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Category: Tools and Infrastructure

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When is Open Source Software the Right Choice for Cultural Heritage Organizations? An Interview with Peter Murray

Posted by: Trevor Owens

I am excited to continue the NDSA infrastructure working group’s ongoing exploration of the role that open source software can and is playing in supporting long term access to digital cultural heritage with this interview with Peter Murray about FOSS4lib, “the site that helps libraries decide if and which open source software is right for …

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Top 10 Digital Preservation Developments of 2012

Posted by: Bill LeFurgy

With 2012 safely behind us, let us praise some of the best things that happened last year in digital preservation. This is something of a tradition for us, as we have previously run down a list for 2011 and 2010. I cast a wide net and mustered my objectivity in in picking activities with the …

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Persistent Paleontology: How Do Stones and Bones Relate to Digital Preservation?

Posted by: Bill LeFurgy

Amber Case coined the term persistent paleontologyin reference to electronic systems that continuously layer on new information. “The e-mail inbox is a rapidly expanding site of excavation which one must continually query,” she writes. “The newness of everything buries one’s ability to reach it without digging.” I like this association because it lets us look …

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Geopreservation Information for All Communities

Posted by: Erin Engle

You’re a graduate student in a geography education program learning about the concepts underlying a geographic information system, including creating, analyzing and editing geospatial data sets. Part of your coursework also includes learning about the preservation of GIS data. As an academic librarian, your position oversees the gathering and management of geospatial data as well …

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Public Participation and Stewardship of Science: Arfon Smith of Adler Planetarium and the Zooniverse

Posted by: Trevor Owens

I’m excited to be able to chat with Arfon Smith, Director of Citizen Science at The Adler Planetarium & technical lead on the Zooniverse projects. Adler Planetarium is the newest member of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (and the first Planetarium to join!). Adler is somewhat unique in that it both collects, preserves and exhibits …

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The “Spherical Mercator” of Time: Incorporating History in Digital Maps

Posted by: Butch Lazorchak

In 1982 Interstate I-66 opened, providing a direct high-speed connection (except at rush hour) between downtown Washington D.C. and its western suburbs in Virginia. I was barely out of high school at the time so its opening didn’t really register with me, but now I live mere blocks away from the highway so it’s an …

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The Foundations of Emulation as a Service: An Interview with Dirk von Suchodoletz, Part Two

Posted by: Butch Lazorchak

This is Part Two of a two-part interview. Part One ran on Monday Dec. 10, 2012. In this installment of the Insights Interviews series, a project of the Innovation Working Group of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance Innovation Working Group, I’m talking to Dirk von Suchodoletz from the Department of Computer Science at the University …

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The Foundations of Emulation as a Service: An Interview with Dirk von Suchodoletz, Part One

Posted by: Butch Lazorchak

In this installment of the Insights Interviews series, a project of the Innovation Working Group of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance Innovation Working Group, I’m talking to Dirk von Suchodoletz from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Freiburg, Germany and a representative to the Open Planets Foundation. He and his research partner …

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Teaching Digital Library Creation with Viewshare

Posted by: Abbey Potter

This is a guest post from Camille Salas, an intern with the Library of Congress. As a first year graduate student at the University of Maryland’s School of Information, I, like many other library students across the country, enrolled in a required course that focused on the organization of information. I often referred to the …