The DPC is delighted to announce that the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN, has joined the Coalition as a Full Member this month.
CERN has three main digital preservation interests: Scientific Data from CERN’s accelerators, notably the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where the data volume at the end of LHC Run2 (end 2018) is over 300PB; Scientific publications, papers and articles; and CERN’s “digital memory”, including meeting minutes, photographs, video recordings and scanned legacy material.
Experiments at CERN may last for several decades and the data from them has been acquired at considerable cost. The data continue to be analysed for long periods after data gathering is complete, so the total useful lifecycle of an active dataset may well exceed the duration of an entire career.
“CERN is actively involved in preserving not only its multi-hundred PB of scientific data but also publications, papers, documentation, minutes of meetings, videos and photographs,” explains Jamie Shiers, Data Preservation in High Energy Physics (DPHEP) Project Manager.
“These include challenges that face many organisations and the DPC offers an excellent forum whereby we can share ideas, potential solutions and profit from the experience and knowledge of others. A classical “win-win” situation.”
Chair of the DPC Board and Head of Data Division for UKRI, Juan Bicarregui was delighted to welcome CERN to the Coalition saying
“As one of the world's largest and most respected centers for scientific research, CERN has an incredible challenge to manage truly colossal volumes of digital data. It is this data, however, which advances the boundaries of human knowledge, so it is critical that it is preserved.
We look forward to working together to address the particular challenges associated with data of this kind, and hope that by becoming involved in CERN’s own activities we will be able to advance our own understanding of digital preservation practice.”
The not-for-profit DPC is an advocate for digital preservation and helps members to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services through community engagement, targeted advocacy work, training and workforce development, capacity building, good practice and standards, and through good management and governance. Its primary objective is raising awareness of the importance of the preservation of digital material and the attendant strategic, cultural and technological issues.
Click for more information about:
- Data Preservation at CERN: https://hep-project-dphep-portal.web.cern.ch/
- How to Join the DPC: https://dpconline.org/about/join-us