DPC

British Library Archival Sound Recordings Project, Sound Archive acetate disks: Completed 2000

Partners: British Library (BL)

The transfer of ca 20,000 "acetate" direct cut audio discs to an off-line digital platform (CD-R) during the period 1995-2000.  This was an internally funded BL project using external contract labour for the transfers.

PRESTO: Completed 2002

Partners: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) (France); Radiotelevisione Italiana Spa (RAI) (Italy)

A 5th framework EU project headed by the BBC, to develop a cost-effective approach to the preservation of broadcast archives, audio and video, through developing workflow efficiency and automation tools to achieve cost reductions in the region of 30% while maintaining quality.  Starting with survey, scoping and definition of the issue, moving to developing new technology, integrating and testing and demonstrating that it works.  The work of the PRESTO project is currently continuing under PrestoSpace.

PrestoSpace

Persistent Identifiers, 2004 - end of 2005

Contact: Lee Hibberd     

Partners: National Library of Scotland

To develop a system and policy for improving the permanence of object identifiers.  Initial work will ensure that persistent ids exist for all digital images.  Results will be applied to other digital objects.

Risk analysis of corporate-wide file types, Completed July 2005

Contact: Lee Hibberd

Partners: National Library of Scotland

To prioritise the efforts of the library's digital preservation activities on the groups of digital/electronic information that is most at risk of loss. This will involve an assessment of formats, carrier media, reader devices, complexity and other issues that affect all types of files across the library including CAD drawings, library records, corporate information, digitised assets and web pages.

D Space@ Cambridge, Due to complete December 2005

Project website: https://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/

Partners: Cambridge University Library (CUL), MIT Library

The DSpace@Cambridge project is a 3-year collaboration between CUL and MIT Libraries, funded by the DTI-sourced Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), to establish a digital institutional repository for Cambridge University. Expected deliverables include the development of improved digital preservation functionality in the DSpace software platform. 
CMI is funding a complementary CUL-MIT Libraries project, LEADIRS (www.lib.cam.ac.uk/UKseminars/), to promote digital institutional repository strategies in UK HE/FE. This will include coverage of preservation issues.

DARP Project, January 2007

The sixth interview was carried out in January 2007 between Najla Semple and Hilary Beedham of the UK Data Archive. Hilary is also a member of the project team of the East of England Digital Preservation Regional Pilot Project [DARP] which was published as a report, available at: www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/publications/darp2006.pdf

IRI Scotland Project, 1st September 2005 - 31st August 2007

IRI Scotland is seeking to develop an internationally interoperable framework for a distributed institutional repository infrastructure for Scottish research. This will entail experimenting with a collective hosting repository and a cross-repository search facility capable of accommodating a wide range of research and research-related digital objects. IRI Scotland will also investigate strategies designed to facilitate the cultural and organisational changes needed to underpin institutional repositories.

IRI Scotland (http://www.iriscotland.lib.ed.ac.uk/) a SCURL project (http://scurl.ac.uk/)

•   DPC Annual Report 01 August 2010 - 31 July 2011
•   DPC Annual Report 01 August 2009 - 31 July 2010
•   DPC Annual Report 01 August 2008 - 31 July 2009
•   DPC Annual Report 01 August 2007 - 31 July 2008
•   DPC Annual Report 01 August 2006 - 31 July 2007
•  DPC Annual Report 01 August 2005 - 31 July 2006
•  DPC Annual Report 01 August 2004 - 31 July 2005
•  DPC Annual Report 01 August 2003 - 31 July 2004
•   DPC Annual Report 23 July 2002 - 31 July 2003

In collaboration with a number of other preservation organisations, the DPC is building a community around the sharing of experiences in using and applying preservation standards. The first of these to be addressed is the OAIS model.

Visit the OAIS Community wiki for more information.

The DPC examined the challenges addressed, and results of, the second phase of the Jisc Research Data Spring projects. It provided recommendations on how the work can be enhanced from a digital preservation perspective prior to the projects continuing on towards a third and final development phase in early 2016. Visit the Jisc Research Data Spring Long Term Preservation Analysis and Recommendations wiki for more information.

Full DPC members can use this page to learn about and discover how to access the 5 days per year of dedicated support time to which they are entitled

What kind of work can we help you with?

That depends on exactly what it is you're after, and we're more than happy to discuss the possibilities with you. We have worked on a really broad cross section of activities with our members, from in depth technical challenges to advising on the most appropriate training courses available, through to building the case for digital preservation within a department or organisation. With newer members, who are only just embarking on establishing a digital preservation capability, we often focus on activities such as: reviewing and honing business cases, developing and reviewing preservation policies, and developing and reviewing requirements for preservation system procurement exercises. Small injections of DPC expertise can often be invaluable as organisations take their first steps in digital preservation. With our more established members, we may tackle more organisation specific, and often subject specific challenges.

Note that our support can be one to one with the full member organisation, or we can work collaboratively (for example via a cross member working group), which can sometimes be an excellent use of limited resources, and one that exploits the vast wealth of knowledge across the Coalition. If a challenge is raised that is likely to have a broader interest, it may be worth exploring it further with a DPC Briefing Day, or writing it up as a Technology Watch Guidance Note.

Our expertise

Dedicated support for our members is faciliated by the DPC Team who have combined experience of many decades of working in digital preservation and advising organisations in solving digital preservation challenges. This experience is invaluable in supporting members, but is backed by an unrivalled depth of knowledge and expertise across the Coalition, which we can tap into to help you get the job done well.

Where do I start?

