developed the questionnaires to be used for the surveys, and an initial draft roadmap that will ensure that the surveys cover all the relevant angles on digital preservation.

A series of workshops have been and will be held throughout the life of the project to validate and disseminate the work done. The project’s website is at: www.parse-insight.eu  

In addition STFC plays a major role in the JISC funded Digital Curation Centre (DCC) where we are responsible for tools and development. The aim of this work is to produce a set of tools which are of use in supporting the long term preservation of digitally encoded information. In particular the challenges of scientific data are tackled.

Supporting the work in digital preservation we play leading roles in standards bodies. We provide the co-chair of the standards panel which is responsible for the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS, ISO 14721) which is the standard most widely used in this field, and also for developing related standards. In addition we chair the Repository Audit and Certification Working Group which is attempting to produce an ISO standard on which a full audit and certification of digital repositories can be based. If successful this standard and process would be a major driving force in the field of digital preservation.