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nestor Newsletter 14/2008 [30. April 2008]

 

Welcome
We are delighted to present the 14th newsletter of the nestor project, today. Our aim is to keep you up-to-date with all the latest news concerning the nestor project.
The project homepage contains information on all recent developments.
 

 

Contents

Current developments in the project

    State Minister visits nestor at CeBIT
    DIN Committee takes on nestor digital preservation standardisation projects
    Announcement: nestor Summer School 2008
    Report: nestor media WG – Workshop: "Replayed - Preservation of digital artefacts based on example of computer games"
    Archive event

Information on related projects

    KoLaWiss: Digital preservation requirements - based on example of Göttingen as scientific centre
    PREMIS 2.0 published
   
Review

    Caplan, Priscilla (2008). "The Preservation of Digital Materials" Library Technology Reports (February/March 2008) Edition: 44:2

PR work / Presentations



Current developments in the project


State Minister visits nestor at CeBIT
The German Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs, Bernd Neumann, paid a visit to the largest trade fair for information technology in the world, the CeBIT, in Hanover.
During a tour of the fair, the German Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs, Bernd Neumann, gained a first-hand impression of the latest developments in the IT sector. He appeared very interested in the current status of the nestor project in which experts from the archive, library and museum community are collaborating on the basic principles involved in ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of digital resources. The nestor competence network is currently in its second project phase and is supported by the Federal German Ministry of Education and Research. Besides nestor, three international projects - CASPAR, Planets and DPE - were also showcasing their work on the joint "We preserve - European Digital Preservation Initiatives" stand. The latest research results and technical developments in the field of digital preservation were presented, as was their significance for memory organisations, scientific institutions and industry. Visitors interested in the topics were able to find out e.g. about prototypes of software tools which help the organisations in facing the main challenges involved in preserving digital resources.
The nestor team members Stefan Strathmann (SUB Göttingen) and Tobias Beinert (BSB Munich) outlined the specific problems associated with digital preservation to the State Minister and explained how nestor and its work is making an important contribution to preserving the digital cultural heritage. Mr Naumann was particularly interested in the strategies and methods of digital preservation and in the establishment of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library). 


DIN Committee takes on nestor digital preservation standardisation projects
The first meeting of the extended NABD 15 DIN committee with the working title "Archive and correspondence administration - the recording and long-term accessibility of information objects" was held on 11 March 2008 at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Frankfurt.
At the end of 2007 the DIN organisation approved an application by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and nestor to set up a working committee on digital preservation. As a result, the existing NABD 15, Archive and correspondence administration project was expanded to include the topic of "Recording and long-term accessibility of information objects" and new members from the field of long-term archiving. The committee works within the Library and Documentation Standardisation Committee (Normenausschuss Bibliotheks- und Dokumentationswesen - NABD). The NABD has traditionally been responsible for national standardisation in the field of information, especially in archives, libraries, documentation, museums and publishing.
The NABD 15 working programme covers the following highly disparate areas of information processing:

  • Trusted repositories - Criteria catalogue
    The nestor criteria catalogue of trusted repositories is to be standardised as the basis of a practicable certification procedure. It creates transparency concerning the procedure and the reciprocal demands of all parties involved in digital preservation.
  • Trustworthiness and interoperability of persistent identifiers (PIs)
    Users and operators of PI systems are to be given clarity on the functions and requirements of PIs with regard to their trustworthiness and interoperability.
  • Using the standard should make producers, suppliers and archives as independent as possible from specific partners and allow them to select other service providers on a flexible basis. It should also ensure the quality and long-term preservation of the digital materials.
  • Quality management for digital repositories
    Identification of quality standards for practical use within the context of trustworthy digital preservation
  • Legally protected archiving of digitally signed documents
    Standardisation of the ArchiSafe system for long-term, legally protected storage of electronic documents. This is awaiting initial certification from the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI - Federal Office for Information Security).
  • Records management
    Outline of the work, i.e. international collaboration on ISO Technical Committee 46, Subcommittee 11 (ISO/TC 46/SC 11) - Archives and records administration.
  • PDF/A
    Outline of the work, i.e. international collaboration on ISO/TC 171/SC 2: Standardisation for PDF/A and PDF/E. 


