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.

Vacancy at London School of Economics: Senior Library Assistant (Digital Library)

Senior Library Assistant (Digital Library)
Position Type: Full Time, Permanent
Closing Date: Midnight 26th May 2013
Salary: £26,846 - £31,074 per annum inclusive
Loction: London

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is one of the foremost social sciencecuniversities in the world. The Library of LSE provides one of the best social science collections in any university – supporting the research and teaching of LSE as well as opening its doors to the wider world. The role of the Collections Services Group is to acquire, catalogue and make available resources to support the teaching and research activities of the Library’s user community, to produce an IT framework that supports the work of the Library and to ensure preservation of print and digital collections.

The Senior Library Assistant (Digital Library) will take a lead on the addition of content to LSE Digital Library from a variety of sources such as digitisation projects and born-digital acquisitions across a range of established and emerging collection areas. You will work closely with the Digital Library team to develop new workflows to enable our services to scale significantly in coming years. Over time this is likely to involve the supervision of staff as these workflows become part of the day-to-day work of the Library. You will be involved in innovation projects to develop new Digital Library functionality and play a key role in ensuring that the transition from development to embedded capacity is handled effectively. Over the next few years we will be building several new digital collections from the ground up making this an exciting opportunity to contribute to the growth of our Digital Library service.

This is a very exciting time for LSE Library with the development of our digital library to acquire, preserve and provide access to digital collections, the introduction of the Women’s Library @ LSE – Europe’s largest collection of material relating to the lives of women – together with a building modernisation project to enable the library to

Candidates should have a high level of IT literacy and familiarity with a range of software applications and the internet. Experience of working with a library management system, institutional repository, or digital library system is essential, as is experience of creating or processing metadata. Candidates should also be able to communicate complex information in a clear and accurate manner, using terms appropriate to the audience, and work effectively with others as part of a team.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Helen Williams, Assistant Librarian (Cataloguing): This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Ed Fay, Digital Library Manager: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

To apply for this post please go to http://www.lse.ac.uk/JobsatLSE and select “Vacancies”.

Vacancies at King's College London: 'Knowledge Transfer and Sustainability Manager', and 'Community of Practice Co-ordinator'

There are currently two posts availabile at the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London: a Knowledge Transfer and Sustainability Manager and a Community of Practice Co-ordinator.  Both posts are associated with the Presto4U initiative.  Details below.

Knowledge Transfer and Sustainability Manager (Presto4U)
Position type: Full time, Fixed Term (18 months)
Closing Date: 29th May 2013
Salary: £31,330 plus £2323 London Allowance
Location: London

The Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London seeks an EU Knowledge Transfer & Sustainability Manager to deliver the PRESTO4U core deliverables on behalf of King’s. PRESTO4U is a European Union project with the full title European Technology for Digital Audiovisual Media Preservation. The role will focus upon delivery of the technology and knowledge transfer from preservation research to the projects communities of practice.

The successful candidate for this position will have existing experience and knowledge of digital preservation and preferably knowledge and experience of the audiovisual industry and community. The candidate will need to be able to work to a very tight project schedule and have experience of working in projects with a both a knowledge transfer and technical focus.

For more details see: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/pertra/vacancy/external/pers_detail.php?jobindex=13176

Community of Practice Co-ordinator (Presto4U)
Position type: Full time, Fixed Term (17 months)
Closing Date: 29th May 2013
Salary:Grade 5 - £26,264 plus £2323 London Allowance
Location: London

The Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London seeks an EU Community of Practice Co-ordinator to deliver the PRESTO4U core deliverables on behalf of King’s. PRESTO4U is a European Union project with the full title European Technology for Digital Audiovisual Media Preservation. The post holder will create a Community of Practice for Learning and Teaching audiovisual media preservation, which will develop a body of knowledge on the status of digital preservation practice, outstanding problems and needs for access to research results.

The successful candidate for this position will have existing experience and knowledge of digital preservation and preferably knowledge and experience of the audiovisual industry and community. The candidate will need to be able to work to a very tight project schedule and have an understanding of working in projects with a technical focus but also the capability to build and maintain a Community of Practice (CoP) across subjects and national boundaries.

For more details see: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/pertra/vacancy/external/pers_detail.php?jobindex=13177

Deadline approaching to apply for DPTP Scholarships in May 2013

The deadline is approaching for DPC members to apply for three fully-funded scholarships to attend the Digital Preservation Training Programme at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 20^th-22^nd May 2013.  Applications are due by 1200 on 3rd May. 

The Digital Preservation Training Programme (DPTP) is designed for all those working in institutional information management who are grappling with fundamental issues of digital preservation. It provides the skills and knowledge necessary for institutions to combine organisational and technological perspectives and devise an appropriate response to the challenges that digital preservation needs present. DPTP is operated and organised by the University of London Computer Centre with contributions from invited experts. It is supported by the Digital Preservation Coalition which originally helped to establish the course in 2005. Attendance at the Digital Preservation Training Programme costs £650 per person (excluding VAT). However, the Digital Preservation Coalition is pleased to offer three full scholarships which meet the costs of the course.  Applications are welcomed from DPC members and associates. The scholarship covers all tuition fees, course materials, access to online resources, lunch and refreshments.  Travel, accommodation and subsistence are not funded.

This is the tenth time the DPC has offered scholarships to attend the course.  Successful applicants will be asked to help promote the course and the work of the coalition. The DPC has supported a total of forty six scholarships to attend this course

• For more details of eligibility and how to apply for this and other scholarships see the DPC Leadership Programme