Each month, we highlight news relating to digital scholarship, access and preservation at Berkeley and around the world. To contribute, email Lizzy Ha.
On Campus
Visual Resources Collection History of Art, UC Berkeley
Image news and tech tips from the Visual Resources Collection
http://havrc.blogspot.com/
The History of Art Visual Resource Center (HAVRC), a partner of the MVP, recently launched a blog in June. “This blog [was] created to keep our primary users informed about image news, as well as to provide an archive of technology tips relevant to teaching with digital images.”
CollectionSpace 0.1 Release
http://www.collectionspace.org/current_release
CollectionSpace 0.1 was released earlier this month. Those interested in this project are encouraged to download and tinker with the 0.1 release, as well as send feedback to the team. “This first release is very limited in its functionality. The goal of this first release was to demonstrate that all the layers of this complex system will actually work together as an integrated whole.” Users will be able to “create a new object record, view and edit existing records, and save any changes. The 0.1 release interface only allows for text entry; dates, controlled vocabularies, and pattern numbers (e.g. accession numbers) will be functional at a later date.” CollectionSpace 1.0 is expected to be completed at the end of May 2010.
Around the World
Terabytes Missing From The National Archives: Would the Cloud Be Safer?
By Steve Walling of Read Write Web
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2009/07/06/06readwriteweb-terabytes-missing-from-the-national-archive-63543.html
According to the New York Times, an external hard drive containing 2 Terabytes of data from the National Archives had gone missing in May. This prompted an investigation that has now “revealed that thousands of electronic storage devices have been lost or stolen. From external hard drives to entire servers, exactly how many devices and how much data has been compromised is unknown.” Steve Walling suggests that data might be better if placed in a cloud rather than a traditional data center. Even though the cloud has its own vulnerabilities as well, content will not be onsite, allowing people to walk off with an external drive or server. “It’s hard to steal the server holding someone’s social security number when you have no real idea where it is.”
Edinburgh Repository Fringe 2009: Beyond the Repository Fringe
Edinburgh, Scotland; Thursday July 30 & Friday 31st, 2009
http://wiki.repositoryfringe.org/index.php/Main_Page
The second Edinburgh Repository Fringe “un”conference will be held at the end of July. Repository developers, managers, researchers, administrators and onlookers are invited to “see what’s been developed, and still developing in the Repository Landscape” as well as to participate in this year’s Repository Fringe challenge, which is “Design a REPOSITORY FOCUSED/ENHANCEMENT service to a researcher/academic/teacher that they would feel is intuitively useful TO THEM PERSONALLY.” Ben O’Steen and Sally Rumsey from the Oxford University Library Services will give the opening keynote and Clifford Lynch, of Coalition for Networked Information, will give the closing keynote.
World Library and Information Congress: 75th IFLA General Conference and Assembly
“Libraries create futures: Building on cultural heritage”
23-27 August 2009, Milan, Italy
http://www.ifla.org/annual-conference/ifla75/
Sponsered by OCLC, The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) will be hosting its 75th conference in August. The theme of this year’s conference is “Libraries create futures: Building on cultural heritage.” This international conference will focus on a variety of issues from around the world, including open access, repositories, digital librarianship, etc, and its role in different countries and cities. According to its website, IFLA is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. With approximately 1650 members in 145 countries, it is the global voice of the library and information profession.”
Digital Preservation Management Workshops and Tutorial
Next workshop: October 11-16, 2009
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/dpm/index.html
First developed at Cornell University, the digital training and preservation program will now be hosted by Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), at the University of Michigan. The website currently has tutorials, and the next workshop will be in October. “The workshop series is intended for managers who are or will be responsible for digital preservation programs in libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions. The goals of the workshop are to foster critical thinking in a technological realm and provide the means for exercising practical and responsible stewardship of digital assets in an age of technological uncertainty.”
