Johan Steenbakkers
Gerard van Trier
The CDNL Committee on Digital Issues (CDI) was established at the
CDNL meeting in Boston (August 2001). The CDI is a platform for exchanging
information and promoting co-operation on research concerning digital issues.
The CDI Work Programme covers the various aspects: the policy, organisational
and technical issues, but also the best practices in this field. The programme
was in its basic form approved at the CDNL meeting in Edinburgh, August 2002
and has meanwhile been updated and detailed further. For the latest version see
Annex 3.
The work of CDI is for practical reasons organised in three Work
Groups, Digital Preservation, Bibliographic Standards for Access, and Deposit
Agreements. This report covers in a nutshell the most important activities
during the first part of the 2-year work programme.
After the adoption of the UNESCO Resolution on the preservation of the digital heritage, which was submitted by the Netherlands on the invitation of the CDNL, the UNESCO Secretariat commissioned Yola de Lusenet from the European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA) to write a discussion paper and formulate elements for a Draft Charter. UNESCO circulated a Preliminary Draft to the Member States for broad consultation. Several regional expert meetings were held:
(a) Asia/Pacific: 4-6 November 2002 in Canberra, Australia;
(b)
Latin America/Caribbean: 18-20 November 2002 in Managua, Nicaragua;
(c)
Africa: 9-11 December 2002 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;
(d) Baltic countries:
18-20 December 2002 in Riga, Latvia;
(e) Central European countries, 17-18
March 2003 in Budapest, Hungary.
These consultations were held in close co-operation with the concerned National Commissions for UNESCO and built sequentially on each other. They reviewed digital preservation challenges in the respective regions. Participants discussed and prepared comments on the Preliminary Draft Charter, and a second document setting out detailed technical Guidelines on the preservation of digital heritage, prepared for UNESCO by Colin Webb of the National Library of Australia. The Guidelines are intended as a companion sourcebook to the Charter. The Secretary of the CDI, Johan Steenbakkers, was invited to attend the Canberra meeting and to give his expert advice. He also attended an expert meeting organised by the National UNESCO Committee in the Netherlands. The comments and outcomes of the Canberra meeting served as an input for the Managua meeting, which followed a similar pattern, and so on. Revised versions of the Preliminary Draft Charter were produced in the course of this sequential process and fed back into it, as the comments accumulated.
A consolidated version was prepared taking into account the discussions at the 166th session of the UNESCO Executive Board and at the second session of the Intergovernmental Council for the Information for All Programme in April, as well as all contributions received. The consolidated Draft Charter:
The Draft Charter is expected to be on the agenda of the UNESCO General Conference 32nd Session, Paris 2003.
The National Library of Australia has created a CDI work space as part of the CDNL members page at the PADI website. The CDI workspace is used for publishing and discussing the results of both unilateral and joint research efforts.
In the past year several actions have been undertaken by national
libraries, relating to studies of and research on digital issues. (See for an
overview e.g. the websites of PADI and DPC). In this report we will focus on
two major initiatives, promoting collaborative research on digital
preservation, one in Europe (PATCH) and one in the USA (NDIIP).
But first we
would like to give a helicopter view of the research area Digital Preservation.
Considering this area as a whole, two main fields can be distinguished. The two
fields reflect the essence of the problem of digital preservation. Hence, there
are two problems to be addressed:
(1) to maintain through time the 'digital objects', containing the information, and
(2) to guarantee 'permanent access' to the digital information in the objects, in spite of obsolescence of formats, software, and hardware.
For the problem of maintenance of digital objects, the European project NEDLIB has consolidated in its 'Guidelines for setting up a Deposit System for Electronic Publications' a wide range of internationally acquired results. A strategic choice of NEDLIB was to transfer the electronic publications from the publishing environment to an archiving environment (nowadays indicated as a 'Safe Place'). Using 'The NEDLIB Guidelines' the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) and IBM-Netherlands jointly have been able to develop the first deposit system, compliant to the standard for archival systems (OAIS). The deposit system was implemented in 2002 as the technical hart of the 'e-Deposit' of the KB. As a result major international publishers (Elsevier Science and Kluwer Academic) have signed an agreement with the KB for permanent archiving of all their electronic publications. Actually some other national libraries and archives are making preparations to acquire a deposit system.
