DPC

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to offer members a preview of our latest Technology Watch Report ‘Web Archiving'.

'The World Wide Web is a unique information resource of massive scale, explains Maureen Pennock the report's author, 'yet the lasting legacy of the web is at risk, threatened in part by the very speed at which it has become a success. Content is lost at an alarming rate, risking not just our digital cultural memory but also issues of organizational accountability.  In recognition of this threat, organizations have invested heavily in developing and implementing a range of web archiving solutions.' 

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Information Services of the University of Edinburgh at the as its newest member.

"The University of Edinburgh is a blend of an historic institution that has significant collections of diverse materials and a high-performing research intensive university'' explained John Scally, director of Library and Collections .  "These present us with a changing array of digital preservation requirements - from the digitisation of physical collections to the influx of new digital data in volumes previously not seen, often with unknown preservation expectations. We have recently included digital preservation as a significant strategic theme in our forward plans and are joining the DPC to assist us in the framing of a plan to address this important area."

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) and nestor, the German competence centre in long-term archiving, are delighted to announce a new alliance which allows them to share resources and enables their members to work together for the preservation of digital objects.

‘Nestor is a coalition of institutions in Germany, facilitated by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, with the goal of encouraging knowledge exchange and co-operation in of digital preservation,’ explained Sabine Schrimpf of nestor.. ‘Our work is not restricted to the national level. The partners maintain close links with corresponding initiatives in other countries and are actively involved in European and international initiatives and projects.  We’ve always understood that collaboration is important for digital preservation, and because it is an international challenge it makes sense to work with partners around the world.  We have a lot in common with DPC and we recognise that we can be more effective when we work together.’

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Digital Repository of Ireland as its newest member.

"The Digital Repository of Ireland is building an interactive and trusted national digital repository," explained Dr. Sandra Collins, Director of the DRI. "The repository will feature social and cultural data held by Irish institutions, from both contemporary and historical sources. We are working to raise awareness of the need for digital preservation and the benefits of open access, while respecting and acknowledging ownership, copyright, intellectual property rights, privacy and confidentiality."

"Joining the DPC means we can strengthen our relationships with others working in the field, work together in advocacy and awareness-raising, and participate in training and projects that help to build capacity in our sector."

Introduction

Making sense of the contents of files – especially large numbers of files in diverse formats – is a persistent and ubiquitous challenge for those undertaking digital preservation.  Understanding how information is packaged, transmitted and processed is essential for ensuring that it can remain intelligible through time. Understanding the intricacies of files can be a daunting and intricate exasperating task, but it is also an obvious candidate for informed collaboration.  There have been numerous initiatives in the last decade designing, developing and refining tools and registries that help us to understand the behaviour of files, and some of these are now plugged directly into the architectures of numerous repositories and archives already. 

This DPC ‘Day of Action’ will introduce a range of recent initiatives in this domain and it will provide a focussed burst of activity which will be of benefit to all with an interest in digital preservation.  Participants will be invited to bring problem files with them, and to work with experts in the field to catalogue problems and develop tools to help characterise and manage them.  Participants will

• Be updated on a range of recent activities in file characterisation and format registries
• Have an opportunity to support the development of file format registries
• Be shown how to develop and supply signature information for characterisation
• Encourage collaboration on shared challenges in managing diverse or ‘problem’ files
• Contribute to a wide ranging discussion about strategic needs

Who should come?

This day will be of interest to:

• Collections managers, librarians, curators and archivists in all institutions
• Tools developers and policy makers in digital preservation
• Innovators and researchers in information technology and computing science
• Vendors and providers of services for preservation, records management and forensics
• Innovators, vendors and commentators on digital preservation and cognate fields
• Analysts seeking to develop tools and approaches for information management

What should you bring?

This day of action will let participants 'bring their problems with them'.  As far as possible it will provide the tools or ideas to fix them on the spot. At the very least it will enable participants to share challenges and solutions in such a way as to get a range of people working in them at the same time.  So participants will be encouraged to bring a lap top with them, and to have thought ahead of time about what problems they would like to share.  Ideas for what to bring include:

• Examples of files they can't identify the format of
• Examples of files that are consistently charactrerised wrongly
• Examples of files where the characterisation is accurate but so imprecise as to inhibit effective preservation
• Examples of concrete digital preservation challenges which become evident after characterisation (including images of bad files or files that have become corrupted etc)
• Files that exhibit the digital preservation challenges
• Examples of exotic digital files
• Examples of file formats that wrap contents of multiple file types

As far as possible these should be sharable under a Creative Commons License (CC0) and as far as possible should avoid files that may compromise data security regimes or present any reputational risks.

