Current Newsletter
nestor Newsletter 17/2009 [25 June 2009]

Greetings
We are delighted to present this, the last nestor Newsletter to be issued during the nestor project phase. The next Newsletter will be published by the permanent nestor cooperation association.
The project homepage contains information on all recent developments.

 

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Contents
Current developments in the project 
Editorial

 

  

  

 

The end of the nestor project phase and the transition to the nestor cooperation association sees the transfer of responsibility for the nestor Newsletter from the current editors at SUB Göttingen to the German National Library.

We review six years of editing the nestor Newsletter and, by extension, the creation and development of the German-speaking digital preservation community. The work has been most rewarding and we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many authors and our 1200+ subscribers for their interest as we bow out with this Newsletter.

Sincere greetings from Heike Neuroth and Stefan Strathmann

 

nestor to continue - as a cooperation association
After a total of six years, nestor's support by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) came to an end in June 2009. Since 2003 one of the project partners' goals has been to find a permanent organisational form for the German long-term digital preservation competence network.
As of 1 July 2009, six of the original project partners and two other organisations will take nestor into a permanent cooperation association and continue its work as in the past. The cooperation association will operate on the basis of funds provided by the member organisations themselves. A partnership agreement has been signed between the partners involved:

nestor maintains close working relationships to formal cooperation partners and other institutions and experts. Educational institutions such as the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, HTWK Leipzig and HTW Chur are working intensively on drawing up initial and further training proposals for long-term digital preservation. Legal experts are working under the umbrella of a nestor working group on the legal aspects of long-term preservation. Further institutions concerned with long-term preservation, or certain aspects of it, are also welcome to contribute to nestor. Please send any applications to the nestor administrative office.

 

The nestor concluding event was held on 10 June 2009 in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. nestor has received support over two project phases from the Federal German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2003. The project partners have now agreed to continue the competence network independently in a cooperation association. A forward-looking motto was therefore chosen for the event: "nestor to continue: Working together to preserve digital knowledge". Roughly 150 participants from Germany and abroad took part in the thought-provoking event.

In his welcome speech Professor Parzinger, President of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, underlined the significance of coordinated long-term digital preservation for the future. The next speaker, Dr. Jansen of the BMBF, was delighted about the nestor project which his Ministry had helped set up and which now, thanks to the successful collaboration of the partners, is to be continued.

A wide-ranging program of speeches illustrated the broad spectrum of areas in which long-term digital preservation plays a crucial role, both now and in the future. It is not only the realm of science which is having to cope with growing quantities of data, but also the business, administration and entertainment sectors.

In his speech, Professor Coy from the Humboldt University in Berlin focussed on the myriad problems associated with long-term digital preservation which are set to increase in the future, taking the new E-Book Reader as his example. An unforeseeably large number of different devices, most of which have their own proprietary formats, will lead to a situation in which the ability to access readable data in the long-term will depend on the permanent availability of the player devices and formats. Professor Dittmann from the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg highlighted the particular problems associated with the authentic preservation of multimedia data and explained, in an arresting and entertaining talk, how even the slightest archiving ambiguities can lead to in some cases drastic distortion of the original material.

Dr. Spek, Director of the Alliance for Permanent Access to the Records of Science, outlined the organisational framework of the different approaches and projects at the European level and explained that joint cross-national efforts are more likely to be successful than individual attempts at creating solutions.

Mr Altenhöner, head of the IT department of the German National Library and nestor Project Leader, also pursued this line of thought, reflecting on current and future long-term preservation infrastructures. A good deal has already been developed at the strategic and technical level, however there are few interconnections, he explained. The short-term and project-based support already provided is not sufficient to establish a permanent and sustainable infrastructure.

