Member Registration Open for 'Preserving CAD' Event - IMechE, One Birdcage Walk, London - 26th July 2013

Member registration has now opened for our latest briefing day on the topic of ‘Preserving Computer Aided Design (CAD)’ at IMechE, One Birdcage Walk, London on Friday 26th July.

http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/64-preserving-computer-aided-design-cad?xref=70

The Digital Preservation Coalition first addressed this topic in July 2010, inviting expert practitioners to share their concerns and aspirations for long term management of CAD systems at an invitation Briefing Day called ‘Designed to Last’. Since then we have commissioned Alex Ball of DCC – one of the keynote speakers - to provide a Technology Watch Report that distils and updates latest thinking on the topic.

This DPC briefing day anticipates the launch of that report, and will allow participants to reflect on new and emerging challenges. Leaders in the field will be invited to foreground their own work and their practical concerns about preservation. Recent case studies will be presented and speakers will be invited to consider emerging and future trends. Participants will be invited to reflect on their own needs and an extended discussion will follow.

Places are limited and should be booked in advance. Registration will close one week before the event and early booking is recommended as we expect these events will be popular.

Priority will be given to DPC members: full members are invited to send up to five delegates and associates are invited to send one each. Non-members are welcome at a cost of £250 pounds per person, or may wish to consider joining the DPC prior to the event.

Presentations from the popular DPC / BLPAC 'Getting Started in Digital Preservation' workshop in Aberystwyth in June are now available online. To see these, as well as the presentations from similar events in Glasgow in April and London in May see: http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/56-getting-started-in-digital-preservation?xref=61%3Aeventtitle   The roadshow has been popular and each of the stops has sold out well ahead of time.  Discussions are now under way about extending the programme in September.  Details will follow.

Vacancy at King's College London: Research Associate (Digital Preservation)

Research Associate (Digital Preservation)
Post type: Full time fixed term (to 31 Jan 2017)
Location: London
Salary: Grade 6 scale, currently £31,331 to £36,298 per annum plus £2,323 per annum London Allowance.
Closing Date: 19 June 2013

King’s College London is seeking to recruit a Research Associate to work on the newly-funded EU FP7 project PERICLES (“Promoting and Enhancing Reuse of Information throughout the Content Lifecycle taking account of Evolving Semantics”), which has been funded as part of the EU’s Digital Preservation programme. More information about the project can be found at the project website http://pericles-project.eu/.

The post holder will contribute to a range of the research activities of the project, and will work closely with research staff at King’s and at partner institutions. Key issues addressed by PERICLES include the capture of contextual information to support lifecycle management and preservation on the one hand, and re-use or re-interpretation of content on the other, as well as the facility to model and describe preservation processes, policies and infrastructures as they themselves evolve. The project will be addressing use cases from two quite different domains: on the one hand, digital artworks, such as interactive software-based installations, and other digital media from Tate's collections and archives (http://www.tate.org.uk/); on the other hand, experimental scientific data originating from the International Space Station.

This is an exciting opportunity for a talented researcher to make a major contribution to a high-profile and long-term research project in the field of digital preservation. The successful candidate will be expected to have excellent research skills in the field of digital preservation, or a related area such as data management, digital asset management, data analytics or information retrieval. In addition, they will have knowledge of lifecycle models and techniques for the management of digital material, software development skills, and knowledge of a range of computing technologies of relevance to preservation systems.

• For more information, and application details, see http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/pertra/vacancy/external/pers_detail.php?jobindex=13266.
• For an informal discussion of the post, please contact Mark Hedges via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

New web-archiving report tackles 'moving target' of preserving digital memory

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) has released its latest in the series of topical Technology Watch Reports to the public today. ‘Web Archiving,’ by Maureen Pennock, presents a constructive study of the fast-paced digital age and the pressures we face in attempting to capture web based information for the future.

Maureen’s report outlines some of the current issues faced by organisations engaged in this challenging occupation. “The speed at which the web has become part of everyday life is unprecedented…Yet the very speed at which it develops poses a threat to our digital cultural memory, of its technical legacy, evolution and our social history,” she explains.

‘Web Archiving’ advises on some of the technical approaches to web archiving and, crucially, provides valuable information on the resources available to support organisations tackling this ‘moving target.’

Abbey Potter of the US Library of Congress has endorsed the report on behalf of the International Internet Preservation Consortium’s saying.  ‘This is an excellent introduction to the topic of web archiving.” The UK’s National Archives’ Amanda Spencer concurs, praising the report as covering “all the significant themes and issues relating to web archiving today.”

The report has been eagerly awaited by those responsible for managing the lifecycle of web content and wishing to broaden their knowledge of web archiving prior to embarking on or revising their own initiatives. It has also been well received by organisations or individuals who are new to web archiving, and existing practitioners are finding value in the report’s summative nature.

Web Archiving is the latest in the state of the art ‘Technology Watch Reports’ that give an advanced introduction to ensuring that high-value and vulnerable digital resources can be managed beyond the limits of technological obsolescence. Neil Beagrie of Charles Beagrie Ltd acts as managing editor of the series.

• Read Maureen Pennock's report 'Web Archiving'

Vacancy at Trinity College Dublin / Digital Repository of Ireland: Systems and Storage Developer

Systems and Storage Developer
Post Status: Full time, fixed term to August 31st 2015
Location: Dublin
Salary: Appointment to this post will be made on the Administrative Officer 3/2 scale in line with current Government Pay Policy
Closing Date: 12 Noon on 29th May 2013

The Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing (TCHPC) at Trinity College Dublin is recruiting a Systems and Storage Developer for the Digital Repository of Ireland. This person will develop and deploy advanced IT systems as part of the Digital Repository of Ireland
(DRI) HEA PRLTI funded project.

