Embargoed until Thursday 1st April 2004
Digital Preservation Coalition and Pilgrim Trust announce shortlist for
new Digital Preservation Award
This year for the first time the Pilgrim Trust Conservation Awards will
include a new Award sponsored by the Digital Preservation Coalition
(DPC). The Digital Preservation Award, worth £5,000, will recognise
leadership and achievement in the developing field of digital
preservation.
More and more material is being converted to digital format and
increasing quantities of information are available only in digital form.
Whether they are used for the day-to-day business of government
departments, to support academic research, or for the general public
seeking information and entertainment, these resources represent a
significant investment and there is an increasing dependence on them.
The DPC Award aims to encourage and highlight creative approaches to
furthering the digital preservation agenda. The award is aimed at
projects that focus on “born-digital” resources rather than those using
technology for preservation or conservation purposes and will be awarded
to a project which demonstrates leadership and advancement in the
digital preservation area.
Richard Boulderstone, Director of e-Strategy at the British Library, who
is chairing the Awards Judges, said: “As more and more of our
information comes to us through purely digital means, never having a
physical form, the work of digital preservation becomes progressively
more important if we are to avoid a huge gap in our cultural heritage.
The short listed projects represent significant progress in this complex
field which still requires considerable support to yield long term
benefits.”
Other members of the judging panel for the 2004 Digital Preservation
Award are Sheila Anderson Director, Arts and Humanities Data Service
(AHDS); Kevin Ashley Head of Digital Archives Department, University of
London Computer Centre; David Dawson Senior ICT Adviser for the
Libraries & Information Society Team of the Museums, Libraries and
Archives Council (MLA); Barry Fox independent journalist and
broadcaster; Nick Higham formerly BBC Arts and Media correspondent and
now presenter of BBC News 24’s Factfile; Chris Rusbridge Director of
Information Services at the University of Glasgow; David Saunders Senior
Scientist at the National Gallery, London.
The winner will be announced on 22nd June by Loyd Grossman at a
presentation ceremony at the British Library.
The shortlist for the 2004 Digital Preservation Award is:
The CAMiLEON Project
Bringing together expertise from the University of Leeds (funded by
JISC) and the University of Michigan (funded by NSF), the CAMiLEON
Project (Creative Archiving at Michigan and Leeds Emulating the Old on
the New) developed practical techniques for the use of Emulation in the
digital preservation world. These techniques were put into practice with
demonstrator developments, in particular a rescue of the BBC Domesday
Project using emulation.
The Digital Archive
The National Archives has created the first ever digital archive of
electronic Government documents to ensure that records of modern
government are preserved securely for future generations. Capable of
storing over 100 terabytes of data –equal to 1.5 billion pages of text –
the archive also stores sound and graphics files, virtual reality models
and even video footage. The archive currently holds records from high
profile public enquiries, departmental websites, and the records of
parliamentary committees and royal commissions. The Digital Archive is
available free of charge in the in public reading rooms at Kew and on
The National Archives’ Network. A large scale Internet presentation
system is in development, to allow access to readers around the world
from 2005
JISC Continuing Access and Digital Preservation Strategy
As a committee of the UK Higher and Further Education Funding Councils,
the JISC serves some 200 Higher Education Institutions and 400 Further
Education Institutions across the UK and its work therefore has a very
wide impact both nationally and internationally.The Continuing Access
and Digital Preservation Strategy for the Joint Information Systems
Committee (JISC) 2002-5 sets out the case for investment by the sector
in digital preservation and the principles and priorities for JISC
funded activities and external partnerships to be followed over a three
year period.
Preservation Metadata Extraction Tool
Preservation metadata is an essential component of a digital
preservation programme. The National Library of New Zealand has
commissioned development of a software tool to programmatically extract
preservation metadata from the headers of a range of file formats.
The preservation metadata extract tool:
· automatically extracts preservation-related metadata from
digital files; and
· outputs that metadata in a standard format (XML) for uploading
into a preservation metadata repository.
Wellcome Library/JISC Web Archiving Project
Perceiving the gap in web archiving activity in Britain, (although aware
of initiatives in the USA, Australia, Scandinavia and elsewhere), the
Wellcome Library and JISC initiated a project to commission a
feasibility study into needs and opportunities for their respective
communities. Recognising also that any long-term solution is likely to
depend on distributed responsibilities, the project has been developed
as a partnership between Wellcome and JISC, with funding split evenly
between the two.