In a chaired discussion, representatives from museums and archives, and the fields of teaching, research and law explored specific challenges in the permanent preservation of digital data in their respective fields. A common thread was the justified complaint concerning the hitherto low level of public awareness of the problem, including amongst political decision-makers. The extent to which not only an impending but also an actual catastrophic loss of data could change this perception was evaluated differently. Everyone agreed that nestor will still be around in ten years as a competence network and will remain indispensable for the coordination of the wide range of tasks arising in the future. The consensus apparent amongst the speakers was also reflected in the audience who, in animated discussions during the breaks, felt that not only increasing pressure but also the prospect of common strategies and solutions are now regarded as crucial factors driving future collaboration.

To conclude the event, Ms Schwens, permanent deputy of the director general of the German National Library, gave an upbeat assessment of the future work of the newly-founded cooperation association. From July 2009 nearly all the existing partners plus the Baden-Württemberg State archive together with the Library Service Centre Baden-Württemberg will continue to share the work in the nestor competence network. Further institutions working in the field of long-term preservation, or certain aspects of it, are also cordially invited to join nestor.

 

The "nestor Handbook: A concise encyclopedia of long-term digital preservation" was presented to the interested general public during the nestor workshop at the 98^th German Library Congress.

A continually expanded and revised online version of the manual has been available as a vital tool for all colleagues interested in long-term digital preservation since 2007. The current version 2.0 is available as a freely accessible online release from Creative Commons Lizenz and also as a printed hardback version.

Version 2.0 has been considerably expanded, restructured and revised. The editorial team recruited roughly 50 authors to generate the specialist articles which reflect the current state-of-the-art in long-term digital preservation in a clear and well-researched manner.

The printed version has roughly 620 pages and, priced at € 24.90, should hopefully be an attractive and affordable proposition not only for professional colleagues, but also for student users. It is published in partnership between "Verlag Werner Hülsbusch Fachverlag für Medientechnik und -wirtschaft" and "Universitätsverlag Göttingen".

 

Roughly 40 participants came together to take part in this year's nestor/DPE School in Staufen/Breisgau which carried the title "Long-term digital preservation: From initial idea to realisation". The participants represented a good mixture of practitioners from libraries, archives and museums, but also company representatives and students. Happily, it was once again possible to keep the participation fees at a low level, especially for student participants, thanks to generous support from friendly sponsors.

After a brief introduction to digital preservation, the participants in the nestor Spring School were presented a broad range of specific aspects related to the subject. These included two main areas, creating a digital archive and preserving research data, each covered in detail over several sessions.

The event also provided an ideal opportunity to forge and intensify contacts and networks, as all participants and speakers came together to consult intensively with their peers.

A further nestor School is planned for the coming year; it is scheduled for 14 to 18 June in Staufen/Breisgau.

 

Report on the 3^rd information event organised by the nestor Media working group entitled "Film - digital aspects of the long-term preservation of information" held on 27 May 2009 at the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin.

The objective of the information event was to describe the current situation in the long-term preservation of digital films and the resulting demands being placed on the preserving institutions and organisations. All aspects of preservation and accessibility, from material evaluation, technical requirements, selection criteria and conservation demands right through to digitisation, long-term preservation and long-term accessibility of digital films, were addressed. Attracting over 130 participants, the event was exceptionally well-attended, indicating the high levels of interest in this problem area.

In his welcoming speech, Martin Körber of the Deutsche Kinamethek in Berlin pointed to the challenges which the long-term preservation of digital films represents to the institutions.

Representing the Media working group, Dagmar Otto (Humboldt University Library, Berlin) presented the nestor competence network, pointing in particular to the activities surrounding the provision of information on "digital film preservation" in the nestor media WG Guide.

In his paper entitled "Ageing in the digital era", Jürgen Keiper (Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin) first drew attention to the fact that digital objects cannot actually be said to age, instead they are either usable or not.   Instead of conventional preservation strategies, active risk management must be undertaken to ensure that the digital objects remain usable. Long-term digital preservation here involves quality requirements, security measures and cost planning.