Announcement: nestor Summer School 2008
The nestor team is pleased to announce another five-day training programme, the nestor Summer School 2008.
This course is being jointly organised by nestor and representatives of various universities who have joined forces on the subject of digital preservation and is supported by the Digital Preservation Europe (DPE) project. nestor has also succeeded in persuading the PDF/A competence centre and SUN Microsystems to provide financial support to participating students.

The nestor/DPE Summer School will be held from 16 to 20 June 2008 at the BDB-Musikakademie in Staufen/Breisgau and its theme will be: "Introduction to digital preservation, its technologies and strategies."
Participants in the nestor/DPE Summer School 2008 can expect a slightly modified schedule to the course. It is divided into two blocks, each of which can be booked separately.
The first block (Monday to Wednesday afternoon) is an introduction to long-term digital preservation. There is a general overview followed by an examination of the subjects of metadata and standards within the context of long-term digital preservation. Further topics include file formats/significant properties, OAIS, certification and selection criteria.
The second block (Wednesday afternoon to Friday) will consist of a follow-on workshop on storage technologies and long-term digital preservation strategies. Questions regarding the durability of data carriers will be addressed, as will the selection of suitable long-term preservation strategies, so-called "Preservation Planning".
The event will also provide an ideal opportunity to make and intensify contacts, as all participants and speakers will be able to consult intensively with their peers.

The nestor Summer School 2008 was fully booked soon after its announcement due to the great demand. The only possibility now is to have your name put on the waiting list and be contacted in the event of a participant having to cancel.


Report: nestor media WG – Workshop: "Replayed - Preservation of digital artefacts based on example of computer games"
This workshop was well attended, attracting 30 participants from museums, archives and libraries, all interested in finding out about the use of emulation in the preservation of complex digital applications, based on the examples of computer games and media art.
Dr. Britta Neitzel from the Institut für Medienwissenschaften at Siegen University gave an introduction to the subject of computer games, their history and brought forward arguments concerning their preservation. In her talk entitled "Media - History - Computer games" she emphasised the necessity of archiving computer games as an important source for the research and analysis of media history. The topic's current status in media history research is not commensurate with the medium's influence within our culture. An indication of this disparity is the lack of any academic history of the medium.
In his talk entitled "Preserving the Computer Games Museum's collection by using emulation programs", Andreas Lange, head of the Computerspiele Museum im fjs e.V, gave an insight into the activities of the museum including the contribution of the gamer community, especially with regard to the generation and maintenance of emulator software. He pointed out that the technical and legal problems involved are currently creating obstacles to archiving.
The main focus of the talk "Emulation - the recreation of running environments, based on example of computer games" given by Dirk von Suchodoletz of the Institut für Informatik and the Computing Centre of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg was on the technical implementation of the emulation and the resulting possibilities and long-term consequences. Emulation builds a bridge between a technology which is no longer available and one which is the current state-of-the-art - but which will in turn also become obsolete in the future.
Tabea Lurk of the Hochschule der Künste in Bern forged a link between media art and the role of emulation in its preservation in her talk entitled "Virtualisation as a means of preservation? - Questions on the long-term preservation of computer and Internet-based art forms". One of her main points was the problem of interdependency between soft and hardware in preserving an object of media art. Even if the attempt to run the software through emulation is successful, the "look and feel" of the original hardware is significant in experiencing the work and its artistic statement.
The concluding discussion proved very lively; in it the speakers emphasised that the latter point was a problem common to both genres. The technology of emulation provides opportunities for maintaining complex applications, however it is only one part of the work. Intelligent handling of archived materials therefore requires appropriate documentation and a definition of the limits of object authenticity.
The nestor website also features the Media Working Group's workshop presentations and further material for downloading.  


Archive event
A nestor seminar on the use of digital preservation metadata in archives was held on 10.04.08 at the Bundesarchiv. The programme included talks on the following topics:

  • What is long-term preservation metadata?
  • How can long-term preservation metadata be managed in the archive?
  • The PREMIS metadata schema and its practical possibilities.

One of the guest speakers was Olaf Brandt from the Dutch Royal Library who, as a co-developer of PREMIS, gave an insight into the thinking behind the standard. Mr Huth from the Bundesarchiv moderated the event and gave a talk of his own. The 28 participants in the seminar represented all the different areas of archives.  Further information on this and previous seminars can be found here.

