DPC

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Digisams pilot project on storage for long-term usability is a part of the ongoing work on a scalable and flexible infrastructure that is carried out in collaboration with SUNET, Swedish University Computer Network and e-infrastructure. The project aims to develop an effective infrastructure common storage solution in order to increase usability of digital cultural heritage information.

The project is based on results from Digisams earlier work on digital preservation, including a pilot study in which a common storage, either centralized or distributed, is pointed out as desirable technical solution, together with services and tools for preservation: http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/DCH-RP_WP5_DigitalPreservationAt-SwedishCHInstitutions-3.pdf (in English)

Paul Young has been Digital Archivist at the National Archives for just over a year, dealing with the ingest of Born-Digital records and undertaking file format research for PRONOM.

Paul attended iPRES 2016 with support from the DPC's Leadership Programme. This blog is part of a series produced by scholarship recipients who attended iPRES 2016.

Panel Discussion: Software Sustainability and Preservation: Implications for the Long-Term Access to Digital Heritage

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Information Directorate of the University of York as its newest member.

'Accessing and preserving digital information is one of the great challenges of the 21st century,' explained Chris Webb of the University of York. 'We recognise the importance and scale of the challenge, and we're pleased to join the DPC, which is a key partnership that enables these difficult areas to be tackled for the benefit of all.'

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Following up from the DPC’s Member Unconference and all of the fantastic ideas generated in this day long workshop, William and Sarah will fill you in on the popular favourites returning to our programme for 2016-2017, as well as all of the new and specialist activities planned for the coming year. Diaries at the ready…

LOCKSS, Ongoing from 1999

Project website: http://www.lockss.org/

Partners: British Library; Cambridge University Library; Imperial College; University of Leeds; University of Edinburgh; University of Glasgow

LOCKSS ("Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe") is open source software that provides librarians with an easy and inexpensive way to collect, store, preserve, and provide access to their own, local copy of authorized content they purchase. Currently, more than 80 libraries and 50 publishers from around the world are using the software. In addition, the Stanford LOCKSS team is collaborating with institutions through the LOCKSS Alliance to further collection, technical, and community development.

E-Journal Archiving Study, Completed October 2003

Full report: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/ejournalsfinal.pdf [PDF, 342Kb]

Partners: JISC

Archiving E-Journals Consultancy - Final Report, October 2003, by Maggie Jones. The consultancy explored issues associated with implementing the archiving clauses of the JISC/NESLI Model Licence Report Commissioned by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Full report available via the JISC website.

Feasibility Study on E-Prints, Completed October 2003

Full report: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/e-prints_report_final.pdf [PDF, 1,018Kb]

Partners: Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS); Estonian Business Archives; SHERPA; University of Nottingham

Feasibility and Requirements Study on Preservation of E-Prints. Report Commissioned by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), AHDS as lead partner. Report published October 29, 2003, by Hamish James, Arts and Humanities Data Service, Raivo Ruusalepp, Estonian Business Archives, Sheila Anderson, Arts and Humanities Data Service, Stephen Pinfield, SHERPA.

Oxford Digital Library, Ongoing from July 2001

Website: http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/

Partners: Oxford University Library Service (OULS); Mellon Foundation

The Oxford Digital Library (ODL) is a digitisation project which aims to develop an overarching infrastructure with planned content creation, management, and delivery. It has developed standards for ensuring long-term access to the digital content created through its programmes. Operational from July 2001, the project is undergoing continuous development and has been funded from within Oxford University and from the Mellon Foundation.

The National Archives (UK) Digital Archive, Ongoing from 2001

Further information: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/preservation/digitalarchive/

Partners: The National Archives (UK)

The Digital Archive at the National Archives offers secure storage for selected electronic government records and provides access to them via linked PCs in the Public Reading Rooms at the Kew site.

PRONOM, Ongoing from 2001

Project website: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom/

Partners: The National Archives (UK)

PRONOM was developed by the National Archives for managing information about the file formats used to store electronic records, and the software applications needed to render these formats. It is intended for free use by anyone needing to preserve electronic records over the long term and is under continuous development. PRONOM release 3 is publicly available on the Internet and the database contains over 250 software products, 550 file formats and 100 manufacturers (as of 2003) and is growing.

