This DCC catalogue and much of its contents are testament to one of the unremarked successes of JISC funded work on repositories. So when you hear those responsible for digital collections say "I worry about preservation" or "I don't know what to do about preservation", you know where to point them. There are tools covering just about every angle for digital preservation of repositories, and that does not mean simply formatting content.

That's not to say it's easy, but the tools do help. I suspect that what some mean when they say this about preservation is "I don't have time or can't be bothered about this" or "I wish someone else would do it for me". Yes, but first you have to specify what you are asking to be done on your behalf, and there are tools to help there as well.

Ultimately preservation is about knowing what you have and will acquire, assessing the risk, and understanding the responsibility you take for it. BP, for example, learned the hard way about outsourcing responsibility.

By way of qualification I should add that this catalogue is by design broader than preservation - maybe too broad in some areas and not specific enough in others - and I would not yet extend my claim of tools covering 'every angle' to large-scale research data, although others may wish to advise here.

That said, we have gone beyond the stage of worrying generically about digital preservation. When it matters, you will know. Then, you will know where to look for the tools to help.

Steve Hitchcock
KeepIt Project Manager - a PAST JISC project
WAIS Group, Building 32
Faculty Electronics and Computer Science
University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 9379 Fax: +44 (0)23 8059 2865
http://preservation.eprints.org/keepit/
Blog: http://blogs.ecs.soton.ac.uk/keepit/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jisckeepit
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/SteveHitchcock

KeepIt course http://bit.ly/7PRDhq
Twitter #dprc http://twapperkeeper.com/dprc/


On 3 May 2012, at 10:16, Angus Whyte wrote:

> + apologies for cross posting +
>
> Digital Curation Centre is pleased to announce our refreshed and replenished catalogue of tools and services for managing and curating research data. The catalogue is at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/external/tools-services
>
> This is more than a new look; the catalogue has been overhauled to focus on software and services that directly perform curation and management tasks. It splits these resources into five major categories, based on who the intended users are and what stage of the data lifecycle they will be most useful in. Sub-categories contain tables for quick comparison of tools against others that perform similar functions, linked to in-depth descriptions of how the resource can help. This resource will evolve; if you have suggestions of tools to add please send them to [log in to unmask]
>
> --
> Dr Angus Whyte
> Senior Institutional Support Officer
> Digital Curation Centre
> University of Edinburgh
> Crichton St, Edinburgh EH8 9LE
> +44-131-650-9986
>
> *** New Book: Graham Pryor (Ed.) 'Managing Research Data' Facet Publishing 2011
>
> http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=7562&category_code=810
>
>
>
> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>