The problem of permanent access to digital information, up to now has
been addressed by several, however scattered and small-scale, initiatives. The
first attempt to consolidate the experiences and results of these studies and
experiments has been undertaken by the 'PATCH consortium', a group of national
libraries and archives, universities, research institutions and ICT-companies.
This PATCH initiative is aiming at a technological framework to promote
continuous development of solutions for permanent access.
PATCH 'Creating
the Permanent Access Toolbox for digital Cultural Heritage' is an Integrated
Project proposed by the 'PATCH - Consortium' in April 2003 to the EC for
co-funding within the 6th Framework Programme. The total costs for PATCH are
estimated to be 12,700 K€. For a short summary see Annex 4.
The status
at the moment of writing this report is that, although PATCH has been qualified
in the evaluation process as a strategic and good proposal, the European
Commission will probably not co-fund this initiative within the actual
programme.
NDIIP 'Preserving our Digital Heritage. Plan for the National
Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. A Collaborative
Initiative of the Library of Congress.' (October 2002). The costs of this plan
will amount up to a total of 175,000 US K$ and is substantially co-funded by
the Congress of the USA. Information on the status of NDIIP can be found on the
website of the Library of Congress.
On the PADI website is a section with information on persistent identifiers, offering a comprehensive overview of current tools and practices. All CDNL members are invited to contribute to the section on persistent identifiers in order to share their experiences.
In the CDNL meeting last year it was agreed that Wim van Drimmelen
would approach the International DOI Foundation (IDF) seeking gratis membership
of the Foundation to enable CDNL to monitor DOI progress. The director of the
IDF, Norman Paskin, had approached a number of individual national libraries,
but it was the general consensus that some form of consortial membership was
preferable to individual membership. This matter was taken further by CENL, as
CDNL is not a legal entity and therefore could not join the IDF. CENL could be
a formal member, as it is a legal entity under Dutch law. However, a decision
on CENL membership can only be taken at the annual meeting of the Board of
Directors in September 2003. To be able to move forward, it was proposed that a
temporary consortium of national libraries would jointly become member of the
IDF.
The IDF considered a joint approach through an informal consortium an
acceptable first step, but did not agree with gratis membership. After a
discussion in the CoBRA Forum (the CENL Standing Committee for projects) on
April 9th in The Hague, The British Library, Die Deutsche Bibliotheek and the
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, joined the IDF as a consortium for a reduced annual
fee (see annex 2 for the press release). Johan Steenbakkers, secretary of the
CDI, will act as the official representative of the consortium.
The consortium is able to influence IDF developments as well as benefit from information and participation. Others than the official representative may participate in working groups. The consortium is entitled to one "participation", which is not always restricted to one individual, depending on circumstances and needs. The benefits of membership participation flow downward to subsidiaries of members. In the case of CENL, this means that national libraries are (for IDF's purposes) "subsidiaries" of CENL. The monthly report for example would be sent to the CENL representative, and could certainly be seen by the members of the consortium. However the IDF does not wish this to be distributed in its entirety to the whole CENL or CDNL list - the aim is exchange of relevant information. If the representative sees something that is of mutual interest, it can be brought to the attention of the library community; or the CENL representative can inform the IDF of some relevant library work.
As a legal body CENL could become a member of the IDF. Formal IDF membership will be discussed at the CENL annual meeting in Vilnius (Lithuania) in September. As the outcome is uncertain, the possibility of other national libraries joining the consortium of BL, DDB and KB could be discussed at the CDNL meeting in Berlin.
