Digital Preservation Research and Training
The three interlocking components of digital preservation at ICPSR are research, training, and practice; each informs the other two. This Web site is devoted to ensuring that digital preservation practice at ICSPR is compliant and transparent. This section provides some examples of ICPSR's underlying commitment to exploring and developing good practices through research, and to sharing what we are doing and what we have learned through training and other forms of information sharing.
Research
Digital preservation is an emerging research area, as the digital preservation community is in the process of formalizing its membership, standards, practices, and communication networks. ICPSR is committed to engaging in digital preservation research to sustain our digital preservation program. We are also intent on extending our understanding of relevant technologies as the nature of and requirements for preserving digital content evolve and to sharing the results of our research. These are some examples of digital preservation research at ICPSR:
Data-PASS
The Data-PASS project has become an umbrella initiative for exploring the means to identify, acquire, and preserve significant social science data that may be at risk.
Data-PASS has enabled partnership building with other data archives (e.g., the Harvard-MIT Data Center, the Odum Institute, the Roper Center, and the National Archives and Records Administration and other organizations (such as, the San Diego Supercomputing Center and the LOCKSS team).
Related Projects
Data-PASS has led to related projects, such as:
- Incentives for Data Producers to Create Archive-Ready Data Sets project
- Syndicated Storage for Social Science Data project (PDF)
ICPSR is developing a comprehensive research agenda for digital preservation and will continue to seek external research funding to achieve our goals.
Training
In August 2007, ICPSR became the host for the award-wining Digital Preservation Management tutorial developed at Cornell University Library by a team led by Anne R. Kenney and Nancy Y. McGovern, the Digital Preservation officer at ICPSR. ICPSR is also a designated provider of the Digital Preservation Management workshop curriculum that builds on the tutorial content. We will continue to provide versions of this workshop and to seek funding to expand the curriculum as an ongoing contribution to the digital preservation community.
Main page of the Digital Preservation Management tutorial
ICPSR is exploring additional digital preservation training opportunities, including the identification of ways to further integrate digital preservation training into the Summer Program offerings to supplement the popular, long-running Providing Social Science Data Services course offered by instructors Diane Geraci, Chuck Humphrey, and Jim Jacobs.
