News

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to announce the release of ‘Digital Forensics and Preservation’ by Jeremy Leighton John of the British Library – the latest in its popular Technology Watch Report series.

‘Digital forensics is associated in many people’s minds primarily with criminal investigations’, explained the author, ‘but forensic methods have emerged as an essential source of tools and approaches for digital preservation, specifically for protecting and investigating evidence from the past.’ 

The Digital Preservation Coalition is today publishing the latest in its popular Technology Watch Reports ‘Intellectual Property Rights for Digital Preservation’ by Andrew Charlesworth of the University of Bristol.

Legal issues, in particular the process of obtaining copyright clearance for preservation and access of archived material, can contribute significantly to the cost and complexity of digital preservation. It is an area where the wider preservation community often needs to make its case with government and other legislators.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) marks its landmark tenth year anniversary of its establishment at a reception at the Palace of Westminster today.

At this event, DPC Chairman Richard Ovenden and Lord MacNally, Minister of State for Justice, will celebrate the achievements of the Digital Preservation Coalition over the past ten years, but will also highlight the continuing risk to government, business, educational and cultural organisations and by society at large in failing to address the preservation of digital information. In his speech, Richard Ovenden points to major improvements that have been made in the past ten years but highlights recent studies which show how major data losses continue to be suffered:

The schedule and outline for a new DPC Technology Watch Report on Web Archiving is now available for consultation by members.  The full report is due for publication at the start of 2013. To see the outline, you first need to login or register, then download the outline.

The Digital Preservation Coalition and Charles Beagrie Limited are delighted to announce the continuation of their collaboration, producing 3 more Technology Watch Reports.

 ‘5 Technology Watch Reports have already been produced – or are in production – and have been enthusiastically received by our members’, said William Kilbride of the DPC.  The next three will ensure that the production process continues through 2013 with themes and topics proposed and refined by DPC members to help them with digital preservation.’

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the University of Manchester Library as its newest member.

'The University of Manchester Library has a strong interest in digital preservation at both a strategic and operational level,' explained Sandra Bracegirdle. 'We have recently carried out a significant review of our digital preservation work as we see this as a key issue for the Library. '

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome Royal Museums Greenwich as its newest member.

Richard Ferguson, Documentation Manager, Royal Museums Greenwich said 'Having the opportunity to join a community of practice which has a focus on addressing and developing greater understanding of the challenges of digital preservation is most timely.'

The DPC, Richard Wright and Charles Beagrie Ltd are delighted to announce the release of the latest DPC Technology Watch Report ‘Preserving Moving Pictures and Sound’, written by Richard Wright, formerly of the BBC.

‘Moving image and sound content is at great risk’, explained Richard Wright.  ‘Surveys have shown that 74 per cent of professional collections are small: 5,000 hours or less. Such collections have a huge challenge if their holdings are to be preserved. About 85 per cent of sound and moving image content is still analogue, and in 2005 almost 100 per cent was still on shelves rather than being in files on mass storage. Surveys have also shown that in universities there is a major problem of material that is scattered, unidentified, undocumented and not under any form of preservation plan. These collection surveys are from Europe and North America because there is no survey of the situation in the UK, in itself a cause for concern.’