In several countries actions have been undertaken to extend their deposits agreements to incorporate the depositing of electronic publications. These actions differ from country to country, depending on the character of the deposit agreements (legal or voluntary depositing). But also within similar frameworks, the content of the agreements is still very different. The CDI is trying to promote some convergence by maintaining an overview of (draft) deposit agreements in a special section on the PADI website. However several countries described in this PADI section, have yet to update the information on their deposit agreements.
Gerard van Trier and Yola de Lusenet (ECPA) started talks with IPA with the aim of carrying out the decision of CDNL to prepare a joint statement of CDNL and IPA on codes of practice for the voluntary deposit of electronic publication. This would be a follow-up of the joint statement of CENL and the Federation of European Publishers, which is being updated.
In updating the PADI section on deposit agreements it is appropriate to also incorporate the results of the joint efforts of libraries and publishers (CENL & FEP, IFLA & IPA) in the field of depositing electronic publications (in addition to the initiatives of individual countries).
Die Deutsche Bibliothek took the initiative to establish the IFLA-CDNL Alliance for Bibliographic Standards (ICABS) as a follow-up to the former UBCIM core activity, which was hosted by Die Deutsche Bibliothek from 1990 to the beginning of 2003. IFLA decided to support the initiative. The six partners of the Alliance (BL, DDB, KB, LoC, NLA and NLP) will meet on August 7th during the IFLA conference in Berlin. ICABS aims:
There is a considerable overlap between the aims of ICABS and the aims
of two CDI Work Groups: (a) Work Group Bibliographic Standards (promote common
solutions) and (b) Work Group Digital Preservation (promote collaborative
research, raise awareness). Maintaining both CDI and ICABS would mean a
considerable duplication of work. On June 6th Wim van Drimmelen consulted the
CDI members on a proposal to merge the two bodies. ICABS would provide the
governance structure and could profit from CDI's organisational structure,
which was set up last year. The NLA would continue to co-ordinate the work of
CDI's third Group (on Deposit Agreements) as a separate international activity.
It was agreed that duplication of work must be avoided. Die Deutsche
Bibliothek prefers to start ICABS with a small group of libraries, which could
be enlarged at a later stage. It would take some time for ICABS to prepare for
a concrete start. It is proposed that CDNL take the decision to discontinue
CDI; relevant CDI activities will gradually be transferred to ICABS. The Chair
and Secretary of CDI will monitor the transition process and provide any
assistance when needed.
The committee on digital issues is established under the chairmanship of Wim van Drimmelen (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Netherlands). The committee members are:
NLA Jan Fullerton
LC Winston Tabb
BL Lynne Brindley
NLC
Roch Carrier
HUL Kai Ekholm
DDB Elisabeth Niggemann
KB Chair: Wim
van Drimmelen
Secretary: Johan Steenbakkers
Mission statement
The Committee on digital issues was established by the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL) to promote concerted actions for the benefit of core national library tasks in the digital environment.
The International DOI Foundation (IDF) announces that an informal consortium of three major national libraries -- The British Library (UK), Die Deutsche Bibliothek (Germany) and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Netherlands) -- has joined the International DOI Foundation.
This General Membership results from actions proposed by the IFLA/IPA Steering Group in 2002, which recognised that national libraries are best placed to lead DOI adoption within the library community, in particular given their role in associating bibliographic information to national collections. IFLA's 2003 meeting resolved that it would encourage libraries, and especially national libraries, to join the IDF. Parallel to this the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL) decided at its annual meeting in Edinburgh (2002) to explore the possibilities of national libraries joining the IDF as a consortium. Following a consultation procedure between IDF and six national libraries present at an informal meeting in Frankfurt, October last year, the BL, DDB and the KB are joining the IDF, in anticipation of a proposal for membership being considered by the Conference of European National Librarians. The CENL Board of Directors will decide on formal IDF membership of CENL at its meeting in Vilnius in September.
