News

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is pleased to announce its members’ preview of the latest in its series of Technology Watch Reports, ‘Preservation, Trust and Continuing Access for e-Journals’. Written by Neil Beagrie, and published in association with Charles Beagrie Ltd., this report discusses the critical issues of preservation, trust and continuing access for e-journals, particularly in light of the dynamic and interdependent resources they have become, as well as the ever-growing trend towards open-access.

With extensive experience in this field and a particular reputation for his policy advice on e-journals and the cost/benefits of digital preservation for Jisc and others, Neil tells us that these “issues have become increasingly important for research libraries as published journals and articles have shifted from print to electronic formats; and as traditional publishing business models and relationships have undergone major transformations as a result of that shift.”

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is delighted to introduce the latest in its series of topical Technology Watch Reports, Preserving Computer-Aided Design (CAD). Written by Alex Ball, and published electronically, this report provides a comprehensive overview of the development of CAD technologies, the threat caused by its own innovative application and its vendors’ drive to add ever more features which can render valuable and strategically vital information unusable.

A specialist in digital curation at the Digital Curation Centre and UKOLN at the University of Bath, Alex writes ‘CAD is an area of constant innovation…, resulting in CAD systems that are ephemeral and largely incompatible with each other.’ The report examines the key standards, techniques and technologies developed in an attempt to slow the seemingly inevitable obsolescence associated with native CAD formats.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) releases its latest in the series of topical Technology Watch Reports today. The second edition of ‘Preservation Metadata,’ written by Brian Lavoie and Richard Gartner, focuses on new developments in preservation metadata, since the last report, made possible by the emergence of PREMIS as a de facto international standard.

Specialists in the field of electronic information provision for digital preservation at OCLC Research and the Centre for e-Research at Kings College London, Brian and Richard pick up from the first edition of the report, reminding us ‘it is no exaggeration to assert that preservation metadata, and the PREMIS Data Dictionary in particular, have become part of best practice underpinning responsible long-term stewardship of digital materials.’

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is delighted to offer its members a preview of the latest in its series of DPC Technology Watch Reports, the Second Edition of ‘Preservation Metadata.’ Written by Brian Lavoie and Richard Gartner, and published in association with Charles Beagrie Ltd., this report focuses on new developments in preservation metadata since the last report, made possible by the emergence of PREMIS as a de facto international standard.

Specialists in the field of electronic information provision for digital preservation at OCLC Research and the Centre for E-Research at Kings College London, Brian and Richard pick up from the first edition of the report, telling us that ‘it is no exaggeration to assert that preservation metadata, and the PREMIS Data Dictionary in particular, have become part of best practice underpinning responsible long-term stewardship of digital materials.’  

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is delighted to offer its members a preview of the latest in its series of topical DPC Technology Watch Reports, Preserving Computer-Aided Design (CAD). Written by Alex Ball, and published in association with Jisc’s Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and Charles Beagrie Ltd, this report provides a comprehensive overview of the development of CAD, the threat caused by its own innovative application and its vendors’ race to continuously upgrade; often leaving users with inaccessible versions and models.

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to offer members a preview of our latest Technology Watch Report ‘Web Archiving'.

'The World Wide Web is a unique information resource of massive scale, explains Maureen Pennock the report's author, 'yet the lasting legacy of the web is at risk, threatened in part by the very speed at which it has become a success. Content is lost at an alarming rate, risking not just our digital cultural memory but also issues of organizational accountability.  In recognition of this threat, organizations have invested heavily in developing and implementing a range of web archiving solutions.' 

The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to welcome the Information Services of the University of Edinburgh at the as its newest member.

"The University of Edinburgh is a blend of an historic institution that has significant collections of diverse materials and a high-performing research intensive university'' explained John Scally, director of Library and Collections .  "These present us with a changing array of digital preservation requirements - from the digitisation of physical collections to the influx of new digital data in volumes previously not seen, often with unknown preservation expectations. We have recently included digital preservation as a significant strategic theme in our forward plans and are joining the DPC to assist us in the framing of a plan to address this important area."