Notes for editors:
Digital Preservation Coalition
The DPC, which was launched in February 2002, is a cross-sectoral
membership organisation of 27 major UK organisations which aims to
ensure that preservation is kept on the policy agenda. Information about
its work can be found at http://www.dpconline.org
The Digital Preservation Award is part of the Pilgrim Trust Conservation
Awards. Sponsored by the Pilgrim Trust, the Digital Preservation
Coalition and the Anna Plowden Trust, the Awards are also supported by
the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, English Heritage, the
National Preservation Office, the Institute of Paper Conservation and
the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation. Full details of
shortlisted projects are available on the Conservation Awards website
at: http://www.consawards.ukic.org.uk
The Pilgrim Trust
The Pilgrim Trust was founded in 1930 by Edward Stephen Harkness of New
York to award grants for some of Great Britain's more urgent needs and
promote the country's future well-being. In 2000, the Trustees made 137
grant commitments totalling £2.9 million, to projects involved in social
welfare, art and learning, preservation, cataloguing and conservation of
records and the repair of historic churches. Further information on the
Trust is available at www.thepilgrimtrust.org.uk.
The 2004 Judging Panel
Sheila Anderson is Director, Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS).
The AHDS is a distributed service and preserves material deposited
voluntarily by individuals and research groups within Higher Education,
or as a condition of awards granted by the Arts and Humanities Research
Board. http://www.ahds.ac.uk
Kevin Ashley is Head of Digital Archives Department, University of
London Computer Centre. For the past ten years, the work of Kevin’s
group has been primarily involved in the preservation of digital
resources on behalf of other organisations. Kevin is a Board member of
the Digital Preservation Coalition, a member of the Advisory Council for
Erpanet and that of the UK Archives Hub.
Richard Boulderstone (Chair) is Director of e-Strategy, at the British
Library. This role involves the management and further development of e
and IT strategy throughout the British Library, the implementation of
digital media projects and services, and the delivery of e-business
methods and tools. Major developments to be led by him include the
digitisation of many of the Library's collections as well as the
archiving of materials that are 'born digital'. Prior to this
appointment, Richard has held senior positions in a number of
international information providers, working both in the UK and US.
David Dawson is the Senior ICT Adviser for the Libraries & Information
Society Team of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). In
1998 David joined the Museums & Galleries Commission as New Technology
Adviser, before becoming Senior ICT Adviser. He managed the DCMS/MLA IT
Challenge Fund, and is currently working on a range of other projects
and strategic developments
Barry Fox is an independent journalist and broadcaster and winner of
several UK Technology press awards. He has contributed regularly to New
Scientist magazine for thirty years, and to numerous specialist,
hobbyist and trade weeklies and monthlies. Barry is European
Contributing Editor for the US-based Warren group of newsletters,
including Consumer Electronics Daily. He broadcasts on national and
local radio and TV, commenting on technology news and answering
listeners' queries live on air.
Nick Higham presents Factfile on BBC News 24, offering background
information and analysis on the day’s major stories. He was formerly the
BBC’s arts and media correspondent, reporting for BBC news programmes on
television and radio. He has presented programmes and documentaries on
Radio 4, Radio 5 Live, BBC Two and World Service. He writes a regular
column for Marketing Week magazine and another for BBC News Online. He
frequently chairs industry conferences and lectures on the media to
students and journalists in the UK and abroad (including Bulgaria and
Paraguay).
Chris Rusbridge is Director of Information Services at the University of
Glasgow, which is active in the area of digital preservation, including
being a member of the consortium that successfully bid for the recently
created Digital Curation Centre. Chris was previously Programme Director
of the JISC Electronic Libraries Programme, where he was closely
involved in many digital preservation activities including Cedars and
Camileon.
David Saunders is Senior Scientist at the National Gallery, London.
After post-doctoral research he joined the National Gallery as a museum
scientist. He has been involved in a number of European
Community-supported projects in the area of digital imaging of two and
three-dimensional works of art. He has been an Editor of Studies in
Conservation since 1990, served on the technical committees for the 1994
and 2000 International Institute for Conservation (IIC) congresses and,
since 2003 has been Director of Publications for IIC.
For further information about the DPC and the Digital Preservation Award
contact Anna Arthur at Anna Arthur PR on 020 7637 2994 or Emma Wright at
Museums, Libraries & Archives Council on 020 7273 1459
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Maggie Jones
DPC Coordinator
Raymond Burton Library
University of York
Heslington
YORK Y010 5DD
Tel: +44 (0) 1904 321 131
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.dpconline.org
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