Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 17:17:11 -0700 To: AMIA-L@xxxxxxxxxxx, ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, AV-Media-Matters@xxxxxxxxxx From: "Richard L. Hess" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Inquiry: know-how about digital preservation archiving Cc: "H.M. Gladney" <hgladney@xxxxxxxxxxx>
I apologize for the cross-posting. I hope that not too many of you are on all three lists.
This is being passed on for my colleague Henry Gladney. He and I are both members of the Audio Engineering Society Technical Committee on Archives Restoration and Digital Libraries.
Henry has been asked by the Library of Congress to research the commercial sector to make sure that all items of interest have been uncovered. The last thing that the Library of Congress wishes to do is to reinvent the wheel with their $100,000,000 appropriation for digital archives.
The goal of this Congressional Appropriation is to develop a national program to preserve the burgeoning amounts of digital information, especially materials that are created only in digital formats, to ensure their accessibility for current and future generations. As I read the attached information the Library of Congress has been given the lead in this project and is to work in conjunction with other agencies and libraries. The attached (if it comes through) document provides the appropriation legislation wording and some other background information.
If you are aware of a commercial solution or are a provider of a commercial solution, please contact Dr. Gladney (see below). If you are aware of a large-scale project planned or undertaken undertaken by a corporation for archiving their own assets, please contact Dr. Gladney.
This project will benefit us all as it will provide advancement for a unified framework to all of us under which we will be able to archive our own projects.
Please respond to Dr. Gladney by close of business June 8th and please feel free to pass this on.
Thank you very much.
Richard L. Hess Principal Consultant National TeleConsultants Glendale, CA Personal: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.richardhess.com
==============original message====================
On behalf of an advisory committee convened by the Library of Congress, I am writing to ask for your help. Deanna Marcum, president of the Council on Information and Library Resources and a member of the advisory committee, has asked for a quick survey of technology and projects that would inform the Library in establishing a preservation program for "born digital" content.
In case your associates are not aware of the project that stimulates this inquiry, I am attaching an article from the New York Times and a summary of the Congressional appropriation statement. For a comprehensive view of the underlying challenge, I recommend LC 21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress, published by the National Academy Press about a year ago.
Among the questions identified in the report is what relationships should exist between the Library's digital initiative and similar activities in other institutions. In setting priorities for the digital preservation program, I expect that the advisory committee will seek outside views about this and will be particularly interested in comments from organizations that have considered their own versions of that question.
The committee is well informed about related activities in the federal government and universities. However, it is missing insight into the commercial and industrial sectors. The scope of the eventual archive is all kinds of "born digital" materials: books, papers, images, audio, and video. I believe that the Library's biggest challenge will be the immense amount of content available. The advisory committee will grapple with an initial selection policy, but collection policy is likely to be a perpetual question.
To help the advisory committee achieve a quick start, I would be grateful for your help in identifying a few people who could lead us to understand in broad terms what is going on and what pools of expertise might be consulted. Please contact me at the address below.
Regards, Henry
Henry Gladney (408)867-5454 20044 Glen Brae Drive, Saratoga CA 95070 http://home.pacbell.net/hgladney/
P.S. Please feel free to forward this request.