 

 

Information on related projects
Guest contributions reflect the opinion of the author in question. Responsibility for the content of each item lies with the author.


KoLaWiss: Digital preservation requirements - based on example of Göttingen as scientific centre. 
The Deutsche Forschugungsgemeinschaft (DFG) -sponsored KoLaWiss ("co-operative digital preservation for scientific centres") project is currently being carried out to evaluate the requirements of the scientific community with regard to long-term digital preservation measures. Under the leadership of Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH (GWDG), the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB), the IT Department (G3-7 IT) and the Medical Computing department of University Medicine (MI) are carrying out a one-year study into the subject of the long-term preservation of primary digital data at scientific centres.

With its tight-meshed network of regional and national facilities, the current constellation of scientific institutions in Göttingen serves as an example of a major scientific centre in Germany. Based on the example of Göttingen, an organisational and business model for co-operative digital preservation is being developed. This includes evaluating the existing cooperation structures of local IT facilities and their links to national and international institutions with regard to the extendibility of their digital preservation requirements.

The first part of the KoLaWiss project involved producing an inventory of the digital data stocks at the different institutions in Göttingen. Here they were able to use the results of a comprehensive online survey recently carried out jointly by nestor/SUB at Göttingen University and by ETH Zürich. The next important step involved devising a digital preservation-based categorisation system and assigning the digital data to be stored within it.

Building upon this, the long-term preservation, especially of primary research data, is being investigated in terms of technological, legal, cost, organisational and support issues, and proposals are being developed for efficient sharing of expertise, responsibility and work.  Cost, billing and business models for cooperative digital preservation at a single location (DP node) are also being drawn up. The results are being formulated on a non location-specific basis, meaning that they can be transferred to other science centres. Where possible, Germany-wide support recommendations are being drawn up for concrete implementation of the organisational and business models of DP nodes.
Author: Sven Vlaeminck 


PREMIS 2.0 published
The PREMIS Editorial Committee has published the revised version (2.0) of the PREMIS Data Dictionary for preservation metadata. PREMIS is an international initiative which, combining the work of different cultural heritage institutions such as archives, libraries, museums, government institutions and private companies, has created a common metadata standard for long-term digital preservation with a broad area of application.  Long-term preservation metadata can be defined as information which an archiving institution needs to keep digital objects accessible over a long period, and to be able to plan, execute and document the activities involved.
The first Data Dictionary, containing helpful recommendations and hints, was published in May 2005.
Within the digital preservation community PREMIS has become a widely accepted reference work for implementing long-term preservation metadata and as a common exchange format. The pioneering international and interinstitutional collaboration has been rewarded with prizes e.g. by the DPC and the Association of American Archivists.
Since publication, the PREMIS Editorial Committee, which coordinates the maintenance and further development of PREMIS, has systematically collected comments from users and community experts with the aim of incorporating these into a revised version of the PREMIS Data Dictionary. Besides corrections of errors, the main amendments include an adapted data model which is more flexible, and contains more detailed descriptive possibilities, revised and internationalised descriptions of legal information and a new XML schema.
The PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata Version 2.0 is available for free download here. The draft of an XML schema for the implementation of PREMIS Version 2.0 is also available.
This XML schema has been completely reworked in comparison to the one in Version 1.1, and as such it is still in public review. Comments regarding the XML schema should be addressed in English to Ray Denenberg <mailto:rden@loc.gov> .
Author: Olaf Brandt

 

 
Review

Caplan, Priscilla (2008). “The Preservation of Digital Materials” Library Technology Reports (February/March 2008) vol. 44:2.
 
