The following is a guest post by Lara Lookabaugh, an intern working with the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Initiative. Recently, in one of my library school classes, I was assigned to watch a documentary about how the web affects our ability to learn. One segment tested the efficiency of self-proclaimed “multitaskers,” who often performed …
The following is a guest post by Jimi Jones, Audiovisual Specialist, and Carla Miller, Administrative Specialist, at the Library of Congress. The NDSA Standards and Best Practices Working Group is working on a digital preservation standards survey that has the following objectives: • Identify and describe existing digital preservation standards and best practices • Identify …
NCCUSL. If pronounced a certain way (think “nah-kooz-ull”) it sounds like the latest toy fad. But get used to the acronym because the organization behind it is responsible for one of the most important pieces of digital preservation legislation in the past ten years. NCCUSL stands for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State …
The following is a guest post by Barrett Jones, Program Specialist for the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education initiative at the Library. Right now as I type this post, there is a two-hour Introduction to Digital Preservation online course available from the State Library of North Carolina Digital Information Management Program. On July 25th there’s …
After launching on May 31, “The Signal” had a strong first month. We published 27 posts and are pleased to have had over 60 comments during June. The blog appears to reach a broad audience, which is exactly what we hoped for. Staff wrote about digital preservation outreach events, significant reports and publications, data forensics …
The following is a guest post by Kristin Snawder, a 2011 Junior Fellow working with NDIIPP. When I came to the Library I never imagined that my first project would be to face off with the hard issues underlining digital preservation policy development. Policy development was new to me, and the task seemed daunting. But …
The following is a guest post by Jimi Jones, Audio-Visual Specialist, NDIIPP. A correction was made to this post on July 7, 2011. “What’s the best digital video file format for preservation?” Finding appropriate digital preservation file formats for audiovisual materials is not an easy task. While much of the recorded sound preservation realm has …
This is a map. Of course, it’s not just any map. It’s the Universalis Cosmographia Secundum Ptholomaei Traditionem et Americi Vespucii Alioru[m]que Lustrationes from 1507, otherwise known as the Waldseemüller map after its creator, Martin Waldseemüller. It was the first map, printed or manuscript, to depict clearly a separate Western Hemisphere, with the Pacific as …
Enhanced access to historical resources drives the incentives to preserve. At least that’s the thinking behind the Model Technological and Social Architecture for the Preservation of State Government Digital Information Project. The project, headed by the Minnesota Historical Society with state government partners in Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Tennessee and Vermont, …