IBM and Sony cram up to 330 terabytes into tiny tape cartridge

IBM and Sony cram up to 330 terabytes into tiny tape cartridge. Sebastion Anthony. Ars Technica UK. August 2, 2017.
     IBM and Sony have developed a new magnetic tape system capable of storing 201 gigabits of data per square inch, or approximately 330 terabytes in a single palm-sized cartridge. To achieve this density, Sony developed a new type of tape that has a higher density of magnetic recording sites, and IBM Research developed new heads and signal processing technology to process the data from the "nanometre-long patches of magnetism". The new cartridges and tape drives, "when eventually commercialised, will be significantly more expensive because of the tape's complex manufacturing process."

Digital Preservation Matters.

Evaluating Your DPN Metadata Approach

Evaluating Your DPN Metadata Approach.  DPN Preservation Metadata Standards Working Group. July 27, 2017. [PDF, 6 pp.]

     This brief guide can help determine a clear metadata approach to recovering data "in the far future among unpredictable circumstances".  The document can help users create a sound approach to preserving your institution’s data and make decisions that fit with their own institutional needs.

The first section is:

What information is needed to understand and contextualize an object? It examines both descriptive and structural metadata.

Descriptive Metadata: for the purpose of identification and discovery of an object. Dublin

Core, MODS and VRAcore are common standards used for descriptive metadata.  

Structural Metadata: describes relationships between objects, such as pages in a book. The METS Structural Map can express  hierarchical relationships or parent/child relationships. The PREMIS "relationship" element can express version relationships.

The document also looks at how to:

• understand and contextualize a collection; 
• connect/relate objects to a collection; 
• connect/relate versions to each other; 
• connect metadata records to associated objects and collections;
• ensuring the authenticity of an object;
• ensuring the essential characteristics of the original are maintained in a data migration

Digital Preservation Matters.

DPN: Metadata Considerations for Deposits

Metadata Considerations for Deposits. DPN. August 2017.
     The Digital Preservation Network working groups have provided an overview of the types of metadata to consider while preparing deposits for DPN. Several areas are addressed:

1. DPN-specific metadata, especially DPN-specific metadata, DPN’s BagIt specification, Tag Directories and Bag Structure.
2. DuraCloud-specific metadata, while they do not restrict metadata they "indicate that local policies should be used to define metadata approaches".  Each snapshot contains four DuraCloud-created files: checksums (md5, sha265), a content properties file, and a collection-snapshot file  
3. Core descriptive metadata records. The DPN Preservation Metadata Standards Working Group examined minimal metadata records from a variety of member institutions to find common metadata schemas. This resulted in  a “core record,” or the "minimum level of information needed in order to understand digital assets at a later date," shown in a clear chart.
4. Significant properties of content. "In order for digital files to be usable and accessible in the long-term, it is important to recognize the importance of significant properties and to ensure that the properties of your digital materials are being documented in some form." They list content types, with examples of common significant properties. 

Digital Preservation Matters.

Universal Electronic Records Management Requirements

Universal Electronic Records Management Requirements. Courtney Anderson. National Archives Records Express. August 4, 2017.
     The National Archives has released the Universal Electronic Records Management Requirements as part of the Federal Electronic Records Modernization Initiative (FERMI). Universal ERM Requirements identify high level business needs for managing electronic records. The program requirements are derived from existing NARA regulations, policy, and guidance and are a starting point for agencies to use when developing system requirements. "Records management staff should work with acquisitions and IT personnel to tailor any final system requirements". The document contains an abstract, a glossary, and lists of lifecycle requirements and transfer format requirements.
There are six sections based on the lifecycle of electronic records management:

1.    Capture
2.    Maintenance and Use
3.    Disposal
4.    Transfer
5.    Metadata
6.    Reporting

The requirements are either “program” requirements, relating to the design and implementation of policies and procedures, or “system” requirements, providing technical guidance for creating or acquiring ERM tools, which also indicate “Must Have” or “Should Have”. NARA will be supporting these requirements going forward and will be updating them to stay current with changes in technology, regulations and guidance products.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Elsevier Acquires bepress

Elsevier Acquires bepress. Roger C. Schonfeld.  Society for Scholarly Publishing; The Scholarly Kitchen. Aug 2, 2017.
     Elsevier announces its acquisition of bepress. In a move entirely consistent with its strategy to pivot beyond content licensing to preprints, analytics, workflow, and decision-support, Elsevier is probably the foremost single player in the institutional repository area. There is some concern this acquisition will allow them to co-opt open access. The bepress product, Digital Commons, has more than 500 participating institutions, predominantly US colleges and universities.


bepress Joins Elsevier, with Exciting Potential for Growth. Press release. bepress. Aug 2, 2017.
bepress has joined Elsevier, the largest content provider in the world. The management is "confident that this is the right choice for bepress and for our community. Both parties are committed to sustaining the elements that make bepress bepress, and supporting your open access initiatives."

Digital Preservation Matters.

Library Preservation Workflows: Importing, Exporting, and Managing Content

Library Preservation Workflows: Importing, Exporting, and Managing Content. Chris Erickson. June 12, 2017. [PDF slides]
     This is my presentation at the Eight Annual Rosetta's Advisory Group meeting held in June at the wonderful University of Sheffield. This is my favorite conference because of the attendees, the topics discussed, the interaction with the Ex Libris employees who attend, and the many things I learn about digital preservation and Rosetta, in the Advisory meeting and in the accompanying Rosetta Users Group. I hate to see this conference end.

The short presentation is a view of some of the ongoing changes and refinements we have made to our digital preservation workflow in the past year. We have worked to streamline our processes, both because of the increased volume of content we ingest into Rosetta, and also the desire to minimize the file movement and copying during the processing. In addition, we have used our preservation repository to recover documents in our access systems that became unavailable.

During the year we have updated our digital preservation policies to help determine our preservation selection workflow. They include:

• Digital Preservation Decision Form
• Priorities for preserving digital content
• Levels of preservation actions

The changes have helped with a smoother transition from selection and acquisition, processing and SIP creation and submission to Rosetta, and the preservation disposition.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Digital Preservation Workflow Curriculum

Digital Preservation Workflow Curriculum. Mary Molinaro. DPN, AVPreserve. August 2, 2017.
     DPN and AVPreserve have developed a "digital preservation workflow curriculum to share with DPN members and others in the digital preservation community". This workshop curriculum, released with a Creative Commons license, will provide participants with skills and knowledge to implement and manage a digital preservation program within their organization. They ask that the terms of the CC-BY-SA license be observed.

The workshop modules show the requirements of a digital preservation ecosystem from the viewpoints of governance / program management, as well as asset management. This is not an introduction to digital preservation or the OAIS model; instead it looks at the 'why' and 'how' questions of "making digital preservation an underlying, operational function of an organization". The curriculum, which is available here in a zip file, consists of:

• DPN Findings Briefing & Workshop Outline  (PDF) 
• Digital Preservation Workshop Curriculum  (PDF)

• Module 1:  Programmatic Digital Preservation  (PowerPoint)
• Module 2:  Selection  (PowerPoint)
• Module 3:  Preparing for Submission  (PowerPoint)
• Module 4:  Submission & Ingest  (PowerPoint)
• Module 5:  Post Submission  (PowerPoint)
• Module 6:  Sustainability  (PowerPoint)

Digital Preservation Matters.