The Preservation of Digital Objects in German Repositories: Die Archivierung digitaler Objekte in deutschenRepositorien: Drei Fallstudien: Three Case Studies

Taking its cue from the increasing amount of digital content deposited into institutional and subject repositories as well as the open question of repositories'' role in long-term preservation, this study presents case studies of three German institutional and subject repositories all of which are in a different stage of establishing a (cooperative) framework for the long-term preservation of their digital collections. Drawing on different sets of criteria for trustworthy repositories, it is investigated which strategies the selected repositories pursue to preserve the digital assets in their collections, and how these strategies are implemented with the help of both human repository staff and the repository software used. The following repositories are considered: pedocs (Deutsches Institut für Internationale Pädagogische Forschung), JUWEL (Forschungszentrum Jülich), and Qucosa (SLUB Dresden). In that the latter can be regarded as examples for common types of (German) repositories, the results of this study might on the one hand serve as a guideline for repositories that intend, similar to the ones described here, to explore questions of long-term preservation in the near future, or are even taking their first concrete steps in this field. On the other hand, it is hoped that this work can at least give some hints as to the stage and status of long-term preservation in the German repository landscape

Evaluating and developing Ingest workflows with OAIS and PAIMAS at the GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences

"As part of its current efforts in audit and certification, the GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences carried out a mapping to the OAIS reference model to support a systematic analysis of archive workflows and procedures. The mapping helped us to identify areas and processes with potential for improvement. Among these, the Ingest functional entity is of particular importance and complexity. Thus we continued our work by further analyzing our Ingest workflows and processes with the help of the PAIMAS standard, placing particular emphasis on the interfaces employed in the communication with internal and external stakeholders. Discussing these results with involved staff members helped us to identify problematic areas and develop a strategy for the future development of this functional entity at the GESIS Data Archive." (author's abstract

nestor endorsement of TRUST Principles

Nestor - the German-speaking competence network for digital preservation - welcomes the TRUST principles as outlined in the white paper (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0486-7) and joins the call for endorsement by the Research Data Alliance (https://www.rd-alliance.org/rda-community-effort-trust-principles-digital-repositories). nestor clearly sees the need for further development of the principles as they move into practise. As part of this, an ad-hoc WG TRUST discussed the principled and has released the statement "nestor endorsement of TRUST Principles". Benefits and recommendations at a glace • provides a common framework to facilitate discussion by all stakeholders • mnemonic helps to raise awareness • provides a low-threshold entry point • principles do not convey a sufficiently comprehensive picture of the requirements • preservation planning and suitable long-term preservation strategies are missing • TRUST Principles must be linked with established and accepted criteria suited to measuring trust-worthines

A rose is a rose is a rose? Defining significant properties of social science research data

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014General Track, 24x7 PresentationsThe session was recorded and is available for watching (this presentation starts at 0:43:40)Digital curation and preservation efforts are futile if the objective of the preservation process is unclear. Working under the assumption that it will not be possible to preserve digital objects unchanged, in their “original” form, digital curators have to have a clear idea of the features and characteristics that have to be preserved in order for the curated object to be understandable, accessible, and usable in the future. What these characteristics, referred to as significant properties, are depends largely on how and for which purposes the preserved objects will be used. In this presentation we will give an overview of the approach taken by the GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences to the identification and definition of the significant properties of the digital assets curated and preserved by the archive. In doing so, we discuss challenges experienced and benefits expected – including an improved communication with the stakeholders involved in the curation and dissemination of the data held by the archive.Recker, Astrid (GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany)Müller, Stefan (GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany

The Preservation of Digital Objects in German Repositories: Die Archivierung digitaler Objekte in deutschenRepositorien: Drei Fallstudien: Three Case Studies

Taking its cue from the increasing amount of digital content deposited into institutional and subject repositories as well as the open question of repositories'' role in long-term preservation, this study presents case studies of three German institutional and subject repositories all of which are in a different stage of establishing a (cooperative) framework for the long-term preservation of their digital collections. Drawing on different sets of criteria for trustworthy repositories, it is investigated which strategies the selected repositories pursue to preserve the digital assets in their collections, and how these strategies are implemented with the help of both human repository staff and the repository software used. The following repositories are considered: pedocs (Deutsches Institut für Internationale Pädagogische Forschung), JUWEL (Forschungszentrum Jülich), and Qucosa (SLUB Dresden). In that the latter can be regarded as examples for common types of (German) repositories, the results of this study might on the one hand serve as a guideline for repositories that intend, similar to the ones described here, to explore questions of long-term preservation in the near future, or are even taking their first concrete steps in this field. On the other hand, it is hoped that this work can at least give some hints as to the stage and status of long-term preservation in the German repository landscape