Objectives

The aim of this work package is to identify and reach agreement on the preservation services which can be shared between organisations. As noted in section B1.3, the starting point will be the PARSE.Insight roadmap. A critical part of the process will be to confront each of the competing proponents with different views and different types of digitally encoded information. This will be done through dedicated internal workshops and testbeds from WP1400.

It is possible that some of the techniques will be found to be unsatisfactory but it might also be expected that as one challenges different approaches one sees that each is applicable to particular disciplines or specific types of digital objects; however some may be seen to be generally applicable. We are seeking to identify both the general, infrastructure-type components as well as delimiting the applicability of specific tools and techniques. Of particular importance is that the preservation services will at least address the services described by the PARSE.Insight Roadmap.

Description of work and role of partners

Task 2110 Collection of preservation services

This task will identify the broad requirements and design constraints for shared preservation services. The initial set of services will be based on the technical components in the PARSE.Insight roadmap [2]. This includes services to counter the threats to digital preservation identified in the PARSE.Insight survey:

• Registry services for Representation Information
• Services to capture knowledge about changes in hardware, software, environment and things which affect the Knowledgebase of Designated Communities and to stimulate the creation of required Representation Information.
• Services to audit and certify repositories
• Storage services which look after Provenance and other components of an Archival Information Package

These were illustrated in the CASPAR diagram of preservation workflows

Some of the economic and social issues associated with these services are investigated in Stream 3.

Task 2120 Preservation workflow comparisons

This task will arrange comparisons between preservation techniques and services in order to come to some common view of what services are common and where the boundaries of applicability for the other techniques. This will be done by challenging the various proponents with data outside their normal comfort zones in dedicated internal workshops. Data types would include static, dynamic, complex, simple etc described in [REF]; preservation would be tested against the common testbed environments from WP1400.

Task 2130 Preservation service definitions

This task will map out the preservation services which will help partners preserve their digital holdings against changes including in hardware, software, environment and knowledgebases of designated communities