The appointee will be responsible for the design, deployment and management of distributed storage infrastructure. S/he will have in particular, responsibility for developing storage layer tools including: replication, snapshots; hierarchical storage management; trusted high speed communications between storage sites; data life cycle management, resilience and disaster recovery; optimisation for different data formats and object sizes.The successful candidate will have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or an other technical discipline. S/he will have two years experience in Unix/Linux systems administration and one years experience in a software development environment, would be an advantage.

For more details see: http://dri.ie/vacancies

The 4C consultation is now open!

The 4C project has begun its open consultation to find people interested in clarifying the costs of curation for their organisation. This consists of an online questionnaire that will start a communication channel for further engagement. 

The consultation is especially aimed at: research funding institutions, cost model experts, big data science institutions, digital preservation vendors, government agencies, publishers, content producers and holders, data intensive companies, memory institutions or in fact any person or institution that has an interest in identifying and clarifying the(ir) costs of curation. So, if you are interested in knowing more about digital curation costs, get involved by clicking the link below, and share your thoughts because this consultation is for you.

http://4cproject.net/initial_consultation/

The consultation closes on June 17th, so join in now!

Vacancy at the British Library: Digital Preservation Officer

Digital Preservation Officer
Salary:  £37,937-£44,059 per annum plus benefits       
Location: London
Position Type: Full-time, fixed term (2 years)
Closing date: 29th May 2013

The British Library is currently recruiting for a Digital Preservation Officer to join the Digital Preservation Team at the British Library. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to work at the cutting edge of international digital preservation research & development, and help ensure the Library can preserve its digital collections far into the future. Working closely with colleagues from across the Library, the successful candidate will be part of our digital preservation R&D team and contribute to the successful delivery of the Library’s new digital preservation strategy. The post holder will work with digital material in a wide range of formats, exploring and analysing our options to help us identify the most appropriate means of safeguarding our digital collections for future generations.This is a London-based post, fixed term for two years.

More details at http://bit.ly/11DTHX4

Vacancy at The National Archives: Development Lead for Digital Records Infrastructure

Lead Developer Digital Records Infrstructure
Salary: £40-45,000
Location: London
Postition Type: Full time, permanent
Closing Date: 31st May 2013

Are you seeking to build a career in a world-leading institution using your skills and experience in software development to preserve a nation’s history? Building on our award-winning experience in digital preservation, The National Archives is developing a new Digital Records Infrastructure (DRI) system to acquire, store and preserve our rapidly increasing digital collection. Operating at petabyte-scale, this system will ensure the long-term preservation of the UK government’s records. Records such as government websites, the records of significant public inquiries, the decisions and deliberation of senior officials, ministers and prime ministers and the nations digitised history from the 10th to the early 21st century are all to be preserved in the system.

As the Development Lead for the DRI, you will play a key role in the delivery of this innovative and high-profile system, ensuring that it remains capable of handling the latest digital records as new record formats are presented to the archives for permanent preservation. The current system comprises a series of batch-processing workflows constructed predominantly in Java, XSLT, XML Schema and Bash script running in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment. You will influence the future technical design of the system and be responsible for setting the technical direction and tasks of the team, mentoring staff, undertaking code review and also writing code yourself. You must be an expert in at least one or more programming languages, with a good level of knowledge of others. A concrete understanding of TCP/IP networking and Linux systems would be an advantage.

You should be passionate about both technology and information management. Your creativity and experience will be essential to the organisation to inform and shape the design of new workflows that you will need to translate into efficient operational code. You will liaise with Heads of Department, technical staff throughout the Technology Directorate, and colleagues across The National Archives and beyond; the role will be varied and challenging.

For more information see: http://bit.ly/YWaing

The Chair of the Digital Preservation Coalition cordially invites

... the British Library, Cambridge University Library, Creative Scotland, the Digital Curation Centre, JISC, The National Archives, The National Records of Scotland, The National Library of Scotland, The Open University, Oxford University Library Service, Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, Research Councils UK, and the University of London Computer Centre...

to send a delegates to the meeting of the DPC Directors’ Group, at The Grange Hotel, Bootham York on Thursday 4th July 2013, 1130-1600

The Directors’ Group provides an extended and informal networking opportunity at which staff, partners, contractors or allies of full members of the Coalition are invited to describe and discuss current, forthcoming and future digital preservation projects. It allows staff, colleagues and supporters - who might not normally attend Board meetings - to contribute to the Coalition’s work plan for the coming year. It encourages the development of bilateral and multi-lateral relationships among members; helps disseminate good practice; and ensures that the work of the coalition remains tied to the changing needs of the workforce.Full members are invited to nominate up to four delegates.

Delegates can be drawn from any department, project, partnership or constituent of the institution so long as they are able to contribute to and benefit from an open discussion on digital preservation and cognate issues. Delegates will be expected to participate in a range of activities which introduce their own current and future work, which review the work of others and which help inform the work of the Coalition in the coming year. The event will be help under ‘Chatham House Rules’, therefore allowing members to share genuine challenges and present emerging tools and processes without them being reported outside. An outline programme and details of logistics are attached.Lunch will be provided and refreshments will be available throughout the day.

For more details and to RSVP see: http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/63-directors-group-2013?xref=69

Conference Report: Screening the Future 2013

Briefing notes from the PrestoCentre organised conference Screening the Future 2013 have been added to the conference report area of the DPC website (login required).

• Click here to register for the DPC website.