Planets: Integrated Services for Digital Preservation

The Planets Project is developing services and technology to address core challenges in digital preservation. This article introduces the motivation for this work, describes the extensible technical architecture and places the Planets approach into the context of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model. It also provides a scenario demonstrating Planets’ usefulness in solving real-life digital preservation problems and an overview of the project’s progress to date

3rd Annual WePreserve Conference 2008: A New Generation of Preservation Tools and Services

This is a report from the third annual WePreserve conference held in Nice, France on October 28-30, 2008. The WePreserve consortium is currently made up of three Digital Preservation projects funded by the European Commission, DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE), Preservation and Long-term Access through Networked Services (Planets) and Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval (CASPAR), but is in the process of expansion to include other relevant projects. The theme for 2008 was ‘a new generation of tools and services’ and was designed to showcase the tools and services available now for use in tackling the digital preservation challenge

Towards Emulation-as-a-Service: Cloud Services for Versatile Digital Object Access

The changing world of IT services opens the chance to more tightly integrate digital long-term preservation into systems, both for commercial and end users. The emergence of cloud offerings re-centralizes services, and end users interact with them remotely through standardized (web-)client applications on their various devices. This offers the chance to use partially the same concepts and methods to access obsolete computer environments and allows for more sustainable business processes. In order to provide a large variety of user-friendly remote emulation services, especially in combination with authentic performance and user experience, a distributed system model and architecture is required, suitable to run as a cloud service, allowing for the specialization both of memory institutions and third party service providers.The shift of the usually non-trivial task of the emulation of obsolete software environments from the end user to specialized providers can help to simplify digital preservation and access strategies. Besides offering their users better access to their holdings, libraries and archives may gain new business opportunities to offer services to a third party, such as businesses requiring authentic reproduction of digital objects and processes for legal reasons. This paper discusses cloud concepts as the next logical step for accessing original digital material. Emulation-as-a-Service (EaaS) fills the gap between the successful demonstration of emulation strategies as a long term access strategy and it’s perceived availability and usability. EaaS can build upon the ground of research and prototypical implementations of previous projects, and reuse well established remote access technology.In this article we develop requirements and a system model, suitable for a distributed environment. We will discuss the building blocks of the core services as well as requirements regarding access management. Finally, we will try to present a business model and estimate costs to implement and run such a service. The implementations of EaaS will influence future preservation planning in memory institutions, as it shifts the focus on object access workflows

Tout cela est bien quelque chose: Digital Preservation Today: how European Commission programmes and policy have brought us here: Festschrift for Patricia (Pat) Manson

Patricia (Pat) Manson worked with the European Commission's (EC’s) research programmes from the early 1990s, initially as project officer (December 1991-March 2003) and then as Head of Unit (April 2003-2011) for Cultural Heritage and Technology Enhanced Learning which was part of the Directorate General Information Society and Media. The unit focused primarily on research in digital libraries, digital preservation, and in the use of ICTs for improving learning, but was also involved in the development of the i2010 digital libraries policies and actions. Prior to joining the Commission, she worked in the UK providing a national advisory and market watch service to libraries on the use of new technologies. She is now Head of the Inclusion, Skills & Youth Unit of the EC’s Directorate General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), where the unit’s goal is to ensure that citizens, especially youth and those at risk of exclusion, are best able to benefit from the Internet and have the necessary skills so to do. This article sets out Pat’s leadership of EC-funded Digital Preservation, and examines her legacy in terms of lasting best practices, contributions to standardisation activities etc

Estado da arte em preservação digital

Relatório sobre o estado da arte em preservação digital desenvolvido no âmbito do projeto Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP).O presente estudo está inscrito no plano de atividades de 2011 do projeto Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP) e assinala o início do interesse do RCAAP no domínio da preservação digital na esfera dos repositórios de acesso aberto. Para além de recolher informação atualizada sobre o tema e as iniciativas mais relevantes relacionadas com a preservação digital, o objetivo deste documento é também o de informar e orientar futuras atividades e desenvolvimentos relacionados com a preservação digital no âmbito do RCAAP em anos vindouros. Na sua introdução, o documento começa por contextualizar a crescente importância e interesse do tema da preservação digital na agenda dos repositórios de acesso aberto, e que tem sido objeto de debate nos últimos anos. Independentemente das diversas opiniões quanto à sua centralidade na atividade dos repositórios parece claro que a preservação digital será uma preocupação crescente dos repositórios nos próximos anos, a nível internacional e também em Portugal. Na segunda secção do estudo intitulada: “Preservação Digital” é apresentada uma panorâmica geral do tema, definindo os conceitos mais relevantes e apresentando as principais técnicas preservação digital utilizadas na atualidade. Na terceira secção designada: “Repositórios de Acesso Aberto e preservação digital”, o relatório procura contextualizar a preservação digital no âmbito dos repositórios de acesso aberto e identificar os projetos, as arquiteturas e as estratégias mais relevantes neste domínio. Nas conclusões, que constituem a última secção do documento, constata-se que a preservação digital, no âmbito dos repositórios de acesso aberto, tem evoluído significativamente, como se comprova pelas múltiplas atividades, iniciativas e projetos, que se têm vindo a conhecer nos últimos anos. No entanto, apesar da crescente consciencialização e interesse no que concerne às questões relacionadas com a preservação digital, o número de repositórios com políticas, estratégias e ações consolidadas ainda é residual. Também em Portugal, dos 35 repositórios atualmente registados no portal RCAAP, nenhum destes repositórios possuirá uma política de preservação formal. Haverá instituições com procedimentos no que concerne aos formatos admissíveis ou que realizam, como normativo interno, migrações de formatos aquando do depósito de documentos, mas ainda sem uma sistematização desejável. O estudo termina com a exposição de um conjunto de ações e linhas de orientação que poderão integradas no projeto RCAAP, ou desenvolvidas por instituições que nele participam, com o intuito de promover e facilitar o processo de preservação e curadoria digital nos repositórios de acesso aberto em Portugal.Ministério da Ciência e TecnologiaUMIC - Agência para a Sociedade do ConhecimentoFCCN - Fundação para Computação Científica NacionalUniversidade do MInhoPOS_ConhecimentoUnião Europei