Digital Conversion and Media Reformatting: Management and Production of Digital Collections

The Digital Conversion and Media Reformatting plan was written in 2012 and revised 2013-2014, as a five-year plan for the newly established department at the University of Maryland Libraries under the Digital Systems and Stewardship Division. The plan focuses on increasing digitization production, both in-house and through vendors, and creates a model for the management of this production.

An ontology for risk management of digital collections

Maintaining accessibility to and understanding of digital information over time is a complex challenge that often requires contributions and interventions from a variety of individuals and organizations. The processes of preservation planning and evaluation are fundamentally implicit and share similar complexity. Both demand comprehensive knowledge and understanding of every aspect of to-be-preserved content and the contexts within which preservation is undertaken. Consequently, means are required for the identification, documentation and association of those properties of data, representation and management mechanisms that in combination lend value, facilitate interaction and influence the preservation process. These properties may be almost limitless in terms of diversity, but are integral to the establishment of classes of risk exposure, and the planning and deployment of appropriate preservation strategies. We explore several research objectives within the course of this thesis. Our main objective is the conception of an ontology for risk management of digital collections. Incorporated within this are our aims to survey the contexts within which preservation has been undertaken successfully, the development of an appropriate methodology for risk management, the evaluation of existing preservation evaluation approaches and metrics, the structuring of best practice knowledge and lastly the demonstration of a range of tools that utilise our findings. We describe a mixed methodology that uses interview and survey, extensive content analysis, practical case study and iterative software and ontology development. We build on a robust foundation, the development of the Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment. We summarise the extent of the challenge facing the digital preservation community (and by extension users and creators of digital materials from many disciplines and operational contexts) and present the case for a comprehensive and extensible knowledge base of best practice. These challenges are manifested in the scale of data growth, the increasing complexity and the increasing onus on communities with no formal training to offer assurances of data management and sustainability. These collectively imply a challenge that demands an intuitive and adaptable means of evaluating digital preservation efforts. The need for individuals and organisations to validate the legitimacy of their own efforts is particularly prioritised. We introduce our approach, based on risk management. Risk is an expression of the likelihood of a negative outcome, and an expression of the impact of such an occurrence. We describe how risk management may be considered synonymous with preservation activity, a persistent effort to negate the dangers posed to information availability, usability and sustainability. Risk can be characterised according to associated goals, activities, responsibilities and policies in terms of both their manifestation and mitigation. They have the capacity to be deconstructed into their atomic units and responsibility for their resolution delegated appropriately. We continue to describe how the manifestation of risks typically spans an entire organisational environment, and as the focus of our analysis risk safeguards against omissions that may occur when pursuing functional, departmental or role-based assessment. We discuss the importance of relating risk-factors, through the risks themselves or associated system elements. To do so will yield the preservation best-practice knowledge base that is conspicuously lacking within the international digital preservation community. We present as research outcomes an encapsulation of preservation practice (and explicitly defined best practice) as a series of case studies, in turn distilled into atomic, related information elements. We conduct our analyses in the formal evaluation of memory institutions in the UK, US and continental Europe. Furthermore we showcase a series of applications that use the fruits of this research as their intellectual foundation. Finally we document our results in a range of technical reports and conference and journal articles. We present evidence of preservation approaches and infrastructures from a series of case studies conducted in a range of international preservation environments. We then aggregate this into a linked data structure entitled PORRO, an ontology relating preservation repository, object and risk characteristics, intended to support preservation decision making and evaluation. The methodology leading to this ontology is outlined, and lessons are exposed by revisiting legacy studies and exposing the resource and associated applications to evaluation by the digital preservation community.

Bibliotecas digitais em Arquitetura e urbanismo: um estudo sobre a arquitetura da informação digital

The goal of this paper was to search the state of the art from the Digital Libraries in Architecture and Urbanism in the Higher Education Institutions (IES) through conceptualizations and showing the importance of Digital Libraries in the disclosure and easing of information transferring. Questions about digital information architecture, usability, digital preservation and accessibility were approached. The research was made in the websites of Brazilian Universities, firstly to identify the institutions which offered the Architecture and Urbanism course, focusing on postgraduate education. After identifying the offering, the research was done by analyzing the contents, storage and dissemination and access to information, these libraries. It was found that the digital libraries are increasingly and taking part of organizations and educational institutions focusing on the knowledge dissemination releasing digitally information that may be needed for institution or the individual. A monitoring was done over of the physical and computational restructuring of the Board of Studies and Research in Architecture and Urbanism (Câmara de Estudos e Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Urbanismo, CEPAU), from the Architecture and Urbanism Course of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), showing the need of installing a Digital Library to integrate the databases of PPGAU s research groups, which today remain independent, with no interface among themselves. The research chosen area was Architecture and Urbanism, because there is a gap and little documentation about digital libraries in this area