Through this relationship, a selection of DOI information that is
directly relevant for national libraries will be made available via the
consortium to the wider CENL and CDNL community.
Dr. Wim van Drimmelen,
Director General of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek which will be the co-ordinator
of the consortium, said "I am looking forward to our co-operation, which I hope
will be to the benefit of libraries as well as publishers."
Dr. Norman Paskin, Director of the International DOI Foundation, said: "We are delighted to welcome this group of leading libraries, and to have their support for our work on a persistent and extensible identification and metadata infrastructure for intellectual property. Our recent work with DOI applications and services will be of particular interest to the library community."
Further information:
Press contacts:
Norman Paskin International DOI Foundation: n.paskin@doi.orgJohan Steenbakkers, Koninklijke Bibliotheek: johan.steenbakkers@kb.nl
(draft version 0.4, March 2003)
The Committee on digital issues was established by the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (CDNL) to promote concerted actions for the benefit of core national library tasks in the digital environment.
The Committee was established in August 2001, as a merger of two existing CDNL working groups:
1. The CDNL committee on digital preservation was established at the CDNL meeting in Jerusalem (August 2000). It consisted of three members: Jan Fullerton (NLA), Winston Tabb (LC) and Wim van Drimmelen (KB) as chair. During 2001, the committee initiated the drafting of a UNESCO Resolution on Digital Preservation and undertook the necessary measures for the adoption of the Resolution at the UNESCO Conference in Paris in October 2001.
2. The CDNL Task Force on persistent identifiers, chaired by Winston Tabb (LC), was established earlier to exchange information and to identify requirements for persistent naming from both national and global perspectives. In this context, the Helsinki University Library of Finland drafted an informational RFC on 'Using National Bibliography Numbers as URNs', which was submitted to the Internet standardisation body last year.
The name given to the Committee on Digital Issues (CDI) is suitably vague and neutral to encompass all digital library issues - but the Committee has expressed the need to define and scope its own work programme and to prioritise the issues it wants to tackle.
It was decided to start with a 2-year work programme that will address the following three issues:
The common interests of national libraries delimit the scope of the Work Programme. The issue addressed by each Work Group relates to a core task of national libraries.
The secretary of the Committee Gerard van Trier (KB) will write up a yearly report about the Committee's work and achievements, to be submitted to the annual CDNL meeting.
(WG-DP Co-ordinator: Johan Steenbakkers)
Activities Results Timeframe Origin Goal 1.UNESCO Resolution2.Contribute to UNESCO Memory of the World Project: Preserving our digital heritage.3.Research & Standardisation UNESCO Resolution adopted UNESCO CharterSection on Digital Preservation Research in the PADI websiteInternational Collaborative Research Initiative Oct 2000 - Oct 20012002-2003Aug 2001 - Aug 2002 2002 - 2003 NEDLIB project NEDLIB project Awareness raisingpromote collaborative research Experts Email Library Johan SteenbakkersHelen ShentonDeborah WoodyardUte SchwensHans LiegmannJukka KervinenMarko TenkanenMark RoosaColin WebbFay Hjartarson Alison BullockBill Newman Johan.steenbakkers@kb.nlmroo@loc.gov KB BLBLDDBDDBHULHULLoCNLANLCNLCNLC
(WG-BSA Co-ordinator: Sally McCallum)
Activities Results Timeframe Origin Goal 1.Overview of current practices and tools Section on Persistent Identifiers in the PADI website Aug 2001 -Aug 2002 CDNL Task Force on PI promote common solutions Experts Email Library Sally McCallumRobert SmithKathrin SchröderRenate GömpelMarit Olander Margaret Philips Marg StewartFay Hjartarson LoCBLDDBDDBHULNLANLCNLC
(WG-DA Co-ordinator: Pamela Gatenby)
Activities Results Timeframe Origin Goal 1.Promote adoption of the CENL/FEP codes of practice at the int'l level2.Overview of deposit agreements concerning digital material CDNL/IPA Statement on deposit code of practiceSection on Deposit Agreements in the PADI website 2002-2003Aug 2001 -Aug 2002 newnew Promote common understandingbest practices Experts Email Library Pamela Gatenby John Byford Ute Schwens Johan Steenbakkers Gerard van TrierJani StenvallNancy Davenport Ingrid ParentLibby Martin Pgatenby@nla.gov.au NLABLDDBKBKBHULLoCNLCNLC
PATCH - Creating the 'Permanent Access Toolbox for digital Cultural Heritage' Proposal for an Integrated Project within the 6th Framework Programme of the EC, April 2003
The information we use at home and work is increasingly digital. Computers have become an integral part of our daily lives and it is now hard to believe that the Internet has only been in existence for a few years. Nowadays we depend heavily on digital information in a wide variety of forms including text, images, sound, video, as well as, combinations of these different media types. At the same rate at which our world is becoming digital, our information is threatened. New types and versions of computer applications and file formats supersede each other, making our recorded digital information inaccessible.
