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From: Hilde van Wijngaarden
[mailto:Hilde.vanWijngaarden@xxxxx] CALL FOR
PAPERS Two sessions on digital preservation: Session 1: Digital objects on physical carriers Session 2: Preservation infrastructures Jointly organised by: IFLA Section on Preservation and
Conservation, IFLA CDNL Alliance on Bibliographic Standards (ICABS), IFLA
Information Technology Section, IFLA Core Activity on Preservation and
Conservation (PAC) and IFLA Law Libraries Section 74th World Library and Information
Congress, Quebec City, Canada, 10 -14 August 2008 Session 1 DIGITAL OBJECTS ON
PHYSICAL CARRIERS Digital preservation R&D
had focused mainly on webarchiving, archiving of online journals and how to set
up preservation systems and workflows. A very practical issue, preservation of
digital objects on physical carriers (floppies, cd-roms, etc.) has received
less attention. This is changing however. A number of institutions are
currently carrying out risk assessments of their physical digital material and
tests are being performed on how to preserve this material. Digital objects on physical
carriers, also referred to as physical format digital publications, are digital
publications, datasets or programmes stored on floppy-disks, cd-roms, dvd’s or
any other kind of medium. Nowadays, many publications are released on dvd, but
libraries also hold collections with older material still on floppy-disks and
cd-roms. To preserve these objects, they have to be transferred to archiving
systems and strategies have to be set-up to ensure their future accessibility. Some specific issues have to
be addressed when preserving of physical format material. These issues include
the following: -
How to transfer
the objects from the carrier to the archiving system? o Install everything manually, develop a robot… -
In case of old
objects: do we still have the hard- and software to read the floppy-disk? And
how do we give access to this old material in the future? -
Security: many
floppies and cd-roms have read/write restrictions that interfere with the
preservation process. -
Future
accessibility of cd-roms/dvd’s: many digital publications that are released on
dvd, are very complex objects, containing all sorts of embedded files,
audiovisual material etc. To keep this kind of material accessible is a major
challenge. -
When objects are
transferred to other carriers: how can we do this in the most durable way? -
How can a risk
assessment be performed that helps us to prioritise our actions? We invite papers that address
the challenges as mentioned above. All types of digital material
that are held on physical carriers can be the focus of a paper – irrespective
of the type of content : multimedia applications, e-publications
(e-journals, e-books), audiovisual materials, old tapes and floppy-disks, ‘new’
dvd’s, etc. We especially call for papers
that offer practical solutions. One of the aims of this session is to offer
guidance to ‘smaller’ libraries that want to preserve digital objects on
physical carries but don’t have the possibility to set up full-fletched digital
preservation systems and workflows. Session 2 PRESERVATION
INFRASTRUCTURES During the past
decade, the growing awareness of the need to preserve our digital publications,
has led to a better understanding of activities that a library should set up to
implement a digital preservation workflow. We realise now that implementing a
system is not enough: there are a number of organisational issues that have to
be addressed apart from the technical ones. Currently,
libraries are setting up repository systems in different ways: buying something
off-the-shelve (not really an option yet), building something themselves,
joining others to build open-source solutions, etc. There are different
technical and organisational models that describe how this can be set up. But with
implementing the archiving system, digital preservation has just begun. The
library then needs different and innovative tools to address several challenges
in the digital workflow, either for characterising the digital objects, or to
ensure future accessibility. The number of
steps involved, and the complexity of this new workflow that is required, means
that any institution that is responsible for the long-term maintenance of
digital collections, needs new preservation tools and services as well as a
(trusted) digital repository. This is not a task that can be performed by one
single institution alone: libraries have to set up new ways to collaborate to
address this new challenge. In general, we now see different models emerging:
We call for papers
that give examples of preservation infrastructures in any of these four models.
Submitted papers can describe developments within a specific library, national project or international project.
Together, the papers should present possible directions and practical
experiences in collaboration and joint infrastructures for digital
preservation. SUBMISSIONS
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