Phisiodata: desenvolvimento da evidência científica da fisioterapia em Portugal

Mestrado em Fisioterapia

Preserving Electronic Theses through the MetaArchive network

In the recent years most libraries have focused on mass digitization programs and keeping electronic born documents, showing and organizing them in a repository. While those repositories have evolved to a much more manageable systems focusing on the user expectations and introducing web 2.0 tools, digital preservation is still in the to-do list of most of them. There is quite a lot of studies focused on preservation and some complex models exist, unfortunately, very few practical systems are running and its quite difficult for a library to get involved in a solution already tested by others. The CBUC (Consortium of University Catalan Libraries) runs TDX, an ETD repository now keeping more than 10.000 full text thesis from any of the 12 university members. After 10 years running TDX a solid preservation system was needed to ensure every thesis would be kept as it was regardless what happens to the repository. The perfect solution was found in the MetaArchive cooperative, this is the effort of many insitutions to keep a copy of each other content through a newtwork using the LOCKSS software as a mechanism to keep track of any change. The presentation will shortly introduce what TDX and MetaArchive is but will, in a practical way, show how the LOCKSS network for presrervation works. Finally a summary of the benefits of the overall experience will be shown.

Digitalització dels llibres de les biblioteques

Es descriuen els diversos projectes d¿abast global que darrerament s'han presentat per digitalitzar de forma massiva els llibres de les biblioteques. S'analitzen els objectius d'aquest tipus de projectes i els aspectes tecnològics i d'organització que comporten. Finalment, es comenten les implicacions que aquests nous serveis poden tenir pels que ja proporcionen les biblioteques i en la funció social d'aquests centres.

El patrimoni bibliogrà fic i la política de digitalització a Catalunya

L'article fa un repàs a les polítiques aplicades a Catalunya de digitalització del patrimoni bibliogràfic per part de les biblioteques i també de les polítiques de preservació digital. Es constata que les actuacions en digitalització no s¿estan fent seguint una planificació o uns objectius àmpliament acceptats, sinó sobre la base de projectes de curt abast i fragmentaris. També s'observa una gran dependència de les biblioteques dels recursos tècnics externs, que es poden obtenir per externalització dels processos o per l'establiment de convenis de col·laboració. En el camp de la preservació digital no s'han iniciat actuacions malgrat que els dipòsits digitals estan creixent en volum de documents emmagatzemats.

Formats per a la digitalització de documents

Es descriuen els principals conceptes que s'han de tenir en compte a l'hora d'utilitzar els fitxers gràfics en activitats de digitalització retrospectiva de documents impresos. A partir de la bibliografia internacional s'exposa quins són els principals problemes que el procés de captació de les imatges pot generar, com utilitzar els formats de gràfics digitals i com mantenir un control de qualitat del procés. Com a apèndix s'adjunten els estàndards que diverses institucions reconegudes estan aplicant en les seves experiències de digitalització.

Gestión, uso y preservación de contenidos digitales: las necesidades técnicas frente a los derechos de propiedad intelectual

Los contenidos digitales se han convertido en una parte fundamental de la oferta que proveen las bibliotecas. En el caso de las bibliotecas públicas los libros, revistas y periódicos en papel aún suponen el porcentaje predominante de su oferta, sobretodo si nos fijamos en su presencia física en los espacios bibliotecarios. La situación ya es bien distinta en otros tipos de bibliotecas y sistemas afines, como las bibliotecas universitarias, las especializadas en centros de investigación y los centros de documentación de las empresas; en estos casos los contenidos digitales ya son predominantes, con una clara tendencia a corto plazo a convertirse en los únicos que se van a usar para obtener información rápida y fiable. Una difusión aún más amplia de los contenidos digitales y un mejor uso de los mismos depende de condicionantes varios, como los sistemas de comercialización (entre los que destacan los modelos de precios), las prestaciones de usabilidad y accesibilidad, la aceptación por los usuarios dentro de sus hábitos de trabajo y entretenimiento, y la resolución de problemas técnicos desde su creación hasta su operativa. Por mi parte voy a centrarme en una parte concreta de estos problemas técnicos: la que se relaciona la propiedad intelectual de los contenidos y su gestión y uso presentes y su preservación futura.

