Stakeholder Benefits from Research Data Management: new document from Research360 project.

Stakeholder Benefits from Research Data Management: new document from Research360 project. Neil Beagrie, Catherine Pink. University of Bath.  26 Nov 2012.
The Research360 Project has released the summary stakeholder benefits analysis from the Research Data Management business case for the University of Bath. The 4 page document is available for  download in PDF format.

Industry and private sector partnerships alongside public sector and voluntary sector partnerships are key elements of many university research programmes.  Frequently partners sharing their practice, results data and laboratory methodologies can lead to vital knowledge transfer activities, improved services and products, creation of spin-out companies and further investment in the Higher Education sector.  A summary list of stakeholder benefits that can arise from research data management in these collaborations. Benefits are listed for:

• university community by its key stakeholder groups:
• academic staff and researchers, students, professional services, and the institution
• external partners:
• industry and commerce, public/voluntary sectors, government, and society 

 Some of the benefits include:

• Improve possibility of success in research funding by addressing any concerns around data management.
• Safeguarding your data against potential loss.
• Support in patent issues such as proof of provenance through improved use of version control.
• Enhanced global reputation through recognition of the quality of research outputs and data infrastructure.
• Attract new collaborators and accelerate deepening of existing relationships.
• Graduate employability increased through university partner connections and student data skills.
• Reduction of risk for sensitive data if data transfer is secure.
• Cost efficiencies from shared data services.

Digital Preservation Matters.

The Last Bookshop.

The Last Bookshop. Richard Dadd, et al. The Bakery. YouTube Video. Apr 9, 2013.
A 20 minute video that  imagines a future where physical books have died out. 
The entire site is worth looking at. The video is here on YouTube.

Digital Preservation Matters.

NDSA Content Case Studies.

NDSA Content Case Studies. National Digital Stewardship Alliance. March 2013.
The NDSA Content Working Group is developing case studies about the importance of preserving digital materials in order to " engage all members of the community in the preservation of content and to encourage the cultivation of relationships that could enable preservation."  There are several completed case studies. The Case Studies:

• Establish the value of the content and the reasons for selecting it for preservation. What is the value of the content and what factors may increase the risk of it disappearing.
• Document the opportunities to preserve the content in its creation or distribution. 
• Describe target audiences/stakeholders. Who would find value in content and how might they be involved in preserving it.
• Outline a plan to educate stakeholders to increase their awareness. 
• Describe potential obstacles or risk factors and the options for overcoming them.
• Develop specific actions that can be taken to ensure the important content is preserved.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Perspectives on Personal Digital Archiving - Digital Preservation.

Perspectives on Personal Digital Archiving - Digital Preservation. Signal. Library of Congress.
March 22, 2013. [PDF, 79 pages].

This is a published compilation of selected blog posts published in The Signal that focus on personal digital archiving. Individuals face the same challenges with digital materials as institutions. 

The content is grouped under three general headings:

• Personal Digital Archiving Guidance:  including tips for preserving digital photographs, archiving cell phone messages, image resolution to use, family history and digital preservation, personal archiving in the cloud,getting your digital affairs in order, and others.
• Personal Reflections on Personal Digital Archiving:  examples of personal experience, working with obsolete files, 
• Personal Digital Archiving Outreach:  personal digital archiving kit, reports of presentations, events and online sessions.

In the future, any studies of our time period will require using born-digital sources: websites, email, digital photographs and many other material that exist only in electronic form. The same is true for people wanting to pass on their personal photos and files.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Viewshare: Interfaces to our heritage

Viewshare: Interfaces to our heritage. Library of Congress. Website. April 2013.
Viewshare, an open source instance of Recollection, is a free platform for generating and customizing views (interactive maps, timelines, facets, tag clouds) that allow users to experience your digital collections.
Functionality:

1. Ingest collections from spreadsheets or MODS records.
2. Generate distinct interactive visual interfaces to digital collections, including maps and timelines, and sophisticated faceted navigation.
3. Just copy-paste to embed interface in any webpage. Provide users with new ways to explore content
   
   
   Digital Preservation Matters.