DAAT: Digital Asset Assessment Tool, October 2004 - June 2006

Further Information: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_daat

Partners: ULCC; AHDS; National Preservation Office; The National Archives (UK); The British
Library; Kings College London; School of Advanced Study of the University of London; Digital Preservation
Coalition

This project will develop a digital preservation assessment tool for use within the UK HE/FE and research, learning and teaching communities.  The proposal will provide those responsible for managing digital resources in a variety of institutional settings, including libraries, archives, data centres, computer services and research teams, with a valuable tool for identifying the preservation needs of their digital holdings.  This project was funded under the JISC Supporting Digital Preservation and Asset Management in Institutions (4/04) programme.

MoPark Metadata Options Appraisal, 14th June 2004 - 30th September 2006

Project website: http://www.mopark.net/

Funder: Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park
The CDLR is carrying out a metadata options appraisal for a project called MoPark. MoPark aims to encourage green tourism within the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park through the creation and population of a digital multimedia repository and management system.

CMS Metadata Interoperability Project: Ensuring Metadata Interoperability Across Scottish Content Management Systems and Digital Repositories, 1st June 2005 - 30th April 2006

Project website: http://cms.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/

Partners: Scottish Museums Council; National Library of Scotland

A SLIC funded project aiming to establish, document, and disseminate guidelines for best practice in the choice and use of CMS metadata for the management of simple and complex digital objects in an interoperable Scottish Common Information Environment.

STARGATE, 28th October 2005 - 28th May 2006

Project website: http://cdlr.strath.ac.uk/stargate/; http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue47/robertson/

Partners: Heriot Watt, University Journal of Digital Information; Professor Tom Wilson (Information Research: an international electronic journal); Library and Information Research Group (Library and Information Research); CILIPS/SLIC (Information Scotland)

The STARGATE project will explore the use of static repositories as a means of exposing publisher metadata to OAI-based disclosure, discovery and alerting services within the JISC IE and beyond.

Personal Archives Accessible in Digital Media (paradigm), October 2004 – October 2006

Project website: http://www.paradigm.ac.uk/
Featured DPC Members' Project No. 5: University of Oxford; University of Manchester

The Universities of Oxford and Manchester have established collecting profiles in modern political papers. The papers of contemporary politicians - that will become the research materials of tomorrow - are being comprehensively created in electronic form. The exemplar strategies that this project will develop with political papers will be of use for any institution which collects, preserves, and maintains access to private papers. This project has been funded under the http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_404">JISC Supporting Digital Preservation and Asset Management in Institutions (4/04) programme.

PRESERV (PREServation Eprint SERVices), October 2004 – September 2006

Further information: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_preserv
Featured DPC Members' Project No. 4: University of Southampton; The National Archives (UK);
The British Library; University of Oxford

PRESERV aims to implement an ingest service based on the OAIS reference model for institutional archives built using Eprints software. Working with the National Archives, the project will link Eprints through a Web service to PRONOM software for identification and verification of file formats. The project will emphasise automation, will provide modular tools for capturing metadata and will enable the identification and verification of file formats. The project will scope a technology watch service to populate and update PRONOM where full automation is not feasible for file format recognition. This project has been funded under the http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_404">JISC Supporting Digital Preservation and Asset Management in Institutions (4/04) programme.

SHERPA DP, October 2004 – October 2006

Project website: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_sherpa2

Featured DPC Members' Project No. 1: Arts and Humanities Data Service; Consortium of
Research Libraries in the British Isles (CURL); University of Nottingham

The SHERPA Digital Preservation (DP) project aims to create a collaborative, shared preservation environment for the SHERPA institutional repositories project framed around the Open Archiving Information Systems (OAIS) Reference Model. The project will bring together the SHERPA institutional repository systems with the preservation repository established by the Arts and Humanities Data Service to create an environment that fully addresses all the requirements of the different phases within the life cycle of digital information. This project has been funded under the JISC Supporting Digital Preservation and Asset Management in Institutions (4/04) programme.

The DPC campaigns for digital preservation and long term access to be a feature of public policy and routinely advises Government and related agencies on issues that are relevant to our members and our mandate. 

The DPC Board has adopted a set of principles for the DPC's engagement with public policy and direct advocacy.  While this document is due for renewal, it lays out in clear terms the values of the Coalition and how and when the DPC will intervene in public policy matters. Download the full policy [PDF 332KB].

