Peter Burnhill

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Digital Curation Centre
a centre of expertise in data curation and
preservation
Aims Organisation

• Peter Burnhill
• Director (Phase One)
• www.dcc.ac.uk

Funders
2
Overview

• Unifying Themes for the DCC
• Time for Digital Curation
• Aims Objectives
• Organisation to Succeed
• Plans Progress Beyond Phase One

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Trusted Repositories of Knowledge

• The Maori entrusted their knowledge to people,
  trained to be the repositories,who could
• receive information with the utmost accuracy
• store information with integrity beyond doubt
• retrieve the information without amendment
• apply appropriate judgement in the use of the
  information
• pass on the information appropriately.
• Whatarangi Winiata, (2002), Repositories of Röpü
  Tuku Iho A Contribution to the Survival of
  Mäori as a People, Wellington Library
  Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa
  Annual Conference, 17-20 November 2002
• Special thanks to Professors Derek Law Seamus
  Ross

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What is digital curation ...

• f(data curation digital preservation)
  other concerns
• data curation when high current/ongoing
  interest
• actions to make best use of digital data
  results over entire life-cycle
• adding value generating new forms of
  information, for use
• digital preservation for longevityfall off in
  interest
• long-run technological/legal accessibility
  usability
• storage, maintenance accessibility of
  information content in digital material over the
  long-term, for use
• of interest/relevance to designated community
  (OAIS concept)
• digital objects and data, over their life-cycle
  (records management)
• for current future generations of use ...

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Unifying Themes for the DCC

• data as evidence
• for understanding and decision
• for one or more designated communities
• archival responsibility
• at one or more institutional levels
• institutional policies individuals competence
• legal compliance agreement on procedures
• turn open access into continuing access
• turn costs into investment
• valuing flow of benefit from re-usable assets

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Time for Digital Curation

• problem of the moment
• data curation data deluge in e-science/research
• longevity of digital heritage research
  investment
• re-examining Communication in ICT
• Internet and GRID communication across
  space with utmost accuracy
• Digital Curation communication across time,
  with utmost accuracy
• ensure Content travels despite turbulence of IT
• agree strategies methods for digital
  preservation

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Aims Objectives for the DCC

• quality improvement in data curation
  digital preservation
• initial focus data as evidence for scholarly
  conclusions
• wider remit scholarly communication eLearning
• excellence in research excellence in service
• working with repositories, rather than being one
• connecting communities via Associates Network
• universities research institutes
• scientific data tradition document tradition
• international cross-sectoral

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Organisation to Engage Collaborate
curation organisations eg DPC
communities of practice users
community support outreach
service definition delivery
Collaborative Associates Network of
Data Organisations
management admin support
research collaborators
research
development co-ordination
testbeds tools
Industry
standards bodies
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Organisation to Succeed

• Phase One leadership over first eight months of
  funding
• Community Support Outreach
• Led by Dr Liz Lyon (UKOLN, University of Bath)
• Service Definition Delivery
• Led by Professor Seamus Ross (HATII ERPANET,
  University of Glasgow)
• Development
• Led by Dr David Giaretta (Astronomical Software
  Services, CCLRC)
• Research
• Led by Professor Peter Buneman (Informatics,
  University of Edinburgh)
• Management Co-ordination
• Director (Phase One) Peter Burnhill
• with Phase One Project Co-ordinator Robin Rice
  
• (both from EDINA Data Library, University of
  Edinburgh)
• Ex Portfolio Malcolm Atkinson (NeSC) Chris
  Rusbridge (UofGlasgow)

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Engage Communities of Practice

• with those who have responsibility
• to invoke/provoke good practices
• appraisal retention/disposal
• logical physical integrity authenticity/securit
  y
• place research in productive research domains
• eg Informatics, Law School, e-Science ...
• work on the RD, create services of relevance
• achieve virtuous circle
• turn products of research into tools for use

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Digital preservation approaches

• Migration Refreshment
• software media
• while interest ( funding) is active
• Emulation Encapsulation
• re-creating the IT environment
• Digital Archaeology Rescue
• urgent action to save key datasets
• Representation Information
• as well as bits
• formats and more

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Communities of Practice Social Sciences
(IASSIST)

• History of sharing
• split in responsibility and authority for data
  generation analysis
• economy of re-use recognised
• Data about people
• problems of privacy and confidentiality
  confronted early on
• Mixed blessing of agreed proprietary formats
  allows migration
• OSIRIS, SPSS, etc.
• Future-proofing - 30 years of data advocacy!
• tradition of data archiving data citation
• building new data standards out of common
  experience
• data archivists, data librarians the new
  digital curators?
• www.iassistdata.org

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Planning Progress

• plan for the Long, with 2020 Vision - 15years on
• large territory, and large expectation
• multi-disciplinary, multi data type, multi
  tradition/profession
• national and international, but also local and
  hidden from view
• a lot is going on
• we acknowledge trust and s for tasks in hand
• seek collaboration identify win-win-win
  scenarios
• now, having set the stage
• Engaging the Users Outreach Community Support
• Ensuring Curation Action Constructing Effective
  Services
• Preparing for the Future the RD Programme