An Intern Considers the Digital Preservation Challenge

An Intern Considers the Digital Preservation Challenge, Part 1 & Part 2. Jennifer Clark. The Signal. March 27-28, 2013.
Some items from the articles to remember:

• People working with archival or heritage resources actually do know that digital preservation is important and even essential, but they aren’t always sure of the best ways of approaching the problem and achieving success in their preservation activities.
• Digital objects are no longer just for viewing or reading but also for data analysis and visualization. It is not sufficient to save these items merely for human interaction; we must also preserve for future machine interaction as well.
•  digital preservationists must value pragmatism over idealism to make sure as many of our digital objects are as safe as possible.
• we will not have anything to process if we don’t acquire as much at-risk material as we can right now.
• Making progress in digital preservation is not just an issue of technology and tools; it’s also an issue of collaboration.the future of the profession is not only to become advocates, but also to become collaborators. 
• convince people of the future value of their digital objects in a way that is important to them
• The easiest way to get people to become fellow collaborators is to tap into their familiar workflows and to seamlessly integrate preservation activities, rather than trying to create a parallel workflow or impose an entirely new one.
  
  
  
  Digital Preservation Matters.

JHOVE2 version v2.1.0

JHOVE2 version v2.1.0. Website. March 18, 2013.
Version 2.1.0 of the open-source JHOVE2 format characterization tool has been released. This version includes:

• 3 new format modules, ARC, WARC, and GZIP;
• a new identifier module, based on the Unix "file" utility;
• a new XSLDisplayer module which can do XSLT transformations on the XML output before displaying it;
• additional bug fixes and enhancements.
  
  
  Digital Preservation Matters.

The Digital-Surrogate Seal of Approval: a Consumer-oriented Standard

The Digital-Surrogate Seal of Approval: a Consumer-oriented Standard.  James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs. D-Lib Magazine. March/April 2013.
"Digital-Surrogate Seal of Approval" (DSSOA) is a proposed way to describe the accuracy and completeness of digital objects that were created from printed books and other non-digital originals. It indicates that the original has been digitized completely and with 100% accuracy. This seal of approval may be applied to a digitized version of an analog original when it accurately replicates the original. To do this, two criteria must be met and verified:

1. Completeness. All pages of the original are fully and completely reproduced.
2. Accuracy. The original layout and appearance are preserved. All text is legible and there is no visual degradation when compared to the original.

The seal of approval, with a Statement of Verification,  can be applied by those responsible for the digital objects at any stage of the life cycle. The Statement of Verification must describe the methodology used and confirm 100% compliance. A "digital surrogate" in this context is a complete, accurate, digital replica of a bibliographically-identified, analog original item. The seal of approval  may be applied to a specific item or to a collection when all items in the collection meet the criteria.  The criteria may be used by organizations that create, manage, preserve, or deliver digital content. They may apply it to items that they curate as a way of communicating to their user-communities the completeness and accuracy of digital surrogates. The article also  addresses metadata elements, requirements and exceptions. This may not be appropriate or necessary for all digitization projects or collections.

Digital Preservation Matters.

UPDATE 1-Capitol wins digital records lawsuit vs ReDigi start-up.

UPDATE 1-Capitol wins digital records lawsuit vs ReDigi start-up. Jonathan Stempel and Alistair Barr. Reuters. Apr 1, 2013.

U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan ruled in the case Capitol Records LLC v. ReDigi Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-00095.

• ReDigi was not authorized to allow listeners to use its platform to buy and sell "used" digital music tracks originally bought from Apple Inc's iTunes website.
• This will profoundly affect any digital re-sale marketplace [and digital preservation] by limiting what can be sold as "used" or by forcing sellers to obtain copyright holders' approval before transacting business.
• ReDigi's service "infringes Capitol's reproduction rights under any description of the technology" 
• The service "does not deserve protection under the theory of fair use."
• "It is beside the point that the original phonorecord no longer exists. It matters only that a new phonorecord has been created."
• "Because it is therefore impossible for the user to sell her 'particular' phonorecord on ReDigi, the first sale statute cannot provide a defense."

Related articles:
Think you own your downloads? Court deals blow to 'used' digital goods market.
Judge rules digital music cannot be sold 'second hand'
Reselling Digital Goods Is Copyright Infringement, Judge Rules

Digital Preservation Matters.