LaTeX as an Archiving Format: Benefits and Problems

Today, LaTeX is the standard format for writing papers in Mathematics as well as the preferred format for a major part of Physics. For presentations on the Web, these formats are usually transferred to PDF, a convenient format available for many different platforms, allowing direct viewing with appropriate rendering ("Reader") software. On the other hand, PDF is not the optimal format for long-term storage, because - it is owned by a commercial company - it is not stable over time (some older files cannot be read using the newer rendering software) - it is not fault-tolerant: compressed versions of PDF in particular may become completely unreadable if corrupted. - some PDF files do not allows the efficient extraction of the text behind the presentation, which prevents efficient indexing for search and retrieval. Since LaTeX is a pure text-based format with additional mark-up and available as open source software, LaTeX is a much safer choice for long-term preservation. But this presents several other problems: - While the PDF format is not the original, it provides the fixed pagination for reference - different compilations of the same LaTeX file under different conditions may provide different paginations. - LaTeX version of a dissertation may involve several different files: TeX, images, styles, macro packages etc., some of which may be necessary, some others not. - Some LaTeX files do not compile correctly, because some necessary files are missing. Although these problems exist, the advantages of using LaTeX as an archival format outweigh the problems. But for its efficient use, some developments are necessary: - automated validation of (collections of) TeX files - efficient administration of auxiliary files It might be useful to consider the packaging of LaTeX files into one (opaque) file, which could be rendered using a "TeX-Reader". This could increase the acceptance of the LaTeX outside of the mathematics community tremendously

El mundo matemático digital: el proyecto WDML (World Digital Mathematics Library)

We describe the digitization process of the mathematical literature in the framework of the projects WDML and DML-E.Describimos el proceso de digitalización de la literatura matemática de investigación en el marco del proyecto WDML (World Digital Mathematics Library) y del proyecto español DML-E

Deutsche Hochschulschriften : Neue Konzepte der Veröffentlichung, Erschließung und Vermittlungdurch Bibliotheken

Die Arten der Veröffentlichungen von Hochschulschriften haben sich in den letzten Jahren eklatant verändert. Immer mehr Promoventen nutzen die Möglichkeit, elektronisch zu publizieren. So sind wichtige Forschungsergeb-nisse für die wissenschaftlich Arbeitenden schnell zugänglich. Um die elek-tronischen Arbeiten auf die Medienserver der Bibliotheken stellen zu kön-nen, müssen bestimmte Voraussetzungen erfüllt sein. Besonders wichtig ist das Dokumentenformat, um die Publikation auch international abruf- und lesbar zu machen. Projekte wie Dissertationen Online und Carmen, beide koordiniert von der Deutschen Bibliothek in Frankfurt am Main, befassen sich damit. Weitere Projekte wie die „virtuelle Bibliothek Baden - Württem-berg“ und die „Open Archives Initiative“ stehen für den freien und schnellen, orts- und zeitunabhängigen Zugriff auf Informationen. Die verschiedenen Medienserver Baden - Württembergs, auf die elektronische Hochschul-schriften abgelegt werden können, werden ebenso dargestellt wie die Pro-bleme im Zusammenspiel von Veröffentlichungen bei Verlagen. Hierbei geht es auch um das Urheber- und Veröffentlichungsrecht, das vom Autor teilweise abgetreten werden muß. Wichtige Abonnements wissenschaftli-cher Zeitschriften haben so hohe Preissteigerungen, daß sich Bibliotheken kaum noch welche leisten können. Auch andere Probleme wie die Bereit-stellungsdauer und die Dokumentenflut auf den Servern werden genannt

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)

This chapter describes the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD, see www.ndltd.org), as an example of digital library practice. It builds upon discussion in earlier chapters on policy – touching on content, preservation, evaluation, and economics. In the remainder of this section we explain the rationale (Section 1.1), give a library perspective (Section 1.2), and explain our very broad perspective regarding evaluation. In the next section (2) we describe the community served and involved. Section 3 discusses the content, especially at the level of collection, considering its management, size, and access. Section 4 relates this work to the world of scholarly publishing, including perspectives of authors and publishers, considering as well intellectual property rights and preservation. The last section points toward future growth in membership, organization, and services

Who's afraid of file format obsolescence? Evaluating file format endangerment levels and factors for the creation of a file format endangerment index