In addition participants with solutions on offer are encouraged to bring:

• new working file signatures which need testing or refinement
• new implementations of characterisation tools
• tools that identify the extent to which a file conforms to a given standard
• tools that make it possible to render non-conformant files in mainstream browsers or applications
• information about physical characteristics of file formats
• information about the behaviour of files under known conditions

Outline Programme

1000  Registration and Coffee
1030  Welcome and introductions - William Kilbride, DPC
1040  The nature of the problem - Chris Rusbridge
1100 Recent Developments with PRONOM and DROID - David Clipsham, National Archives
1115  CRISP - Maureen Pennock, British Library 
1130 Crowd-solving the file format problem, Paul Wheatley, Leeds University Library
1145 Discussion
1200  First parallel session

• Contributing to Collaborative Initiatives (Paul Wheatley and Maureen Pennock)
• Developing and sharing file signatures for PRONOM / DROID (David Clipsham)

1300 Lunch

1345 Second Parallel Session

• Deploying Tools for Characterisation (Carl Wilson)
• Developing and sharing file signatures for PRONOM / DROID (part II/continued David Clipsham)

1500  Tea and Coffee

1530 Panel session and discussion: who does what and why
1645 Wrap-up and thanks - William Kilbride, DPC

Feedback and Evaluation Form

The DPC and the Archives and Records Association are pleased to invite students and researchers in archives, records management and librarianship to a half day conference on practical workplace skills in digital preservation.  Hosted by University College London, and organised in partnership with the Universities of Aberystwyth and Dundee, this mini-conference will bring a select group of leading practitioners together with the next generation of archivists, records managers and ibrarians to discuss the challenges of digital collections management and digital preservation.  In a lively set of presentations and discussions, each of the speakers will be invited to reflect on 'the things I wish I knew before I started', or 'what I actually do all day'  giving students an advantage in their own career development, and helping those who frame the curriculum a chance to extend their students' readiness for the workplace.

Outline Programme 

1400-1405 Welcome and introduction – Jenny Bunn/ Caroline Brown

1405-1420 What’s the problem with digital preservation – William Kilbride

1420-1435 Helen Hockx-Yu – Web archiving at the British Library

1450-1505 Dave Thompson  - Digital Curator at the Wellcome Library

1505-1520 Patricia Sleeman – Digital archivist at University of London Computer Centre

1520-1535 Adrian Brown – Head of Preservation & Access, Parliamentary Archives

1535-1550 Simon Rooks – Multi-media Archivist BBC

1550-1615 Coffee

1615-1700 Roundtable discussion with all speakers chaired by Caroline Peach (British Library Preservation Advisory Centre)

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to announce the release of ‘Digital Forensics and Preservation’ by Jeremy Leighton John of the British Library – the latest in its popular Technology Watch Report series.

‘Digital forensics is associated in many people’s minds primarily with criminal investigations’, explained the author, ‘but forensic methods have emerged as an essential source of tools and approaches for digital preservation, specifically for protecting and investigating evidence from the past.’ 

The Digital Preservation Coalition is today publishing the latest in its popular Technology Watch Reports ‘Intellectual Property Rights for Digital Preservation’ by Andrew Charlesworth of the University of Bristol.

Legal issues, in particular the process of obtaining copyright clearance for preservation and access of archived material, can contribute significantly to the cost and complexity of digital preservation. It is an area where the wider preservation community often needs to make its case with government and other legislators.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) marks its landmark tenth year anniversary of its establishment at a reception at the Palace of Westminster today.

At this event, DPC Chairman Richard Ovenden and Lord MacNally, Minister of State for Justice, will celebrate the achievements of the Digital Preservation Coalition over the past ten years, but will also highlight the continuing risk to government, business, educational and cultural organisations and by society at large in failing to address the preservation of digital information. In his speech, Richard Ovenden points to major improvements that have been made in the past ten years but highlights recent studies which show how major data losses continue to be suffered: