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Posted by: Mike Ashenfelder
The following is a guest post by Barrie Howard, Program Management Coordinator, NDIIPP. In my work at NDIIPP I’ve been looking at U.S. government grant programs that have funded digital preservation since 2000. I discovered that funding has been sourced primarily from the Library of Congress and four other agencies: the Institute of Museum and …
Posted in: Digital Content, Tools and Infrastructure
Posted by: Mike Ashenfelder
The following is a guest post by Trevor Owens, Digital Archivist with the Office of Strategic Initiatives. We are happy to announce the full open source release of the Recollection software platform. Briefly, Recollection is a web application that enables librarians, archivists, curators, and historians to create dynamic interfaces to cultural heritage collections. If you …
Posted in: Digital Content, Tools and Infrastructure
Posted by: Butch Lazorchak
The following is a guest post by Nicholas Taylor, Information Technology Specialist for the Repository Development Group. Though presented as a unified experience, a website depends on many interrelated parts: document markup and dynamic code, assorted binary file types, software interpreters and platforms. The challenge of web archive preservation planning is to save this experience, …
Posted in: Digital Content, Inside the Library, Tools and Infrastructure
Posted by: Bill LeFurgy
Technology is the easy part of digital preservation. Actually it’s only easy relative to the other challenges that libraries, archives and other memory institutions face in keeping and serving digital content. The really hard stuff comes down to people: how staff are organized, empowered and trained to do the work. I see two basic issues …
Posted in: Education and Training, Tools and Infrastructure
Posted by: Leslie Johnston
When I meet new people and tell them that I work at the Library of Congress, the first question is usually “What do you do there?” When I explain that part of my job is to oversee a group that develops software, the reaction is often one of surprise: “What? Libraries develop software?” Yes. Yes …
Posted in: Digital Content, Inside the Library, Tools and Infrastructure
Posted by: Butch Lazorchak
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 …
Posted in: Outreach and Events, Partners and Collaboration, Publications and Resources, Tools and Infrastructure
Posted by: Mike Ashenfelder
When Rebecca Guenther retires from the Library of Congress in August 2011, 35 years of institutional knowledge about bibliographic information will go with her. The Library of Congress loses – among other things – the world’s leading authority on PREMIS metadata for digital preservation. Guenther has nurtured conversations among international library stakeholders, conversations that led …
Posted in: Digital Content, Inside the Library, Partners and Collaboration, Tools and Infrastructure
Posted by: Butch Lazorchak
The following is a guest post by Laura Graham, a Digital Media Project Coordinator at the Library. In late 2008, the Library of Congress, the California Digital Library, the University of North Texas, the Internet Archive and the Government Printing Office began the first collaborative project to capture and archive United States government web sites …
Posted in: Digital Content, Partners and Collaboration, Tools and Infrastructure
Posted by: Mike Ashenfelder
The computers that store and serve our digital collections are multiplying rapidly to keep up with our escalating data demands. All the while the servers guzzle power, radiate heat, crowd bandwidth and exert an unprecedented burden on the power grid. During these tough economic times, as institutions scrutinize their operations for budget-trimming opportunities, they must …
Posted in: Digital Content, Tools and Infrastructure