DPC

The National Archives is proposing to launch a new phase of development of its DROID tool, and is seeking to engage with various user groups and stakeholders from the digital preservation community, government and the wider archives sector communities to help inform and discuss potential developments and user needs. As part of this process, The National Archives, in conjunction with the Digital Preservation Coalition, invites interested parties to attend a one day workshop, hosted at Kew, to discuss their experiences of using DROID and PRONOM in their respective disciplines, discuss how the tools fit their use case, and describe both positive and negative experiences of the tools and their interaction with The National Archives.

There will be a mixture of invited talks and extensive open discussions; the invited talks may focus on experiences, ideas to augment or improve either service, and may encompass wider ideas and thoughts on file identification in general. The day will commence with a short introduction by Tim Gollins, Head of Digital Preservation at The National Archives, who will set out the case for PRONOM and DROID at The National Archives, and describe the business requirements which have helped shape and drive the tools development to this point. Throughout the day, via twitter and less technology dependent mechanisms, we will seek to gather a list of hot topics and discussion points from the community, which will then be used as the basis for an end of day discussion which will help inform the development of the next iteration of DROID, set to commence in 2012. The result of the day will provide The National Archives with content to begin a broader open consultation between December and January which will see active participants in the DROID community submit requirements for the tool and vote on and discuss existing requirements. The National Archives will use this whole process to help prioritise community requests, alongside its own internal requirements, when work on DROID 7.0 begins.

Programme of Presentations:

• Ross Spencer: Linked Data PRONOM
•  Dr David Tarrant (University of Southampton) - UHT Digital Preservation: Increasing the Shelf Life of our Data, Services and Tools
• Bill Roberts (Open Planets Foundation (OPF), The Nationaal Archief (National Archives of the Netherlands)) – ‘Towards a format registry ecosystem’
• Andy Jackson: Linked People
• Kate Pritchard, Mike Kaye (DEFRA – Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) - ‘DEFRA experiences using DROID and using an IT provider’
• Jenny Mitcham (Archaeology Data Service) - ‘Using DROID to create file level metadata – a case study from the Archaeology Data Service’
• Johan van der Knijff (SCAPE Project / Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands) – ‘Evaluation of format identification tools’

Introduction

Digital preservation helps to deliver lasting impact from highly prized and valuable digital resources. This is often understood as a technical challenge but experience shows that a poor fit between technology, processes and regulations constrains preservation actions and significantly inhibit the benefits which long-term access ought to deliver. Operating within a complicated and evolving legal and regulatory landscape, the digital preservation community needs a clear understanding of what it is permitted to do and what risks might inhere within technical processes like format shifting, migration, bit replication and emulation. Foremost among these challenges is the management, protection and evolution of intellectual property rights. It has long been recognised that digital rights management and encryption present a barrier to preserving content. But intellectual property rights do not just impact on the contents of archives but applies also to the containers, wrappers and formats which make the contents accessible.

This joint DPC JISC Digital Media briefing day, will examine and discuss key concepts of intellectual property rights as they impact on digital preservation. It will provide a forum to review and debate the latest developments in the law as it applies to preservation and it will initiate a discussion on how simple legal processes can be deployed. Based on commentary and case studies from leaders in the field, participants will be presented with emerging tools and technologies and will be encouraged to propose and debate the future for these developments. The day will include a discussion of:

• Intellectual property rights in format migration and emulation
• Intellectual property rights in information and product lifecycles
• Licensing preservation actions and digital rights management for the long term
• Emerging trends and tools for managing intellectual property in preservation

Who should come?

• Collections managers, curators and archivists in all institutions
• Tools developers and policy makers in digital preservation
• Innovators and researchers in information policy and management
• Innovators and researchers in computing science
• Vendors and providers of digital preservation services

Provisional Programme

1030 Registration and Coffee

1100 Welcome and introductions (Karla Young, JISC Media and William Kilbride, DPC)

1105 The nature of the problem, Andrew Charlesworth, Bristol University

1135 Issues of Ownership: case studies in depositing and licensing from the Wellcome Library, Chris Hilton, The Wellcome Library

1200 Case study 2: legalities, migration and emulation, David Anderson, KEEP Project, University of Portsmouth

1225 Case study 3: group discussion and practical exercise, JISC Media

1250 Question and answer

1300 Lunch

1345 Escrow services for long term access: emerging trends and issues, Barbara Kolany, ITM, Muenster University

1410 Emerging Trends: Let's All Meet Up in 2015 - what will IPR for digital preservation look like then, Jason Miles Campbell, JISC Legal

1435 Question and answer

1445 Coffee
1500 Panel session and discussion TBC

1550 Wrap up and thanks William Kilbride (DPC)

1600 Close

Notes from the event

Report on the workshop from Marie Therese Gramstadt: http://kaptur.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/ipr-digitalpreservation-2011/

The University of Leeds has joined the Digital Preservation Coalition.