Modelo de indicadores para evaluar los formatos digitales para la preservación de video

La preservación de los fondos audiovisuales en soporte analógico está amenazada por la degradación de las cintas magnéticas. La revisión de la literatura científica indica que este proceso de degradación no se puede evitar y que su solución pasa por la migración de los contenidos audiovisuales a soportes digitales. La complejidad técnica de los formatos de vídeo digital y la no existencia de formatos claros con finalidades de preservación hacen que sea difícil la elección del formato al cual migrar. Ante este panorama se propone la utilización de un modelo de indicadores que sirva para valorar las características de los formatos de vídeo digital de cara a su uso en la preservación de los fondos audiovisuales Abstract: The preservation of audiovisual content recorded on analogical media is threatened by the physical degradation of magnetic tape over time. A review of the literature shows that this degradation cannot be avoided and that the only solution consists of migrating audiovisual content to digital media. Choosing a digital format for this migration is difficult due to the technical complexity of video formats and to the lack of a specific format aimed at preservation. In this context, the article suggests the use of a model of indicators to evaluate the features of existing digital video formats for their potential use in audiovisual content preservation

Aspectos técnicos de la digitalización de fondos audiovisuales

El patrimonio audiovisual de archivos, bibliotecas y museos se encuentra en peligro debido al deterioro de las grabaciones en soportes magnéticos. Se presentan las alteraciones que pueden sufrir las cintas de vídeo, así como las dificultades que representa la obsolescencia de los aparatos necesarios para su lectura. Se considera que la mejor vía de preservación de las cintas de vídeo es su digitalización. Este paso no es fácil dada la complejidad de los formatos de archivos de vídeo digital, incluyendo los contenedores multimedia y los estándares de compresión de vídeo y de audio. Por ello la elección técnica tiene que estar estrechamente ligada a las necesidades de cada servicio. Esta aproximación se ilustra con el caso de los fondos videográficos de las televisiones locales.

Jornada Life2: British Library, 23 junio 2008

El pasado 23 de junio se celebró en Londres una jornada dedicada a los resultados del proyecto LIFE (Life Cycle Information for E-Literature) <www.life.ac.uk>, centrado en los costes de la preservación digital. Este proyecto, financiado por JISC y llevado a cabo conjuntamente por la British Library (BL) y la University College London (UCL) se ha realizado en 2 fases: en la primera (2005-2006), se elaboró una metodología basada en ciclos vitales (life cycles) para calcular el coste de la preservación de recursos digitales durante 5, 10 y 100 años. Para ello, se identificaron seis procedimientos (o «etapas») considerados básicos para la gestión de material digital y luego se asignaron a cada uno los principales factores de coste. El modelo resultante se aplicó a varias colecciones de la BL y la UCL. ...

Creación de unidades de análisis forense en bibliotecas

Las técnicas de análisis forense digital, de aplicación en investigación criminal, también se pueden usar en las bibliotecas para acceder a información digital almacenada en soportes o formatos obsoletos. Se analizan distintos ejemplos de departamentos de análisis forense creados por bibliotecas y se describen los elementos de hardware y software mínimos con los que se podría montar una unidad de análisis forense en cualquier biblioteca. Con este fin se presentan dos posibles configuraciones de equipamiento y se dan recomendaciones sobre organización del flujo de trabajo para la recuperación de antiguos discos duros y disquetes. Forensic analysis techniques, usually applied in criminal research, could also be used in libraries to access digital information stored in obsolete formats or storage devices. This article analyses some examples of forensic research departments created by libraries, and describes the minimal hardware and software elements required to set up a library unit specialized in forensic analysis. Two possible equipment settings are introduced and recommendations are given on how to organize a workflow to recover information stored in floppy disks, diskettes and old hard drives.

Large Scale Repository Auditing to ISO 16363

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014