Every DPC Member is allocated a DPC Champion when they join the DPC. Your Champion is a member of the DPC staff who acts as a first point of contact with the DPC. If you're interested in arranging some dedicated support time, begin by contacting your champion with a short summary of the challenge you are facing. Your Champion will be able to consult with the wider DPC Team and then plan in the support you need. Contact details for the DPC Team can be found here. It should be noted that with a small core staff, our time is limited. Any dedicated support is subject to DPC staff availability. We would appreciate as much warning as possible for requests for dedicated support but will do our very best to meet your needs.

For more on the other sources of assistance available, see our Looking for Advice page.

Use this to find the assistance you need to do digital preservation, from reference materials to asking the question of others

There are an almost endless number of challenges in the digital preservation field. Whether it's in depth experience with a particular file format, getting to grips with emulation, or writing a business case to fund your preservation work, it's unrealistic for a single person to have all the experience and answers needed. Getting support and advice from a subject specialist or simply someone who's been there, not succeeded first time, tried again, and learned the lessons can often make a real difference. That's where the DPC comes in. This is our guide to seeking help with your digital preservation challenges.

What makes a good digital preservation question?

Digital Preservation is a complex topic at the centre of a whole range of different issues. A solution to a particular problem is often a compromise between technological, resourcing and organisational factors. We often joke amongst the DPC Team that the answer to every digipres question is "it depends". The more serious point behind this observation is that there is usually no one answer that suits all. Which file format, which tool, what process, who should be involved, which issue is the priority...? All these questions depend on the context. What is being preserved, who created it, who is it being preserved for, what is the legal context, and many more issues are essential to understand before an appropriate approach can be identified.

If you're asking a digital preservation question, try and provide as much of the relevant context as possible, to allow an answer to be tailored to your specific situation. Much of this organisational and contextual knowledge is often taken for granted by the questioner, but is essential to understand for those giving help.

Digital preservation, as is often noted, is also a moving target. Some digipres questions will address areas where there is established good practice. Others will be at the cutting edge of understanding with perhaps little evidence or experience to inform advice. In these cases it may be necessary to have a broader discussion, perform research or perhaps trial different approaches before guidance can be arrived at. What constitutes a good answer now, may be completely out of date within a short period of time. Having a thorough understanding of *why* a particular approach is recommended, will help to inform future decision making.

What makes a good answer to a digital preservation question?

In this busy and resource constrained world in which we live, the best answer to any question should be a clear, simple and straightforward prescription that can be easily implemented. Or is it? If the context to a question is critical (see above) then perhaps the answer itself could more usefully be about the broader process and the broader understanding behind any specific answers. The response to many DPC member queries is more often than not a dialogue that takes in the wider issues and context and explores different solutions or approaches. A two way discussion (or ideally, a multi-way discussion with other members as well) can help take a member towards a solution that's appropriate for them, and give them the understanding to maintain and develop that solution over time as requirements and challenges change. It's therefore helpful to manage expectations, where a simple one sentence question might well not have a simple one sentence answer.

Getting help: Make use of DPC resources

• There is a fabulous wealth of reference material in the DPC Website Knowledge Base. There is a search facility at the top of every page or a browse of the subject tags may be of use.
• We provide detailed guidance on preservation subjects in our Technology Watch publications. Full Technology Watch reports provide in-depth reference information, but there are also short Guidance Notes on specific topics and our Topical Notes series introduces key digital preservation topics in easy to understand 2 page primers.
• The DPC's Digital Preservation Handbook includes a contents page that can also be a handy route for browsing to useful sources of information.
• Engaging across your organisation (and beyond) and building the case for digital preservation is often a challenge. Our Advocacy page provides pointers to help in this area, including our Executive Guide and Business Case Toolkit. The Policy Toolkit and Procurement Toolkit then provide guidance on moving forward from engagement success to digipres implementation.
• The digipres.org site pulls together a whole host of community sourced information about digital preservation and has a handy front page listing all sorts of useful links.

If you don't find the answers you're looking for then please move swiftly onto the next step...

Get direct help from the DPC

Our DPC staff are small in number, but our member expertise is vast! Contact us and we hope to be able to help. If we can't help, we will most likely know someone across the coalition who will! Here are some options:

• Contact one of the DPC staff - a useful first step, or chat with us in our weekly DPConnect.
• This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (if you're a member and you don't yet have access, please get in touch by email at info (at) dpconline.org). If the question is sensitive in nature, we can anonymously ask DPC members for you.
• Book in some Dedicated Support for Full Members - full DPC members are entitled to up to 5 days of dedicated support per year.

Ask the community

Sometimes it's useful to ask a question in a more public forum, assuming you're happy to share with the wider world. This enables responses to be shared, commented upon by other interested parties, refined, and of course re-used by others in the future. Try the following:

• Digital Preservation Q&A - a question and answer site dedicated specifically to digital preservation
• Digital Curation Google Group - a message board focused on digital preservation with a really active userbase
• Subject specific groups - there are a number of subject specific groups, such as this one focused on PRONOM discussion

Don't forget about the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. email list. Although it's a moderated list intended for announcements rather than discussion, it can be very useful for raising awareness of your work. See the archives here. The ALA's Digipres list is another alternative with a bit of a focus on the US.

This month the Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the University of Bern, Switzerland as its newest associate member.

The University Library of Bern currently provides books and journals in print and electronic format as well as access to subject-specific databases. The team at Bern also aims to open its archive to the university community, incorporating access to more complex objects and formats in the digital editions it holds.