Our responses are published as a commentary of public policy consultations relating to digital preservation:

• Scottish Government Finance and Public Administration Committee Budget Scrutiny 2024 - 2025 consultation on funding for culture submitted 18 August 2023

• Australian National Cultural Policy Submission  submitted 22 August 2022

• Response to the National Archives of Australia Request for DPC Feedback on Exposure Draft of Building Trust in the Public Record: managing information and data for government and community, submitted 13th August 2020

• Letter to the Editor of the Telegraph Newspaper entitled COVID-19 Inquiry: Digital by Default, published 24th July 2020

• Response to Call for Evidence: Impact of Covid-19 on DCMS sectors, submitted 19th June 2020

• Joint statement entitled COVID-19: The duty to document does not cease in a crisis, it becomes more essential, published 4th May 2020

• DPC Response to Public Data Corporation and Open Data Consultation, 11 November 2011: DPC has responded to two connected consultations from the Cabinet Office on proposals for the Data Policy for a proposed Public Data Corporation and for the UK government's Open Data Policy. The DPC believes that open data should be planned for the long-term otherwise the opportunities that it creates will be unsustainable and underdeveloped. Four practical implications follow from this principle: open data needs to be signposted predictably so that links and references to data are resilient; open data needs to be robust in terms of format, media and description to avoid the inadvertent disruptions caused by obsolescence and media failure; changes to open data need to be tracked and published to ensure that the integrity and authenticity is not lost; open data needs to be predictable in form enabling comparison of performance through time and facilitating the creation and refinement of analytical tools.

  • See the original consultation on Making Open Data Real
  • See  DPC Response to the Making Open Data Real consultation
  • See the original consultation on Data Policy for a Public Data Corporation
  • See  DPC Response to Public Data Corporation consultation

• DPC Response to EU Science Information Policy Consultation, 08 September 2011: The DPC has responded to a consultation from the EC regarding science information policy, noting that the impacts sought from improved access to scientific information are only viable where sufficient attention is paid to 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.

  • The original consultation from the EC
  • See the full text of the DPC response

• DPC Response to Second Consultation on Legal Deposit, December 2010: The DPC has responded to the second phase of consultation on Electronic Legal Deposit noting the essential relationship between preservation and access. We note and welcome the proposal that extend legal deposit to include charged content as well as content to which access is restricted. This will create the conditions where a more rounded and more valuable national archive can be created. Experience in digital preservation shows that normalization and adherence to standards in the creation of digital resources are advantageous to long term access. Therefore we have some questions pertaining to the practicality of provisions regarding deposit of materials, in particular those regulations that leave the medium and quality of electronic deposits at the discretion of publishers, and those regulations that pertain to adapting content for preservation. If poorly implemented, these provisions could have the inadvertent result of making preservation intractable or excessively complicated. We recognise that recommendations from the DPC are best focussed on those topics where we can offer specialist commentary. Therefore it is not our intention to provide a detailed scrutiny of each element of these regulations. However it is our view that preservation is only sensible within the context of access, and that preservation should be configured around the impact that comes with access. Therefore we have commented on a small number of access issues that we believe have a bearing on the case for preservation. In January 2010 the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) consulted on draft regulations for the legal deposit of ‘free of charge’ electronic publications – the ‘free web’.  This consultation was intended to be the first part of a two part process and the DPC responded arguing inter alia that the second phase of proposals be presented without delay as arguably the ‘paid web’ includes material of lasting value and that until regulations were introduced this element of our collected digital memory would be at risk. In September DCMS published a paper for the second phase of the consultation process.  The regulations discussed this time apply to a much broader range of material including publications for which there is a charge, publications which are subject to access restrictions and material compiled by queries from databases.  It excludes sound and film recordings and unpublished material.

