DigitalKoans signale la publication des deux documents suivants par le JISC:

- Digital Preservation Policies Study

- Digital Preservation Policies Study, Part 2: Appendices—Mappings of Core University Strategies and Analysis of Their Links to Digital Preservation

"This JISC funded study aims to provide an outline model for digital preservation policies and to analyse the role that digital preservation can play in supporting and delivering key strategies for Higher and Further Education Institutions. Although focussing on the UK Higher and Further Education sectors, the study draws widely on policy and implementations from other sectors and countries and will be of interest to those wishing to develop policy and justify investment in digital preservation within a wide range of institutions. We have created two tools in this study: 1) a model/framework for digital preservation policy and implementation clauses based on examination of existing digital preservation policies; 2) a series of mappings of digital preservation links to other key institutional strategies in UK universities and colleges. Our aim has been to help institutions and their staff develop appropriate digital preservation policies and clauses set in the context of broader institutional strategies."

PARSE.Insight - INSIGHT into issues of Permanent Access to the Records of Science in Europe

"The EU-project "PARSE.Insight - INSIGHT into issues of Permanent Access to the Records of Science in Europe" started its work in March 2008. Its areas of activity include long-term digital preservation, the provision of raw scientific data and its links to publications.
Raw scientific data is often scattered over a number of research institutes and in many cases is managed locally by the researchers themselves. The rapid aging of data carriers, formats and software and hardware environments means that their long-term accessibility is under threat. In many cases no preservation strategies exist for this data. There is therefore a risk of losing data which is of great significance for research.
The aim of PARSE.Insight is to draw up a roadmap and recommendations to support the e-Infrastructure for the digital preservation and long-term accessibility of this raw academic data. The project partners first analyze the digital preservation methods and the communities involved in the provision of raw academic data. They then carry out a Europe-wide survey to determine how raw academic data is currently being archived. Three case studies are providing specific and complementary information. The results will be used as the basis for plugging the gaps in the European e-Infrastructure with regard to the long-term usability of raw scientific data and then to devise a tool to support EU investment and infrastructure decisions aimed at ensuring long-term access to raw scientific data.
Nine partners from the fields of libraries, research, journalism and politics are working together in PARSE-Insight. The project is scheduled to run for two years.
Further information: http://www.parse-insight.eu/"

Au menu, notamment, du dernier n° de l'International Journal of Digital Curation (vol. 3, n° 1, 2008):

- Towards a Theory of Digital Preservation
A preservation environment manages communication from the past while communicating with the future. Information generated in the past is sent into the future by the current preservation environment. The proof that the preservation environment preserves authenticity and integrity while performing the communication constitutes a theory of digital preservation. We examine the representation information that is needed about the preservation environment for a theory of digital preservation. The representation information includes descriptions of the preservation management policies, the preservation processes, and the state information that is needed to verify the correct working behavior of the system. We demonstrate rule-based data grids that can verify that prior policies correctly enforced preservation properties, while sending into the future descriptions of the current preservation management policies.

- Defining File Format Obsolescence: A Risky Journey
File format obsolescence is a major risk factor threatening the ongoing usefulness of digital information collections. While the preservation community has become increasingly interested in tools for assessing a wide range of risks, the National Library of Australia is developing mechanisms specifically focused on the risks of format obsolescence. The paper reports on the AONS II Project, undertaken in conjunction with the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR). The project aimed to refine and develop a software tool that would automatically find and report indicators of obsolescence risks, to help repository managers decide if preservation action is needed. The paper discusses the current mismatch between this objective and the available sources of information on file formats, and emphasises the need to take account of both local and global factors in assessing risk. The paper calls for the preservation community to engage with the further development of thinking about file format obsolescence.

- Data Documentation Initiative: Toward a Standard for the Social Sciences
The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an emerging metadata standard for the social sciences. The DDI is in active use by many data specialists and archivists, but researchers themselves have been slow to recognize the benefits of the standards approach to metadata. This paper outlines how the DDI has evolved since its inception in 1995 and discusses ways to broaden its impact in the social science research community.

- What to Preserve?: Significant Properties of Digital Objects
This article reports on the JISC/BL/DPC workshop on significant properties, which took place on April 7, 2008 at the British Library Conference Centre, London. The intention of the workshop was to bring together the relevant projects and report on progress to date. It was also hoped that the workshop will lead to collective recommendations for future areas of research and development.

International study on the impact of copyright law on digital preservation (juillet 08) (pdf)

Un rapport conjoint de la Library of Congress, du JISC (Gde.-Bret.), de l'Open Access to Knowledge Law Project (Australie) et de la SURF Foundation (Pays-Bas) qui passe en revue les questions de droits d'auteur et de conservation de ressources numériques dans ces différents pays et suggère certaines réformes des lois en vigueur ainsi que des approches non spécifiquement législatives.
Plus précisément, les objectifs de ce rapport étaient:
- to review the current state of copyright and related laws and their impact on digital preservation;
- to make recommendations for legislative reform and other solutions to ensure that libraries, archives and other preservation institutions can effectively preserve digital works and information in a manner consistent with international laws and norms of copyright and related rights; and
- to make recommendations for further study or activities to advance the recommendations in the Report.

Via Information Environment Team (JISC)

SPAR (Système de préservation et d'archivage réparti) est le projet de conservation à long terme de la BNF.

Voir le cahier des clauses techniques (pdf)

Via Antoinette

L'actualité des questions liées à la conservation des revues est riche, ces temps-ci [voir].

Le JISC a publié un rapport sur la conservation des e-revues: Comparative Study of e-Journal Archiving Solutions (pdf).

Le document couvre les points suivants: les différentes approches envisagées, les aspects légaux, une comparaison des 6 principaux projets actuels, les perspectives (et futures solutions) dans le domaine.

Via PSLB

En 2005, Portico et Ithaka publiaient les résultats d'une enquête menée aux Etats-Unis [voir ici (pdf)] auprès de responsables de bibliothèques académiques sur les questions de conservation/préservation des revues scientifiques.

Une nouvelle enquête a été menée début 2008: on peut lire les résultats dans ce document: Digital Preservation of E-Journals in 2008: Urgent Action Revisited (pdf).

La tendance générale dans les réponses indique que les institutions universitaires et les bibliothèques ont clairement un rôle à jouer dans ce domaine. Nous sommes tous d'accord. Reste à déterminer de quelle manière, à quels coûts, etc.

Via DigitalKoans

Le UK LOCKSS Pilot Programme a été évalué: le rapport est disponible ici (pdf).

"LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) is an e-mail archiving system which enables institutions to keep licensed e-journal content on local servers so that in the event that the material is no longer accessible from the publisher's servers, users can still access it. LOCKSS is an open-source, peer-to-peer, decentralised, digital preservation infrastructure that was developed, and is still maintained, by Stanford University Library. The UK LOCKSS Pilot Programme is based at the University of Glasgow and supports a community of UK LOCKSS users comprising of thirty UK Higher Education Institutions. The report considers the future sustainability of the UK LOCKSS Programme and contains recommendations."

Via liste JISC-Repositories

Keeping research data safe [ pdf ]

Un rapport du JISC sur le coût, à moyen et long terme, de la conservation des données de la recherche.

Via Information Environment Team

Selon ce document de la DPC (Digital Preservation Coalition), "Preserving the Data Explosion: Using PDF", le format PDF et surtout PDF/A (pour Archive) peuvent être envisagés comme de sérieux candidats-standards pour la conservation à long terme. Voir...