Co-operative Development of a Long-term Digital Information Archive

Data for the future - the kopal project -- The German project kopal develops a cooperative used long-term digital archive. The archival system of kopal could be used by different clients, just like a bank account. It is hosted by an experienced service provider and based on software by IBM. Its interfaces are open defined in a way, that it is possible to use open software and standard object formats to connect to them. As a result of the project an open archiving and exchange format for digital objects was specified, called Universal Object format. There is also an open source software library called koLibRI to build up objects, generate technical metadata and manage the communication with the OAIS-compliant system. Migration and emulation will be supported, but especially migration is an essential part of koLibRI and the concept of technical metadata within the data management. The archival system is ready to be used by the project partners and ca. 10 TB of data will be ingested until the end of the year 2006

Digital Preservation Services : State of the Art Analysis

Research report funded by the DC-NET project.An overview of the state of the art in service provision for digital preservation and curation. Its focus is on the areas where bridging the gaps is needed between e-Infrastructures and efficient and forward-looking digital preservation services. Based on a desktop study and a rapid analysis of some 190 currently available tools and services for digital preservation, the deliverable provides a high-level view on the range of instruments currently on offer to support various functions within a preservation system.European Commission, FP7peer-reviewe

Analysis and Synthesis of Metadata Goals for Scientific Data

The proliferation of discipline-specific metadata schemes contributes to artificial barriers that can impede interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. The authors considered this problem by examining the domains, objectives, and architectures of nine metadata schemes used to document scientific data in the physical, life, and social sciences. They used a mixed-methods content analysis and Greenberg’s (2005) metadata objectives, principles, domains, and architectural layout (MODAL) framework, and derived 22 metadata-related goals from textual content describing each metadata scheme. Relationships are identified between the domains (e.g., scientific discipline and type of data) and the categories of scheme objectives. For each strong correlation (\u3e0.6), a Fisher’s exact test for nonparametric data was used to determine significance (p \u3c .05). Significant relationships were found between the domains and objectives of the schemes. Schemes describing observational data are more likely to have “scheme harmonization” (compatibility and interoperability with related schemes) as an objective; schemes with the objective “abstraction” (a conceptual model exists separate from the technical implementation) also have the objective “sufficiency” (the scheme defines a minimal amount of information to meet the needs of the community); and schemes with the objective “data publication” do not have the objective “element refinement.” The analysis indicates that many metadata-driven goals expressed by communities are independent of scientific discipline or the type of data, although they are constrained by historical community practices and workflows as well as the technological environment at the time of scheme creation. The analysis reveals 11 fundamental metadata goals for metadata documenting scientific data in support of sharing research data across disciplines and domains. The authors report these results and highlight the need for more metadata-related research, particularly in the context of recent funding agency policy changes

Curating E-Mails; A life-cycle approach to the management and preservation of e-mail messages

E-mail forms the backbone of communications in many modern institutions and organisations and is a valuable type of organisational, cultural, and historical record. Successful management and preservation of valuable e-mail messages and collections is therefore vital if organisational accountability is to be achieved and historical or cultural memory retained for the future. This requires attention by all stakeholders across the entire life-cycle of the e-mail records. This instalment of the Digital Curation Manual reports on the several issues involved in managing and curating e-mail messages for both current and future use. Although there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution, this instalment outlines a generic framework for e-mail curation and preservation, provides a summary of current approaches, and addresses the technical, organisational and cultural challenges to successful e-mail management and longer-term curation.

BlogForever D3.2: Interoperability Prospects

This report evaluates the interoperability prospects of the BlogForever platform. Therefore, existing interoperability models are reviewed, a Delphi study to identify crucial aspects for the interoperability of web archives and digital libraries is conducted, technical interoperability standards and protocols are reviewed regarding their relevance for BlogForever, a simple approach to consider interoperability in specific usage scenarios is proposed, and a tangible approach to develop a succession plan that would allow a reliable transfer of content from the current digital archive to other digital repositories is presented

Open document format as a new structured format standard in long-term archivation

Pro požadavky dlouhodobé archivace je nezbytné aby uchovávané elektronicky podepsané dokumenty byly ve strukturálním formátu. Protože se jedná o archivaci po dobu několika desítek (až stovek) let každý musí být explicitně dokumentován a musí se jednat o dlouhodobý standard. Extensible Markup Language (XML) jako jeden z nástrojů jednoznačně definované struktury a syntaxe vytvoření takového standardu umožňuje, avšak pouze za předpokladu, že tyto podmínky budou striktně dodrženy. Touto cestou se snaží jít OpenDokument formát (ODF) a stává se tak důležitým nástrojem nejen pro složky veřejné správy, ale také pro podnikatelské subjekty.For Long-Term Archivation requirements it is necessary to preserve electronically signed documents in structural format. Every one has to be explicit documented because we act with archivation for tens (even hundreds) of years and it has to be long-term standard. Extensible Markup Language (XML) as one of the tools of exact structure and syntax defined tools allows us to make such standard, nevertheless providing that conditions will be met. OpenDocument format (ODF) tries to go this way and it becomes important tool not only for public administration authority, but for business subjects as well

Technical alignment

This essay discusses the importance of the areas of infrastructure and testing to help digital preservation services demonstrate reliability, transparency, and accountability. It encourages practitioners to build a strong culture in which transparency and collaborations between technical frameworks are valued highly. It also argues for devising and applying agreed-upon metrics that will enable the systematic analysis of preservation infrastructure. The essay begins by defining technical infrastructure and testing in the digital preservation context, provides case studies that exemplify both progress and challenges for technical alignment in both areas, and concludes with suggestions for achieving greater degrees of technical alignment going forward