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Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter

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Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter July • 2009 Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter NDIIPP Meeting Draws provided details about projects to retrieve web con- tent that is inaccessible through referenced hyper- Record Crowd links; using cloud computing for digital preserva- The Library of Congress annual National Digi- tion; and current U.S. copyright policies. tal Information Infrastructure and Preservation Pro- Social media covered the meeting in some detail. gram meeting drew over 150 people from 20 states The blog L’Archivista summarized all three days to share results from digital stewardship projects. of the meeting, and there were a number of Twitter This was the largest number of attendees yet, and in- tweets sent during the meeting. dicates success in building a fledgling national net- work of digital preservation partners. Read more about the other talks during the meet- ing at digitalpreservation.gov. Slides and notes from all meeting sessions are available from the events section of the NDIIPP website. • Digital Preservation Pioneer: Jerry Handfield Washington State Archi- vist Jerry Handfield traces his work on the innovative Wash- ington State Digital Archives NDIIPP 2009 Meeting Attendees. Credit: Barry Wheeler back to a history project he Laura Campbell, Associate Librarian for Strate- did in high school in Norwich, gic Initiatives, opened the meeting with words of ap- Connecticut. Handfield had preciation. “The energy and momentum you have to virtually “move” an 1830s- created is very impressive,” she said. “NDIIPP is era family from the East cross Washington State’s Top country to the Oregon terri- recognized around the world as a model for national Archivist Jerry Handfield. approaches to digital preservation, and a big reason tories, drawing upon historical for this is the enthusiasm and quality of the network people and events. As his research took him through members—all of you.” memoirs, biographies, newspapers and public re- cords, he became more absorbed in the work than Clay Shirky provided the meeting keynote. He expected. He relished solving mysteries, and discov- discussed the social nature of digital preservation is- ered a dedication to and a knack for historical re- sues, including the distributed publishing model of search. He felt the vitality of history and sensed that the internet and what he the lines connecting the past and present are taut and described as “filter fail- humming with relevance. His career course was set. ure.” Metadata is the key, but everyone is in- Prior to his tenure as Washington State Archi- volved in assigning de- vist, Handfield taught history at Indiana University scriptors, not just librar- and Purdue University at Indianapolis and worked ians and archivists at the Indiana State Library. From 1987 until 2001, he served as the Indiana State Archivist and headed The meeting featured the Commission on Public Records as a gubernato- 12 breakout sessions fo- rial appointee. During this time he became a fervent cusing on metadata, col- advocate for electronic records. laboration agreements, preserving dynamic con- Read more about Handfield’s work and experi- tent, web archiving and Author and media theorist Clay ences at digitalpreservation.gov. • other topics. Other talks Shirky. Credit: Barry Wheeler www.digitalpreservation.gov 1 July • 2009 NDIIPP Digital Preservation Web Preservationists Meet Video Series On May 4-7, 2009, 60 participants from 20 coun- The National Digital Information Infrastructure tries gathered at the Library and Archives Canada in and Preservation Program has released a new video: Ottawa for the annual International Internet Preserva- Bagit: Transferring Content for Digital Preservation. tion Consortium General Assembly. The meeting fo- Just over three minutes cused on activities of the three IIPC working groups: long, the video is aimed at the Access Working Group; the Harvesting Working librarians, archivists, and Group; and the Preservation Working Group. others interested in work- In addition to working group meetings, the Cana- ing with digital content. dian Association of Research Libraries helped spon- The Bagit production is sor an open session with panelists from the Library the first in a planned series Screenshot from the Video. of Congress, Internet Archive and Netarchive talking of videos that will address about preserving Internet content for future genera- specific digital preservation issues. Currently, the tions. library has a number of online video presentations featuring NDIIPP partners discussing their projects at digitalpreservation.gov. • Digital Preservation in the Round The 2009 annual Special Libraries Association IIPC General Assembly Members. Credit: David Knox conference, held in Washington, D.C. in mid-June, featured a session entitled “Digital Preservation: Read more about the meeting at digitalpreserva- Discovery in the Round.” tion.gov. • Session attendees—seated on all four sides of the speakers for the in-the-round effect—had many Upcoming Events questions. Issues raised included preserving com- • The Call for Proposals for Best Practices Ex- puter-assisted design data, securing institutional sup- change 2009 is open until August 5, 2009, and port for preservation activities and appraising scien- registration is open until August 25, 2009. The 4th tific databases. Web archiving was a topic of special annual conference will be held at the University at interest, with several participants inquiring about ex- Albany, State University of New York on Septem- isting practices, tools and services. ber 2-4, 2009. Read more about the meeting at digitalpreserva- • iPRES 2009, sponsored by the California Digi- tion.gov. • tal Library, will be held October 5-6, 2009 in San MetaNews Francisco. • Battling Link Rot. Following a two-year pilot • On October 7, 2009, the IIPC will sponsor a free, project evaluating its digital preservation efforts, one-day event, “Active Solutions for Preserving the Chesapeake Project Legal Information Ar- Internet Content,” at the California Mission Bay chive has released a report illustrating the severity Conference Center in San Francisco, California. of link rot. This event immediately follows iPRES 2009. • WARC File Format Published as an International Standard. The WARC file format is now approved To subscribe to this newsletter, go to https:// as an international standard: ISO 28500:2009. service.govdelivery.com/service/multi_subscribe. html?code=USLOC&origin=http://www.loc.gov type in WARC is expected to be a standard way to struc- your e-mail address, scroll down and click on “Digital ture, manage and store billions of resources col- Preservation.” Past newsletters are archived at http://www. lected from the web and elsewhere. digitalpreservation.gov/news/archive.html http://www.digitalpreservation.gov 2.
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