Much digital preservation research has been built on the assumption that file format obsolescence poses a great risk to the continued access of digital content. In an endeavor to address this risk, a number of researchers created lists of factors that could be used to assess risks associated with digital file formats. This research examines these assumptions about file format obsolescence and file format evaluation factors with the aim of creating a simplified file format endangerment index. This study examines file format risk under a new lens of file format endangerment, or the possibility that information stored in a particular file format will not be interpretable or renderable in human accessible means within a certain timeframe. Using the Delphi method in two separate studies, this exploratory research collected expert opinion on file format endangerment levels of 50 test file formats; and collected expert opinion on relevance of 21 factors as causes of file format endangerment. Experts expressed the belief that generally, digital information encoded in the rated file formats will be accessible for 20 years or more. This indicates that file format experts believe that there is not a great deal of short-term risk associated with encoding information in the rated file formats, though this does not preclude continued engagement with preservation activities for these and other file formats. Furthermore, the findings show that only three of the dozens of file format evaluation factors discussed in the literature exceeded an emergent threshold level as causes of file format endangerment: 'rendering software available', 'specifications available', and 'community/3rd party support.' These factors are ideal candidates for use in a file format endangerment index. Such an index allows only for the inclusion of formative indicators, or factors that indicate a cause of file format endangerment. The three factors shown to be the most relevant as causal indicators of file format endangerment, 'rendering software available', 'specifications available', and 'community/3rd party support' are the best candidate indicators to build into the index. The intention is to construct and validate an index using these three candidate factors as part of a future research agenda.Doctor of Philosoph

Organização e representação da informação na biblioteca digital de teses e dissertações da Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina - UDESC: uma análise focada em metadados sob a luz do padrão MTB-BR

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Educação, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação, Florianópolis, 2009Juntamente com a utilização crescente da world wide web (www), surgem dificuldades relacionadas com o aumento do volume de informações disponibilizadas sem uma forma estruturada de representação, o que dificulta o acesso e a recuperação da informação. Inseridas neste contexto, as bibliotecas digitais dependem da padronização da descrição física e de conteúdo de seus itens para garantir a interoperabilidade. Acredita-se que a adoção de metadados para a descrição de documentos eletrônicos possa contribuir para sanar estas dificuldades. No entanto, o conteúdo desses metadados deve obedecer a critérios cuja finalidade é tornar consistente a representação dos objetos incluídos nos repositórios, melhorando assim a interoperabilidade com outras bibliotecas digitais. Nesta realidade, encontra-se esta pesquisa cujo objetivo é analisar o conteúdo dos metadados das dissertações eletrônicas da Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina UDESC, disponibilizados para a Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações BDTD, a fim de verificar se os mesmos estão sendo informados de acordo com o padrão MTD-BR e, desta forma, contribuir para a localização e recuperação das dissertações eletrônicas desta instituição. A abordagem geral da pesquisa foi exploratória, sendo analisados de forma qualitativa e quantitativa todos os metadados das dissertações eletrônicas da UDESC disponibilizados para a BDTD. A abordagem qualitativa foi realizada utilizando-se como parâmetro as recomendações do padrão MTD-BR no que se refere ao conteúdo dos elementos de metadados e seus respectivos atributos, enquanto a abordagem quantitativa teve como objetivo comparar a quantidade de informações corretas e incorretas de metadados. Os resultados quantitativos foram apresentados de forma descritiva e, com o auxílio de tabelas. Verificou-se que a maioria dos metadados de preenchimento obrigatório são registrados de acordo com o padrão MTD-BR. Entretanto, observou-se que os elementos de preenchimento facultativo, muitas vezes, deixaram de ser informados ou foram informados incorretamente, o que não implicou na exclusão do documento do processo de harvesting mas, dependendo da busca realizada, pode impossibilitar a recuperação do documento na BDTD. Os resultados observados induziram a apresentação de sugestões para a melhoria do conteúdo dos metadados informados pela UDESC para a BDTD. Conclui-se que a biblioteca digital da UDESC, apesar de ter uma boa qualidade no preenchimento dos metadados, pode ainda aprimorar este procedimento em favor da interoperabilidade e da recuperação da informação.Together with the increasing use of world wide web (www), difficulties arise related to the increased volume of information available without a structured way of representation, making it difficult to access and retrieval of information. Inserted in this context, digital libraries depend on the standardization of physical description and content of your items to ensure interoperability. It s believed that the adoption of metadata for description of electronic documents can help solve these problems. However, the content of metadata should conform to criteria whose purpose is to make a consistent representation of the objects included in the repositories, thus improving interoperability with other digital libraries. In fact, this research is aimed at analyzing the content of metadata for electronic theses at the University of the State of Santa Catarina - UDESC, available for the Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations - BDTD to verify whether they are informed in accordance with the standard MTD-BR and thus contribute to the location and retrieval of electronic dissertations that institution. The general approach of the research was exploratory, and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively in all metadata of the electronic dissertations UDESC available for BDTD. A qualitative approach was performed using a parameter as the recommendations of the standard MTD-BR regarding the content of metadata elements and their attributes, while the quantitative approach aimed to compare the amount of correct information and incorrect metadata. The quantitative results were presented in a descriptive way, and with the aid of tables. It was found that most of the metadata required are registered according to the standard MTD-BR. However, it was observed that the elements of Optional often no longer be informed or have been incorrectly informed, which is not involved in the exclusion of the document but the process of harvesting, depending on the search carried out, may preclude the recovery of the document in BDTD. The results observed led to the submission of suggestions for improving the content of the metadata information for the UDESC BDTD. It is concluded that the library's digital UDESC, despite having a good quality in fulfillment of the metadata, you can still improve this procedure in favor of interoperability and retrieval of information

Sharing knowledge: scientfic communication: 9. Kongress der IuK-Initiative der Wissenschaftlichen Fachgesellschaft in Deutschland

