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Apologies for any
cross-posting
ERPANET is pleased to release the programme of its workshop
on the "Long-term Preservation of Databases". It will be held on the 9-11 April
2003 and is co-hosted by the Swiss Federal Archives.
***
Programme ***
Wednesday 9 April
09:00 Registration
WELCOME AND
INTRODUCTION
09:45
Welcome (Christoph Graf, Swiss Federal Archives; Seamus Ross, ERPANET);
Introduction (Peter Keller, Swiss Federal Archives);
SESSION ONE: Practical
experiences with database preservation
11:00 Centre des Archives
Contemporaines, France (presented by Jean-Pierre Teil); other projects to be
confirmed
12:15
Lunch
13:30 Testbed
Digitale Bewaring, Netherlands (speaker to be confirmed); National Digital
Archive of Datasets, UK (speaker to be confirmed)
15:45 Breakout session
16:30
Finish
Workshop Dinner on Mount
Gurten
Thursday 10 April
SESSION TWO: Practical experiences with
database preservation (continued)
09:00 National Archives, Norway
(Terje Pettersen-Dahl); Software Independent Archiving of Relational Databases
at the Swiss Federal Archives (Stephan Heuscher, Stephan
Järmann)
11:30
Breakout session
12:15
Lunch
SESSION THREE: Archival methods
13:30 Extraction (Niklaus Bütikofer,
ERPANET); Description (Elizabeth Shepherd, University College London, UK);
Appraisal (Thomas Zürcher Thrier, Swiss Federal Archives)
16:30
Finish
Walking tour of the historic city
centre
Friday 11
April
SESSION FOUR: Access, Use, Adding Value
09:00 Value-Adding, Access, and Use
(Rolf Apweiler, European Bioinformatics Institute, UK)
10:15 Breakout
session
CONCLUSIONS
11:00 Mariella Guercio and Hans Hofman
(ERPANET)
12:00 End of
Workshop
*** Focus ***
Databases have been, and
continue to be, a key technology for the storage, organisation, and
interrogation of information. While the value of other types of digital
information has been highlighted in recent years, databases and the information
they contain have been sidelined. Their preservation is of great concern as they
are often either irreplaceable or of such value that replacement would be
prohibitively expensive.
The workshop will cover the entire process of
database preservation: selection, appraisal, preservation, description, and
access. Technical solutions will occupy an important place in the workshop and
archival requirements will also be addressed.
Various institutional
approaches will be presented and key areas of difficulty and success offered.
Breakout sessions will focus on some of these identified areas, and attempt to
posit solutions and strategies for this difficult challenge.
***
Who Will Benefit From Attending? ***
Erpaworkshops are expert
meetings to promote and develop new approaches to preservation challenges.
Participation is encouraged from specialists in the archival, scientific, and IT
spheres, and those with theoretical and/or practical experience in the field of
database preservation. Our speakers will present experiences in order to
facilitate discussion and the furtherance of knowledge on database
preservation.
*** The Venue ***
The Workshop will
take place at the conference hall of the Swiss Federal Archives (www.bundesarchiv.ch) in Bern. See
www.bundesarchiv.ch/webserver-static/docs/e/situationsplan.pdf for a map of the
area.
*** Travel Information ***
by plane: Bern
Airport (www.alpar.ch German-only
website) features only a small number of direct European flights and transfer
connections through Basel, Zurich, and other airports. In most cases it may be
more convenient to fly to Zurich (www.unique.ch , Basel (www.euroairport.ch , or Geneva (www.gva.ch , and to reach Bern by train from there.
Zurich and Geneva offer convenient changes at their respective airport railway
stations; the journey will take 90 (ZRH) or 120 minutes (GVA). EuroAirport Basel
has frequent bus connections to Basel main station, from where the train to Bern
takes approximately one hour. Train tickets are available at vending machines
and counters at the stations; timetable info at www.rail.ch (There is a possibility to have
your luggage checked through to Bern directly, see www.sbb.ch/pv/fly_e.htm )
by
train: Participants from neighbouring countries may consider travelling to Bern
by train. There are convenient connections from France, Spain, Italy, Austria,
Germany, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, and Belgium to Bern main station. For
timetable information look at www.rail.ch.
*** Accommodation
Information ***
Arrangements and reservations have been made
with selected hotels for the ERPANET Workshop. These are mostly located in the
historic city centre of Bern and are within walking distance of both the train
station and the Federal Archives. Taxis and buses are available at the station.
The registrations are being taken care of by the Bern Tourist office. Please
find the registration form on the ERPANET website. Special hotel fares apply for
those who book their room until the 1st March 2003.
*** Workshop
Dinner ***
ERPANET is pleased to invite you to the workshop
dinner that will be held on Wednesday evening at Mount Gurten near
Bern.
*** Registration ***
The registration fee
is 220 CHF. This includes workshop materials, refreshments, and the workshop
dinner. Please register at www.erpanet.org
____________________________________________
Monica Greenan
ERPANET
British Editor
Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute
(HATII)
George Service House,
11 University Gardens,
University of
Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QJ
Scotland
Tel: +44(0)141 330 3549
Fax:
+44(0)141 330 3788
http://www.erpanet.org