News
Short-Term Memory and Web Usability (from OCLC)
Added on 7 December 2009
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, December 7, 2009
SUMMARY: "Designing for cavemen." That's how Nielsen describes his approach toward Web design that takes into account human limitations in short-term memory (for instance, the average human brain can hold only seven chunks of information at a time and these fade from memory within 20 seconds). Check out the article for some suggestions on how to create menus that are manageable (too short is almost as bad as too long) and create a common sense Web navigation strategy that makes the most of those precious 20 seconds.
News from our partners
Added on 1 October 2009
The DPC is not responsible for the content of remote websites. If you are a DPC member and would like to syndicate content to this page please contact us.
English Heritage
Added on 29 September 2009
We are delighted to announce that English Heritage has become the latest organisation to join the Digital Preservation Coalition as an associate member.
English Heritage is the lead body for the conservation of England’s historic environment. The research and documentation which EH carries out and which it funds in the wider sector to support this remit is increasingly created and disseminated in digital formats, sometimes using techniques which are at the cutting edge of new technologies. It is crucial that this work remains accessible to future generations so that it can continue to inform understanding and management of the historic environment.
Mike Evans, Head of Archives for the English Heritage National Monuments Record, explained, 'Over 18.5 Tb of data is held by the National Monuments Record and very large volumes of data collected or funded by EH are held on local servers or curated by third parties.
'In an era in which the study and the management of the past around us depends more and more on digital tools and communication, we believe that the work of the Coalition and its members can help EH make a real contribution to safeguarding the collective memory of the historic environment sector
'We're very pleased to be joining the Digital Preservation Coalition.'
Bruno Longmore, Acting Chair of the DPC and Head of Government for the National Archives of Scotland, welcomed English Heritage to the coalition.
'Our members represent very diverse agencies, in public and professional practice. This is not surprising: the challenge of long term and reliable access to data is one that many organisations face. By joining, English Heritage have not only got access to the resources and support of the coalition to help face that challenge, but they have also clearly signalled that they are serious about working to resolve this challenge.'
English Heritage Joins DPC
Added on 29 September 2009
We are delighted to announce that English Heritage has become the latest organisation to join the Digital Preservation Coalition as an associate member.
Mind the Gap
Added on 1 June 2008
Report reveals major gaps in long term management of valuable digital assets
15th February 2006
A 'state of the nation' report today reveals that less than 20% of UK organisations surveyed have a strategy in place to deal with the risk of loss or degradation to their digital resources - despite a very high level of awareness of the risks and potential economic penalties.
With the release today of the report, Mind the gap: assessing digital preservation needs in the UK, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) aims to help government, public institutions and private companies turn high awareness into concerted action.
ICPSR become DPC Ally
Added on 30 April 2008
The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
It gives me great pleasure to announce that The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) has become an allied organisation of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC).
The ICPSR (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ICPSR/) is, like the DPC a membership organisation. It encourages and facilitates research and instruction in the social sciences and related areas by acquiring, developing, archiving, and disseminating data and documentation relevant to a wide spectrum of disciplines, and by conducting related instructional programs.
Chris Rusbridge, a Digital Preservation Coalition Board Director, said:
PDF should be used to preserve information for the future
Added on 1 April 2008
Good news the already popular PDF file format adopted by consumers and business alike is one of the most logical formats to preserve today's electronic information for tomorrow.
According to the latest report released today by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), Portable Document Formats (PDF) is one of the best file formats to preserve electronic documents and ensure their survival for the future. This announcement will allow information officers to follow a standardised approach for preserving electronic documents.
Information management and long-term preservation are major issues facing consumers and businesses in the 21st Century. This report is one of a series where The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) aims to think about and address the challenges facing us.
JPEG 2000 a great step forward for the archival community
Added on 1 February 2008
The Digital Preservation Coalition has examined JPEG 2000 in a report published today. The report concludes that JPEG 2000 represents a great stride forward for the archival community. The format now allows for greater compression rates and a recompression rate that is visually lossless.
The findings come as the Digital Preservation Coalition launch its latest 'Technology Watch Report' written by Dr. Robert Buckley, a Research Fellow with Xerox, 'JPEG 2000 - a practical digital preservation standard?'. The report looks in-depth at the new format and the challenges it has to cope with. JPEG 2000 is widely used to collect and distribute a variety of images from geospatial, medical imaging, digital cinema, and image repositories to networked images. Interest in JPEG 2000 is now growing in the archival and library sectors, as institutions look for more efficient formats to store the results of major digitisation programmes.
Library of Congress and DPC sign agreement
Added on 23 June 2004
DPC signs Memorandum of Unverstanding with the The Library of Congress
The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program of the Library of Congress (NDIIPP) was established after Congress gave approval to the Library of Congress to develop the program in December 2000. In January 2004, Congress approved the Library of Congress's plan for NDIIPP, which will enable the Library of Congress to launch the first phase of building a national infrastructure for the collection and long-term preservation of digital content. Funds released will allow testing various technical models for capturing and preserving content.