'Over the last few years our digital collections have grown and diversified', explained Bo Middleton of the University Library. ' They represent a considerable investment and we must move to protect these assets through active preservation.'

Preservation has a particular importance for scientific information because meaningful innovation is necessarily responsive previous generations of research. In that sense, preservation of appropriate research outputs is essential to all sciences, especially for unrepeatable experiments or unique moments of discovery. Aspirations about access to information are meaningless without commensurate actions that to ensure preservation. We welcome all actions that will encourage a dialogue between and within member states to ensure the preservation of scientific information and we call on the EU to engage in that dialogue as a matter of urgency, using existing examples of best practice to help build capacity.

Read the original consultation from the EC

See the full text of the DPC response.

The DPC has today responded to a new policy consultation from the EU regarding preservation and access to scientific information.

Email is arguably the most ubiquitous, inexorable and voluminous manifestation of information technology. It is a defining characteristic of our age and a critical element in all manner of communications and transactions. Industry and commerce depend upon email; families and friendships are sustained by email; government and economies rely upon email; communities are created and strengthened by email.  It is sometimes hard to remember how we functioned before the widespread adoption of email in public and private life. But for all the importance of email and the transactions it supports, it is surprisingly absent from much of the digital preservation literature.  Institutions, organizations and individuals have a considerable investment and in many cases statutory requirements to safeguard large collections of email, so there ought to be a strong body of experience and clear workflows to follow.  So why is there so little detailed advice available?

To some extent email encapsulates many of the core challenges of digital preservation.  It would be simple to preserve if it were not for the infinite variety of attachments that go with it; it would be simple to preserve if we could eliminate all the duplicates and spam; if we could remove all the personal details; if we could resolve the copyright issues; if we could resolve access and security barriers. These and other subtle, complex demands mean that the relatively simple proposition of preserving our collected digital correspondence can be blighted by interminable wrangling over procedure, policy and technology.  Nonetheless the preservation of email creates a readily understood basis to engage with the widest possible audience with digital preservation.  It provides a pervasive environment for innovation and assessment of digital preservation tools and services.  It will be a necessary component to ensure our digital memory is accessible tomorrow.

This DPC briefing day will provide a forum for members to review and debate the latest developments in the preservation of email. Based on commentary and case studies from leaders in the field, participants will be presented with emerging policies, tools and technologies and will be encouraged to propose and debate new directions for research.  The day will include a discussion of key topics such as:

• lifecycle management of email
• Ingest, documentation and accession of email archives
• Emerging tools and policies for preservation of email

Who should come?

This day will be of interest to:

• Collections manager, librarians, archivists in all institutions
• Tools developers and policy makers in digital preservation
• Innovators and researchers in information policy and management
• Innovators and researchers in computing science
• Vendors and providers of email services

Draft Programme Outline

1030      Registration and Coffee

1100      Welcome and introductions (William Kilbride, DPC)

1105      The Nature of the Problem (Chris Prom, University of Illinois)

1135      Why preserving email is harder than it sounds - theory and practice (Stephen Howard, Information Management Officer, the United Nations)

1205      Receiving and managing email archives at the Bodleian Libraries - a case study (Susan Thomas, Bodleian Libraries)

1235      Discussion and questions

1245      Lunch

1330      Email management: 15 wasted years and counting (Steve Bailey, JISC InfoNet)

1355      Past, present and future in email preservation: practical experience and future directions (Maureen Pennock, British Library)

1420      Emerging tools for email preservation (Tom Jackson, Loughborough University)

1445      Discussion and questions

1500      Coffee

1515      Discussion and panel (led by Tim Gollins, TNA)

By 1600 Close

As digital resources grow in scale, complexity and importance so the task of making sense of collections becomes more involved.  It can be a significant challenge to retrieve, assess and access digital data even when they are thoughtfully arranged and their context is well understood.  In an increasing number of cases, however, archives, memory institutions and researchers in all kinds of settings find themselves with the challenge of managing, preserving and interpreting collections with only limited provenance and description.  Laptops, hard disks and mobile phones now hold those original manuscripts and working notes that fascinate and inform readers and historians alike.  The digital jumble of modern life conceals collections of great value; the feint and muddled traces of relationships lie buried beneath the surface; an invisible and ephemeral confusion of bits and bytes witness transactions and connections not obvious to the naked eye.   Little wonder then that archivists, collections managers and researchers are increasingly turning to forensics to make sense of collections.  Tools and methods originally developed for the detection and detention of criminals provide a basis for a new kind of analytical collection management.  But skills are short and tools are developing quickly.  How do we preserve and protect this data?  How do we protect the reputations of depositors, researchers and ourselves?