  • Details of this consultation are available here and the draft regulations to which the consultation applies are here
  • Full text of the DPC response is available here [pdf, 340KB]

• DPC Response to Public Records Review, 30 July 2010: The DPC has responded to the consultation on the Public records review, welcoming the explicit statement that digitized and ‘born digital’ materials constitute a public record, noting and supporting the focus on informational content and the consequent need for ‘technology proofing’ and the management of formats.  The DPC has offered its assistance in identifying and resolving issues that may arise. Research shows that clear advice about the preservation of digital materials is both in high demand and can be difficult to procure, so we note the new role for the Keeper of the Public Record to advise and inspect archives.  The DPC has offered its help in two ways: to assist the Keeper in the production of specialist advice notes; and to support the Keeper in the wider dissemination of advice to a diverse audience that is hungry for solutions.  'This represents an opportunity to build capacity for digital preservation in a diverse range of authorities' explained William Kilbride, Executive Director of the DPC.

  • Full text of the DPC response to the consultation .
  • Full text of the consultation.

• DPC Response to Review of Exceptions, 31 March 2010: The DPC has published its response to the recent Intellectual Property Office consultation on exceptions to copyright law with a detailed discussion of how these proposals impact on digital preservation. In summary, the DPC warmly welcomes the proposal to permit multiple copies to be created for preservation purposes. It notes and welcomes the proposal to broaden the types of content that can qualify for this exception and welcomes the proposal that extends this exception to a wider range of institutions. The DPC seeks a number of clarifications to ensure that perfectly reasonable preservation actions are not inadvertently inhibited. For example the Coalition want to ensure that institutions are not prevented from collaborative preservation and is concerned that attempting to restrict preservation copying to an institution’s permanent collection may interfere with perfectly laudable and reasonable rescue and appraisal efforts.

  • The original consultation is online here from the Intellectual Property Office.
  • See the full text of our response here . [PDF 430KB]

• DPC Response to First Consultation on Legal Deposit, March 2010: The DPC has published its response to the recent consultation from the Department for Culture Media and Sport on 'UK Online Publications'. The DPC has welcomed the progress which has been made by the Legal Deposit Advisory Panel on recommendations for collecting digital material and is eager that the momentum recently achieved is maintained so that continuing progress can be made. It warmly welcomes the proposal for regulation-based harvesting and calls for early implementation of this proposal, offering the assistance of the DPC in capacity building for staff and tools which this will necessitate. There is a range of opinions within the DPC's membership regarding the access provisions within the Proposals. The position of the DPC itself, however, remains clear that future access to the harvested materials at any level will be impossible without the safeguards that rigorous attention to preservation provides. 

  • The original consultation document is online here
  • Read the DPC's full response [pdf, 385kb]

• DPC Responds to Archives for the 21st Century, 15 December 2009: The DPC has welcomed a new government consultation by arguing that 'the challenge of managing digital information is one that the UK is well placed to address'. On the 6th May 2009 the National Archives, on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Culture Media and Sport and the Ministry of Justice, released a consultation on the future of archival services in the UK. It calls for better and fewer archives; better leadership and training in the archives sector; better electronic access to and wider participation in archives; and greater attention to the challenges of digital data. The DPC Response to the report concentrates on the latter of these issues. It offers support to the project team in meeting the challenge of digital data and it provides examples of the ways in which DPC members have already ensured that the UK is uniquely well placed to face the challenge of digital data.

  • Full DPC Response to Archives for the 21st Century [PDF]
  • More information and the full consultation can document be found here

• National Heritage Science Strategy Consultation, December 2009: The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee inquiry on Science and Heritage called for the production of a new National Heritage Science Strategy, a task that is now being taken forward by the National Heritage Science Strategy Steering Group.  Work has progressed in four packages: at the time of writing 3 reports have been released for consultation and a fourth document - the strategy iteslf is in development. The DPC has responded to this consultation observing that digital resources constitute a heritage which is worthy of preservation, and that developments in heritage science in relation to digital heritage will be better served where they are aligned with existing and forthcoming initiatives.

  • Reports from the National Heritage Science Strategy [external]
  • The role of science in the management of the UK's heritage: A response from the Digital Preservation Coalition [pdf]
  • The use of science to enhance our understanding of the past: A response from the Digital Preservation Coalition [pdf]
  • Understanding Capacity in the Heritage Science Sector: A response from the Digital Preservation Coalition [pdf]

• DPC welcomes Digital Britain Interim Report and calls for greater clarity and consideration of digital legacy, especially where this pertains to content, March 2009

  • More information and the full Digital Britain: The Interim Report can be found here
  • PDF of Full DPC Response to Digital Britain: The Interim Report (March 2009) (70KB)
  • The Digital Britain discussion site