Preservation and Access of Born-Digital Architectural Design Records in an OAIS-Type Archive

Although libraries, archives, and museums in North America and Europe have collected, preserved, and provided access to architectural design records for more than a century, significant changes in architectural modes of production following the introduction of Computer Aided Design (CAD) technology in the late twentieth century have significantly complicated this mission. This paper, the result of a self-directed independent study undertaken at the Simmons College School of Library and Information Science during the Spring 2015 semester, addresses the issue of how cultural institutions might provide long-term preservation and access of born-digital architectural design records such as CAD models. The first part of this paper provides some background on the development of these technologies, their complicating features, and archival literature and projects addressing this topic to date. In its second part, the paper looks at how these files might be preserved and made accessible in a digital archive through examination and application of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model, an international standard for digital stewardship

From Bitstreams to Heritage: Putting Digital Forensics into Practice in Collecting Institutions

This paper examines the application of digital forensics methods to materials in collecting institutions – particularly libraries, archives and museums. It discusses motivations, challenges, and emerging strategies for the use of these technologies and workflows. It is a product of the BitCurator project. The BitCurator project began on October 1, 2011, through funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. BitCurator is an effort to build, test, and analyze systems and software for incorporating digital forensics methods into the workflows of a variety of collecting institutions. It is led by the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland, and involves contributors from several other institutions. Two groups of external partners are contributing to this process: a Professional Expert Panel (PEP) of individuals who are at various levels of implementing digital forensics tools and methods in their collecting institution contexts, and a Development Advisory Group (DAG) of individuals who have significant experience with software development.2 This paper is a product of phase one of BitCurator (October 1, 2011 – September 30, 2013). The second phase of the project (October 1, 2013 – September 29, 2014) continues the development of the BitCurator environment, along with expanded professional engagement and community outreach activities

Cloudy Emulation – Efficient and Scaleable Emulation-based Services: Paper - iPres 2013 - Lisbon

Emulation as a strategy for digital preservation is about to become an accepted technology for memory institutions as a method for coping a large variety of complex digital objects. Hence, the demand for ready-made and especially easy-to-use emulation services will grow. In order to provide user-friendly emulation services a scalable, distributed system model is required to be run on heterogeneous Grid or Cluster infrastructure. We propose an Emulation-as-a-Service architecture that simplifies access to preserved digital assets allowing end users to interact with the original environments running on different emulators. Ready-made emulation components provide a flexible web service API allowing for development of individual and tailored digital preservation workflows. This paper describes design and implementation of scalable emulation services as part of the bwFLA EaaS framework

NREL Photovoltaic Program FY 1995 annual report

This report summarizes the in-house and subcontracted R&D activities from Oct. 1994 through Sept. 1995; their objectives are to conduct basic, applied, and engineering research, manage subcontracted R&D projects, perform research complementary to subcontracted work, develop and maintain state-of-the-art measurement and device capabilities, develop PV manufacturing technology and modules, transfer results to industry, and evolve viable partnerships for PV systems and market development. The research activities are grouped into 5 sections: crystalline Si and advanced devices, thin-film PV, PV manufacturing, PV module and system performance and engineering, and PV applications and market development