Digital forensics lie at the intersection of many of the core challenges of digital collections management, especially for those collecting institutions that deal in the papers and correspondence of personal and public life.  How do we cope with the growing scale and complexity?  How do forensics relate to more familiar concepts like cataloguing and characterisation? How can we make our workflows more efficient and our collections more manageable? What tools do we need for discovery and what are the limits of reasonable deployment? What advice should we give to depositors and what restrictions might we put on users?

This DPC briefing day will provide a forum for members to review and debate the latest development in the use of digital forensics for preservation. Based on commentary and case studies from leaders in the field, participants will be presented with emerging policies, tools and technologies and will be encouraged to propose and debate new directions for research.

The day will include discussion of key topics such as:
• Digital archives and mobile devices
• Tools for e-discovery
• Integration of forensics with preservation workflows
• The practical, ethical and reasonable limits of forensic enquiry

Who should come?

This day will be of interest to:

• Collections managers, curators and archivists in all institutions
• Tools developers and policy makers in digital preservation
• Innovators and researchers in information policy and management
• Innovators and researchers in computing science
• Vendors and providers of digital preservation services

Draft Programme Outline

1030       Registration and Coffee

1100       Welcome and introductions (William Kilbride, DPC)

1105       The nature of the problem, (Jeremy Leighton John, British Library)

1135      e-discovery and Sense-Making: Tools, Techniques and Processes (Simon Attfield, Middlesex University)

1200       Mobile forensics: A case study (Brad Glisson, HATII, University of Glasgow)

1225       The Stanford Forensics Lab: A Case Study (Michael Olson, Stanford University)

1250       Question and answer

1300       Lunch

1345       Trends and tools 1 (Gareth Knight, CERch, King's College London)

1410       Trends and tools 2 (Kam Woods, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

1435       Question and answer

1445       Coffee

1500       Panel session and discussion: the practical and reasonable limits of forensics (TBC)

1550       Wrap up (William Kilbride, DPC)

By 1600 Close

The AIMS Project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, brings together the Universities of Hull, Virginia, Stanford, and Yale. The partners are processing and preserving a total of 13 born-digital collections, in doing so we hope to develop a common framework and good practice guidelines that can be adopted and applied by other organisations.The session will introduce the AIMS model but the idea is not to seek external review of the model at this stage but to facilitate discussion with a core group of practitioners to look at three core aspects:

• collection management
• arrangement and description
• discovery and access

A series of brief presentations from invited speakers will then be followed by open discussion amongst the delegates about practical issues that could range from working with depositors, using and integrating 3rd party tools, born digital archives workflow and other aspects. With no previous experience of born-digital archives prior to the project we sought to apply traditional archival theories and principles from managing paper archives to the born-digital material. The day will revisit the professional principles - not to question them but to look at them from a born-digital archives perspective.The day will provide a forum for a core group of digital preservation experts to discuss issues and opportunities with colleagues. We hope that delegates will bring insight and experiences, both good and bad, and leave with new ideas to consider.

Who should come?

The sessions are aimed at practitioners in all sectors and in all sizes of institution who are currently active in the field of digital preservation.  It is expected that all delegates will actively contribute to the discussion and debate that will follow the brief presentations from speakers.

Draft Programme Outline

1030       Welcome - Dr William Kilbride, DPC

1035       The Aims Project approach and Model - Judy Burg & Simon Wilson, AIMS Project, Hull University Archives

11.15       Break

11.30     Collection Development & Accessioning

1) Extending collecting policies to include born-digital archives - Chris Hilton and Natalie Walters, Wellcome Library

2) Changing nature of the relationship with depositors - Elinor Robinson, LSE

12.30    Lunch

13.15     Arrangement & Description

3) Cataloguing hybrid collections - Susan Thomas, Bodleian Library

4) Presenting hybrid collections - Jeremy John, British Library

14.15      Break

14.30    Discovery & Access

5) Discovery and access - Tim Gollins, The National Archives

6) Use and impact - Catherine Hardman, The Archaeology Data Service

15.30     Drawing it all together – the sum of all the parts Judy Burg, Archivist, University of Hull

16.00     Close

Further notes on the event can be found on the AIMS website here.

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to announce that Angela Dappert and Sharon McMeekin will be joining the DPC as Special Project Officers.

‘People are often surprised to discover that the DPC achieves so much with such a small staff complement,’ explained Richard Ovenden, Chair of the DPC.  ‘Appointing two new staff means a 100% increase in staff and a radical expansion in the benefits we can deliver to members. It’s a really exciting development for the Coalition.’