I bought a new computer this summer. I immediately copied all of my digital files from my old computer to my new one and to an external hard drive. Now I had three copies of my digital content on three different devices. Because if something happens to one of those media, I’ve got two others …
A question popped up in the blogosphere recently. “Where is our Atlas of Digital Damages?” asked Barbara Sierman of the National Library of the Netherlands. She pointed out the amazement that would greet evidence of physical books, safely stored, with spontaneous and glaring changes in their content or appearance. “Panic would be huge if this …
As digital preservation and stewardship professionals, we approach digital objects from a unique perspective. We evaluate the long-term value of any particular digital object and work to develop a technical and social infrastructure that will enable us to successfully preserve the objects over time. Preserving and providing appropriate access are our primary functions, but no …
I had the distinct pleasure of hearing about the on-going development of the free and open-source Archivematica digital preservation system twice this year. First, from Peter Van Garderen at the CurateGear conference and second from Courtney Mumma at a recent briefing on the project for staff at The Library of Congress. Peter and Courtney both …
The following is a guest post by Ali Fazal and Claudia Martinez, both HACU interns with the Library’s Office of Strategic Initiatives. The National Digital Stewardship Residency program held a meeting with potential host institutions on Friday, September 21st. This program, which was created by the Library of Congress, Office of Strategic Initiatives, and the Institute …
The following is a guest post by Jefferson Bailey, Strategic Initiatives Manager at Metropolitan New York Library Council, National Digital Stewardship Alliance Innovation Working Group co-chair and a former Fellow in the Library of Congress’s Office of Strategic Initiatives. As a recent blog post recounted, each year at the National Book Festival NDIIPP has a …
In what we hope will become a regular feature here on The Signal I am excited to have a chance to chat with Lori Emerson, a representative from the newest member of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance. Lori is the Director of the Media Archaeology Lab and an Assistant Professor in the Department of English …
The shortlist for this year’s Digital Preservation Awards has just been announced during a celebration in London marking the 10th anniversary of the Digital Preservation Coalition. And we are pleased to see that our blog, The Signal, has made the list! The DPC , an advocacy organization in the United Kingdom, sponsors these awards to recognize …
I’m obsessed with maps, especially digital maps. I’m continually amazed by the tools being developed to use location data to make our lives easier. Luckily, this interest dovetails with NDIIPP’s concerns about ensuring that digital mapping survives for the long-term, so I’m regularly scanning the landscape to figure out ways we can engage the wider …
The Library of Congress hosts a small annual meeting on preservation storage that brings vendors and the preservation community together to share points of view. The 2012 Designing Storage Architectures meeting was held on September 20-21, and as usual it was enlightening–and exciting. Two forms of large-scale storage have the largest amount of market share: …