Review by Liz Bishoff, University of Colorado at Boulder
 
Terry Kuny predicted in 1997 that an age of knowledge recorded only electronically could be lost forever unless librarians and archivist rose to the challenges of digital preservation; that the era might become known as a ‘digital Dark Ages’ if we didn’t watch out.  Caplan uses this reference as the introduction to this brief volume ‘Preservation of Digital Materials.’  She makes no pretense to be comprehensive—‘This issue…is intended to provide a relatively brief, relatively comprehensive introduction to digital preservation.’  Chapter 1 is devoted to defining digital preservation; Chapter 2 explains what digital preservation does through goals and strategies.  Chapters 3 goes into the fundamentals by introducing the Open Archival Information Systems (OAIS) reference model, the core standard for today’s digital preservation work.  Additionally, Caplan discusses preservation metadata and the concepts of trustworthy repositories and repository certification.  Chapter 4 moves from fundamentals into matters associated with digital formats and the tools that support the preservation management of content over time.  There is a brief discussion of Digital Record Object Identification (DROID) software developed by The National Archives (UK) that’ is used to identify file formats based on their binary signatures, JHOVE (JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment) software that identifies, validates and characterizes digital files, and registry software.
 
National and international preservation programs and initiatives are highlighted in Chapter 5, and in Chapter 6 the major open source repository applications are discussed.  Caplan provides a brief overview of institutional repository software noting ‘To many, institutional repository is synonymous with preservation repository.’ (p.26) 
 
Institutional repositories may not be complete preservation solutions, but they do make preservation possible by allowing responsible curatorial organizations to capture content they might otherwise not have, and to secure appropriate rights from the authors.  Viewed as preservation repositories, IRs have ingest and metadata capabilities that support the Availability and Identity goals of the core preservation activities….Where IR applications differ is in the extent of their support for Authenticity and Renderability. (p.27)
 
The final chapter touches on activities in preservation of electronic journals, web harvesting, new media art, records and archiving, and personal collections.  Each of these deserves at least a chapter of their own in a larger work.
 
Caplan’s work does what is intended—it provides a brief overview of the topic in plain English, avoiding much of the OAIS lingo—SIPS and DIPS and AIPS are only mentioned once or twice.  She also avoids the lecture on why we need to do digital preservation; she states in her introduction that anyone who is picking up this publication will understand the preservation rationale.  In taking the approach of being brief, Caplan assumes that the reader will need to do additional research on the topic.  Each section includes 3-4 articles references and most topics include citations for websites.  There is so much literature on the topic that selecting only a couple of articles is difficult.  A more comprehensive list would have been valuable.
 
While a bit pricey at $40, for those who are just getting started in digital preservation this is a must read; for library educators, assign it to your students as a starting place.  For anyone who is trying to get a handle on digital preservation this is a place to start and along with the references you can go from there to do further research.

by: Liz Bishoff , University of Colorado at Boulder
 

 

PR work / Presentations

Events at which nestor has been presented:

Events at which nestor is to be involved/represented:

 

nestor Email-Lists

Interested in taking part in the discussion about long-term digital archiving? Then please subscribe to the following email list:
nestor@langzeitarchivierung.de,
by sending an email marked "subscribe langzeitarchivierung-nestor" to:
lists@langzeitarchivierung.de

This is a forum for discussing all digital preservation related issues e.g. the results of the nestor workshops or other topics with you.

Any questions to the project team? Please send an email to the following address:
info@langzeitarchivierung.de

Newsletter

The Newsletter is produced in cooperation with the nestor partners. Please address all content-related questions, suggestions and comments concerning the Newsletter to:
Stefan Strathmann
In the event of technical problems please write to:
David Gulua

Ordering/cancelling the nestor Newsletter
To order the newsletter please send an email marked "subscribe langzeitarchivierung-newsletter" to
lists@langzeitarchivierung.de .
To cancel the newsletter please send an email marked "unsubscribe langzeitarchivierung-newsletter" to
lists@langzeitarchivierung.de .

Archive
The nestor Newsletters are archived at the following address: http://nestor.sub.uni-goettingen.de/newsletter/?lang=en

1st Newsletter dated 18.12.2003
2nd Newsletter dated 18.03.2004
3rd Newsletter dated 24.08.2004
4th Newsletter dated 18.12.2004
5th Newsletter dated 20.04.2005
6th Newsletter dated 12.08.2005
7th Newsletter dated 15.12.2005
8th Newsletter dated 21.03.2006
9th Newsletter dated 30.06.2006
10th Newsletter dated 29.01.2007
11th Newsletter dated 27.04.2007
12th Newsletter dated 30.08.2007
13th Newsletter dated 30.08.2007

 

 

 

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