Weekly Readings - 23 June 2006

Foundations for a Successful Digital Preservation Program: Discussions from Digital Preservation in State Government: Best Practices Exchange 2006. Christy E. Allen. RLG DigiNews. June 15, 2006.

The State Library of North Carolina hosted Digital Preservation in State Government: Best Practices Exchange 2006. The sessions focused on nine aspects ofdigital preservation:
identification, selection, and appraisal of digital assets; repository systems; collection of digital assets; authentication; resources and workflows; access; metadata; preservation; and organization.
A successful digital preservation program requires a strong foundation which allows it to remain stable in a highly dynamic environment. Four essential elements for building a strong digital preservation program within any institutional framework:

1. support and buy-in from stakeholders;
   
2. “good enough” practices implemented now;
3. collaborations and partnerships; and
   
4. documentation for policies, procedures, and standards.

Education is important. Managerial commitment and IT support is critical. If you think digital preservation is expensive, look at the cost of not doing it. Good practices are important. We must work with the tools available to manage and preserve digital information as best we can. “Good enough” does not mean sub-standard; it means using the best solutions available today, knowing they aren’t perfect, but that they will evolve. Solutions must be flexible, modular, and interoperable. Digital preservation programs are most effective in partnerships. Policies should document the value of digital preservation within the institution and be included in the institution’s goals and objectives. Research all options before establishing standards, then document practices clearly; distribute the standards to partners.


Toshiba unveils HD-DVD recorder with 1 TB hard drive space. Humphrey Cheung. TG Daily. June 22, 2006.

Toshiba announced the RDD-A1 HD-DVD record with a one Terabyte worth of hard drive space. Up to 130 hours of high-definition video can be stored and up to 230 minutes of that content can be burned to a single HD DVD disc. will start selling in Japan on 14 July for around $3500.


Google announces U.S. government search site. China Martens. Computerworld. June 15, 2006.

Google has unveiled a search site to make it easier to locate U.S. government information. The site allows users to search content contained on U.S. federal, state and local government Web, particularly websites with the .gov and .mil domains, in addition to some government sites with the .com, .us and .edu domains. This may be expanded to other countries.


MRI systems: from life saver to disk killer. Robert L. Mitchell. Computerworld. June 21, 2006.

Georgia Tech has created a system which uses of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) magnetic field to remove every trace of data off a disk. The prototype was developed for military use, but they hope to create a unit that companies can use to remove sensitive data. In most cases, current disk erasure tools work fine if used properly.