Blog

Rachel MacGregor is Digital Preservation Officer at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. 

This blog is a version of the presentation I gave at the DPC Briefing Day on Preservation Planning and Technology Watch in February 2021.

One of the most exciting (or is that offputting?) things about digital preservation is that things don’t stay still – new formats and software are appearing all the time. The sheer variety of formats out there and which are continuing to be developed can make the task of “keeping up” with technological advances seem overwhelming. There’s a massive temptation to leave the problem to someone else – either the provider of your preservation software or maybe to your successors.

DO NOT GIVE IN TO THAT TEMPTATION!

Audrey Drohan is Digital Library Manager at University College Dublin

UCD Digital Library went into ‘Work From Home’ mode on Friday 13^th March 2020, and it was quite a surreal transition. One minute I was in the building with all of my colleagues, putting a few things into Google folders for the two weeks we were going to be out of the office, and the next minute my office became a roving location in my house: first the kitchen, then the sitting room, and finally the spare room.  A few things threw me initially: my five-year-old trusty personal laptop was suddenly getting lots of new software that it was not happy with, and it could not cope with the work that my higher spec workstation handles with ease; there was no printer, which in hindsight, is probably a good thing; I was battling neighbours for broadband; my amazing colleagues were miles away; the VPN connection was appalling; and everything just changed.

Being immersed in the digital world meant I could transition most of my work easily enough, but suddenly everything became harder and slower to do. Data transfers felt like they took years. Suddenly storage on my local machine became an issue. And then Zoom entered my life.

Ali Hayes-Brady is Digital Archivist at Records and Archives Services, Monash University

A little over a year ago, when the world began to shut down, the DPC Australian and Asia-Pacific Office had its launch party. It was the last real “event” I attended in person for almost an entire year and it was wonderful. When asked to write a blog for DPC from Monash University’s perspective I thought it would be a nice time to reflect on the year that was – both joining this wonderful community and what we’re hoping to do in the future.

This blog was written by Frederick Alexander (Archivist, Digitisation) and Iram Safdar (Digital Archivist), from Historic Environment Scotland

What do a Dutch shipwreck and file format migration all have in common? These topics might seem dissimilar, but they were both a part of a four-year project in Historic Environment Scotland’s Archive.

In 2018 Historic Environment Scotland Archives launched a digital project with the goal of making 750,000 new digital records available for public access through the Canmore website. This project has generated digital records through digitising our physical collections, as well as cataloguing our externally deposited born-digital records. Additionally, this project has improved organisational knowledge of digital preservation through advocacy, research, and cross-departmental collaboration. 

Adriana Kolar, Ph.D., Archives Management Senior Analyst and Gudrun Beger, Ph.D, Archives Management Senior Analyst are both members of the ‘Total Digital Access to the League of Nations Archives (LONTAD) Project’.

Information Technology has taken a quantum leap since 1938, when Dr. Pieter Sevensma, Director of the League of Nations Library, ordered Photostat machines for the new premises of the organization, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Photostat machines were devices that made photographic copies of manuscripts, maps and documents. At the time, this system was not only state-of-the-art for making facsimiles but also for storing information on a medium other than paper, i.e., on film rolls.

Gareth Cole is Research Data Manager at Loughborough University. 

I feel I can pretty confidently say the answer is no. But, things may be changing.

As with many universities worldwide, at Loughborough we are working with our academic community to increasingly make their research data publicly available. This is not without its challenges. Some researchers deposit data because they want to make it openly available, some deposit because they are under a funder or publisher obligation, and some don’t deposit! The range of motivations means that a one size fits all approach isn’t appropriate. However, we have to balance this with our limited staffing resource as there is only so much we can do.

Tim Evans is Deputy Director at the Archaeology Data Service.

As I would imagine is the case with the vast majority of people, it's been an unusual year at the Archaeology Data Service. Since moving into lockdown 12 months ago most members of staff have been working remotely, connected only by the ubiquitous Zoom meetings. With Spring in the air, and things  just showing signs of returning to normal here in the UK it's inevitably a time for reflection.

A year ago today the DPC team gathered online and took the decision to close our offices and work from home. We've been working from home ever since. Let me be more precise: the phrase we used was 'at home in a time of emergency doing whatever work was practicable'. That's an important difference and underlines the point which will follow.

Angeline Takawira-Magaya is a Digital Archivist at the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.

Trustworthiness is a goal for every digital repository and organizations are increasingly interested in demonstrating it by obtaining certification as a trustworthy digital repository (TDR). However, pursuing certification requires a significant investment of time and effort so it must be a well-considered decision. The anticipated benefits for the organization and its stakeholders must be articulated clearly, and weighed against the likely costs involved, to determine whether the TDR certification is essential, desirable or just “nice to have”.

Last December, the DPC completed a study on EOSC, FAIR, and digital preservation, ‘FAIR Forever? Long Term Data Preservation Roles and Responsibilities’, commissioned by the EOSC Sustainability Working Group and funded by the EOSC Secretariat Project in 2020. In this blog post, I will share some of our key findings and recommendations from the study with two special announcements!