Informal Notes from Business Archives Council Conference

Informal notes from the Alliance for Permanent Access conference are now available online for DPC members:

• Notes from Business Archives Council Conference 'Born this way: Business Archives and the Digital Records (PDF Login Required)
• Login or Register for DPC website

Informal notes from the Alliance for Permanent Access conference are now available online for DPC members:

• Notes from Alliance for Permanent Access Conference (PDF Login Required)
• Login or Register for DPC website

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to offer members a preview of the latest in its popular Technology Watch Reports series - ‘Digital Forensics and Preservation’ by Jeremy Leighton John of the British Library.

This report provides a broad overview of digital forensics with pointers to resources and tools that may benefit the preservation of digital cultural heritage. More specifically, the report focuses on the application of digital forensics to the curation of personal digital archives.

‘Digital forensics is associated in many people’s minds primarily with the investigation of crime. However, In recent years, digital forensics has also emerged as an essential source of tools and approaches for facilitating digital preservation, specifically for protecting and investigating evidence from the past,’ explained the author. ‘Institutional repositories and professionals with responsibilities for personal archives can benefit from using forensic tools and technique to address digital authenticity, accountability and accessibility.’

‘Forensic technology makes it possible to identify privacy issues, establish a chain of custody, employ write protection for capture and transfer of data, and detect forgeries. It can extract relevant metadata and content, it enables efficient indexing and searching, and it facilitates the management of access rights.’

This is the fourth report in the DPC technology watch series to have been commissioned with Charles Beagrie Ltd as series editors.  Four more reports are in  development – on Preservation, Trust and E-Journals; Preserving Computer Aided Design; Web Archiving; and Preservation Metadata.

The series editors have been further supported by an Editorial Board drawn from DPC members and peer reviewers who have commented on the text prior to release.  The Editorial Board comprises William Kilbride (Chair), Neil Beagrie (Principal Investigator and Managing Editor for the series), Janet Delve (University of Portsmouth), Sarah Higgins (Archives and Records Association), Tim Keefe (Trinity College Dublin), Andrew McHugh (University of Glasgow), Dave Thompson (Wellcome Library).

The report is available as a preview for DPC members

• Preview: Digital Forensics and Preservation by Jeremy Leighton John (Login Required, 1376KB)

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The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to invite its members to vote in the 2012 Digital Preservation Awards.

The awards celebrate the excellence and innovation that will help to ensure our digital memory is accessible tomorrow.  Because 2012 is the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Coalition we are offering 3 awards:

• DPC Decennial Award for an outstanding contribution to digital preservation
• DPC Award for Research and Development in Digital Preservation
• DPC Award for Teaching and Communicating Digital Preservation

The judges have shortlisted four nominations in each category. To help them with their final decision we want to hear from the whole membership of the DPC.

'Each member has one vote in each category so we hope to encourage debate about what are the best nominations,' explained William Kilbride of the DPC.  'Voting is open to all the agencies and personal members that are part of the DPC family, but votes need to be cast online by 1700 on Friday 9th November. The vote should be cast by the board director or designated contact in each member agency, and we hope that we can provoke some debate about the best nominees.'

'We have identified a few conflicts of interest - a number of DPC members have been nominated and they can't vote for themselves.  We will take these into account when we look at the results to ensure an even playing-field.'

'The voters pack is online but you may need to register for the website before you can cast your vote'

• Finalists for the DPC Award from Teaching and Communications
• Finalists for the DPC Award for Research and Innovation
• Finalists for the DPC Decennial Award for an outstanding contribution to digital preservation
• Polling Card for DPC Members (Login Required)
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