Memory institutions, as the custodians of our cultural heritage, contend with a growing quantity of digital documents. These institutions have the same mission with both analogue and digital materials, which is to make the items available over the long-term. However, they are confronted with the issue of limited durability of digital items and are forced to look for solutions to the digital preservation problem. ICT companies have only recently become aware of the relatively short-term accessibility of digital objects. The current generation of archival systems have been designed to preserve digital information for the long term. Still to be resolved is how to access this stored information: how can we render digital information and view/listen to it, now and in the future?
A group of national libraries and archives, universities, research institutions and ICT companies have joined forces to build tools to provide permanent access to stored digital objects. All of these organisations have had experience in archiving digital information and have also started research in several digital preservation areas, including development of rendering solutions. To avoid duplicate efforts, to benefit from each others experiences, and to design, build and test various potential solutions, these organisations wish to work together in a project called PATCH: Permanent Access Toolbox for Digital Cultural Heritage.
The PATCH partners will create a technological framework (the PATbox) to promote continuous development of solutions for permanent access. Various tools for permanent access will be built and tested in a variety of environments (archives, libraries, and scientific institutions). During the project the tools will be compared, general guidelines will be drawn up and interoperability will be reviewed. PATCH will also try to induce a change in the way in which the ICT sector designs systems and software. This change requires that persistence of digital information is a design criterion for systems, rather than an inevitable problem for which late stage, makeshift measures have to be provided. If we do not act now an increasingly large quantity of digital information will be lost forever.
1 KB Koninklijke Bibliotheek Project co-ordinator & WP3 The
Netherlands
2 BL The British Library WP 1 leader United Kingdom
3 NA UK
National Archives WP 2 leader United Kingdom
4 CNES Centre National
d'Etudes Spatiales WP 4 leader France
5 BNF Bibliothèque National de
France WP 5 leader France
6 LU University of Leeds WP 6 leader United
Kingdom
7 DPC Digital Preservation Coalition WP 7 leader United Kingdom
8 IBM IBM-Nederland partner The Netherlands
9 DDB Die Deutsche
Bibliothek partner Germany
10 UKOLN University of Bath (UKOLN) partner
United Kingdom
11 BTUD Bibliotheek Technische Universiteit Delftpartner The
Netherlands
12 NANETH Nationaal Archief partner The Netherlands
13 KBD
Det Kongelige Bibliotek partner Denmark
14 SBD Statsbibliotheket partner
Denmark
15 KBS Schweizerische Landesbibliothek partner Switzerland
17
SAD Statens Arkiver partner Denmark
RAND-Europe The Netherlands
Tessella United Kingdom
ERPANET
Europe
CENL (Conference of European National Librarians) Europe
ICA
(International Council on Archives) World-wide
CDNL (Conference of
Directors of National Libraries) World-wide
NLA (National Library of
Australia) Australia
LoC (Library of Congress) USA