In his paper on "Demands on digital film archives", Winfried Bergmeyer of the Institut für Museumsforschung Berlin addressed the security and trustworthiness challenges facing digital repositories. Available information materials include the nestor criteria catalogue of trusted repositories and shortly also a nestor study on security aspects of digital preservation systems.

Markus Hürgen of the Institut für wissenschaftlichen Film (IWF) presented a graphic report on current practices. The Institut has already digitised roughly 4200 films and made them available. Separation Master Analog and Separation Master Digital are used for long-term preservation. JPEG2000 may be considered for the preservation of digital films in the future.

In his paper entitled "Aspects involved in storing digital films" Matthias Schnöll from the Wiesbaden University of Applied Science presented the FFPA project (cross-format platform for production and archiving) which backs up digital films using the MXF and JPEG2000 metadata standards.

Jens-Martin Loebel of the Humbold University in Berlin reported on information loss and the problems associated with the migration of lossy compression formats in his "Digital video formats" paper. He concluded by pointing to the use of lossless codecs or emulation for long-term preservation.

In a paper entitled "The archiving of feature films", Jan Fröhlich (CinePostproduktion, Bavaria Bild&Ton) outlined the current situation in film production which, in the analogue-digital-analogue chain, still has little demand for the long-term preservation of digital formats. The clients are still hesitant to accept the company's services aimed at the preservation of digital formats, he reported.

Siegfried Foessel of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS presented the EDCINE project. EDCINE is a European project aimed at optimising and developing new technologies for digital cinema. MXF and JPEG2000 are used for long-term preservation.

In his paper called "Colour Separation Master in the Digital Intermediate Process", Harald Schernthaner from ARRI Film & TV concentrated on the aspects of preservation through the discrete preservation of separated film transfers on analogue media.

In the final paper, Paul Klimpel (Managing Director of Netzwerk Mediatheken) stressed the responsibility of culture-repository institutions for preserving our cultural heritage, including the objects of the film creators. The task represents a major challenge which our society needs to face up to, he explained. There must be ongoing efforts to raise awareness levels regarding this task.

In the concluding discussion chaired by Martina Werth-Mühl (Bundesarchiv), the participants' statements highlighted the problems associated with preserving digital films for both large and small institutions. Further work needs to be carried out here on setting up networks such as nestor in order to intensify the collaboration, the consultation with peers and the provision of best-practice publications.

 

 

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

 

The objective of the KEEP project is to provide an emulator platform for the long-term use of static and dynamic digital objects such as text, sound and image files, multimedia documents, websites, databases and video games. The overriding goal of the project is to ensure general access to our cultural heritage by developing flexible instruments which permit the storage and accessing of a wide range of digital objects.

The increasing success of computing technology on the one hand and its rapid obsolescence on the other hand represent a growing challenge for preserving access to digital materials. Our cultural heritage is particularly at risk from the potential loss of digital information. KEEP provides a user-friendly platform for emulators to ensure that these objects can be viewed in a form which is as close as possible to the original, thereby keeping them accessible in the long term.

One obstacle to the use of emulation for long-term preservation was the platform-dependence of the individual emulators which hitherto prevented the permanent use of this technology. KEEP's aim of providing this emulator platform will help here as it will allow permanent use of the individual emulators.

An important aspect here is simplification of the transfer of digital objects from obsolete storage media such as disks to modern media. This includes specifying file formats and producing transfer tools, while taking the legal and technical requirements into consideration. KEEP will permit preservation of the original data streams of the data carriers and secure the applications for end users in the form of software which can be run on a large number of different platforms.

The integration of the emulator platform in existing long-term preservation systems represents a further key aspect of the software development. Existing metadata models will be evaluated and guidelines developed to describe the assignment of digital objects to the emulation environment. KEEP will provide the foundation for the next generation of emulation-based permanent use.