Inhaltsverzeichnis: Heike Andermann: Entwicklung von alternativen Publikationsstrukturen in Europa und den USA. DFG-Projekt: Perspektiven für den Bezug elektronischer Fachinformation in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (11-20); Elke Brenstein, Olaf Klos: Qualitätssicherung und Nutzung von wissenschaftsrelevanten Angeboten auf dem Deutschen Bildungsserver: empirische Befunde einer vergleichenden Logfile-Analyse (21-36); Christine Burblies, Tamara Pianos: vascoda - das gemeinsame Portal von Informationsverbänden, Elektronischer Zeitschriftenbibliothek und Virtuellen Fachbibliotheken (37-46); Klaus Hahn: Probleme der Integration digitaler Bibliothekssysteme: semantische Heterogenität bei datenbankübergreifenden Recherchen (47-58); Heiko Hellweg, Bernd Hermes, Maximilian Stempfhuber: Unterstützung kooperativer Verfahren zum Aufbau von Fachportalen (59-70); Michael Hohlfeld, Thomas Severiens: PhysNet und seine Spiegel - das Projekt SINN (71-82); Nikola Korb: Online-Hochschulschriften für die Praxis (83-94); Rudi Schmiede, Stephan Körnig: Infrastrukturen für innovative Digital Library-Dienste. Perspektiven des Kompetenznetzwerks "Neue Dienste, Standardisierung, Metadaten" (95-106); Jutta von Maurice: Das Psychologische Datenarchiv PsychData. Zur Frage der angemessenen Dokumentation von Primärdaten der empirisch-psychologischen Forschung (107-118); Astrid Nechvátal: Maßnahmen zur Förderung der Informationskompetenz durch den Fachinformationsanbieter ZPID (119-130); Olaf Ninnemann, Bernd Wegner: LIMES - a system for a distributed database production in mathematics (131-138); Frank Oldenettel, Michael Malachinski: Integration von digitalen Bibliotheken in Learning-Management-Systeme (139-156); Judith Plümer: MPRESS - transition of metadata formats (157-168); Dennis Reil: Einsatz von Lernmanagementsystemen in traditionellen Lehrveranstaltungen am Beispiel der Universitäten Oldenburg und Osnabrück. Ein Erfahrungsbericht (169-180); Hans E. Roosendaal, Peter A.Th.M. Geurts: Reflections on the value chain of scientific information (181-192); Natascha Schumann, Wolfgang Meier, Sue Heise, Rudi Schmiede: SozioNet - Web-Ressourcen für ein künftiges Fachportal Sozialwissenschaften (193-204); Thomas Severiens, Esther Tobschall: ViFaPhys - Virtuelle Fachbibliothek Physik. Ein kooperatives Dienstleistungsangebot für die Physik (205-212); Günther Specht, Michael G. Bauer: Weiterentwicklung von digitalen Biblithekssystemen zu OpenArchives-Systemen (213-226); Markus Kalb, Günther Specht: Zeitliche Verwaltung XML-basierter Metadaten in digitalen Bibliotheken (227-238); Maximilian Stempfhuber: infoconnex - der Informationsverbund Pädagogik - Sozialwissenschaften - Psychologie (239-248); Christian Swertz: Das didaktische Metadatensystem DML - Grundlagen und praktische Anwendung (249-266); Paul van der Vet, Eelco Mossel: The C2M project: a wrapper generator for chemistry and biology (267-282); Josef Wiemeyer: Analyse der Qualität der multimedialen Lernumgebung "BioPrinz" (283-292)

Building information modeling – A game changer for interoperability and a chance for digital preservation of architectural data?

Digital data associated with the architectural design-andconstruction process is an essential resource alongside -and even past- the lifecycle of the construction object it describes. Despite this, digital architectural data remains to be largely neglected in digital preservation research – and vice versa, digital preservation is so far neglected in the design-and-construction process. In the last 5 years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has seen a growing adoption in the architecture and construction domains, marking a large step towards much needed interoperability. The open standard IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) is one way in which data is exchanged in BIM processes. This paper presents a first digital preservation based look at BIM processes, highlighting the history and adoption of the methods as well as the open file format standard IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) as one way to store and preserve BIM data

Handling of LaTeX-ETDs and TeX-Conversion

Within the natural sciences, in particular in mathematics, most of the ETDs are based on LaTeX-coded sources whereas the presentation format is more or less PDF. However, in the international library systems the LaTeX source files are not stored in general, they are ignored since there is no competence in this format type in the libraries. On the other hand there exist servers, e.g. the ArXiv-Server or MathDiss International , accepted by the scientists, which trust in LaTeX-files exclusively and which believe in their archiving quality. So the question arises: * How should we handle LaTeX-ETDs in the library system? In the context of ETDs in natural sciences and especially in mathematics we have to discuss further aspects of LaTeX-files: * How to check the inner consistency of delivered LaTeX-documents consisting of various LaTeX-Files? * LaTeX as archiving format? * Conversion aspects (e.g. TeX to XML, in particular TeX to MathML