Although the project is basically aimed at those working in the cultural heritage field such as culture-preserving institutions (libraries, archives and museums), it will also be possible to use the emulator platform to cater for the needs of smaller organisations and individuals, thanks to its universal approach.

The KEEP (Keeping Emulation Environments Portable) project is co-financed by the seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development (FP7) of the European Union. Institutions involved in this project include the German National Library in Frankfurt, the Royal Library of the Netherlands in Den Haag, the French National Library in Paris, the University of Portsmouth and the Computer Games Museum in Berlin. Further information can be found on the homepage of the KEEP Project.

 

The Library of the German Literature Archive collects, catalogues and archives modern German literature. The "Virtuelle Fachbibliothek Germanistik" catalogues literary journals, literary weblogs and soon also net literature and lists them in the Marbach online catalogue Kallías.

The DLA has been carrying out the collection mandate for online publications and archiving selected items on the "Literatur im Netz" platform since 2008. The service has been accessible to the public since May 2009. The collection began with a basic stock set up in 2007 as part of the preceding test. 

This not only supplements the collection and cataloguing of the conventional literary journals in Marbach, it also takes new digital media into account which also document contemporary literary life.

The DLA is always grateful to receive pointers from authors on literary journals, weblogs and online literature which fall within its collection ambit.

Supported by the Baden-Württemberg Library Service Centre and Software SWBcontent, the DLA Marbach is making a further contribution to preserving digital publications with its "Literatur-im-Netz" project.

 

On 2 June 2009 PARSE.Insight will have its first annual review by reviewers of the European Commission in Brussels. Looking back on the past year, the project showed good progress in defining a draft roadmap for building the e-Science infrastructure in Europe. Also, specifications have been defined for performing a gap analysis between the roadmap and the current state of affairs and for the development of standards on which an audit and certification process for digital repositories can be based. At present, an extensive survey is in progress for identifying Europe's current position on the digital preservation of research data. A summary of the first year's goals and achievements is available online .

In preparation for the annual review, PARSE.Insight recently announced the following new publications:

All documents are available at the project homepage.

The EU-funded project PARSE.Insight is concerned with the preservation of digital information in science. Its aim is to develop a roadmap and recommendations for developing the e-infrastructure in order to maintain the long-term accessibility and usability of scientific digital information in Europe.

PARSE.Insight is closely linked to the Alliance for Permanent Access to the Records of Science. The output from the project is intended to guide the European Commission's strategy on research infrastructure.

 

Under the patronage of Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin, the 8th European Conference on Digital
Archiving is to be held in Geneva from 28 to 30 April 2010. It is organised by the Swiss Federal Archives
together with the European Regional Branch and Professional Associations Section of the International
Council on Archives (ICA).
Digital archiving has been a key issue for archivists for more than two decades. It has long been apparent
that the rapid advances in information and communications technology are not only changing
methods of archiving, but also call into question fundamental principles of archiving.
In recent years, major investments have been made in research, resulting not only in new applications
but also in extensive literature on the theory of archiving. We are now aware of the advantages and
risks of electronic archiving, and have devised operational solutions.
Nonetheless, many archives are confronted with the need to make fundamental strategic decisions. A
constant exchange of knowledge and experiences is needed more than ever, so that all European
archives can successfully take this vital step into the digital age and devise sustainable solutions for
the future, without turning their backs on their traditions. This is the central theme of the Geneva Conference.
The programme will focus on the following four issues.
From the 1st of May 2009 it will be possible to submit abstracts for the following topics:
1. Archival profile: professional competence in the digital age
2. What to keep: how to mirror the information society
3. E-Archiving: reorganisation of processes and business models
4. Online access: solutions and implications
Abstract submission will be possible online from the 1st of May 2009. You will find a web-based
form and further details at the homepage (Submission deadline: 31 August 2009)

 

Events at which nestor has been presented:

 

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 will be a forum for discussing e.g. the results of the nestor workshops with you.

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

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