The%20Cedars%20Project

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The Cedars Project

• Kelly Russell
• Cedars Project Manager

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Background

• eLib Programme and related work in JISC raises
  issues about long term storage and access to
  electronic material
• eLib Phase 3 - Digital Preservation
• CURL interest in the roles and responsibilities
  for a research libraries
• Preservation Studies - JISC and the National
  Preservation Office

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JISC/NPO Studies

• Responsibility for Digital Archiving and Long
  Term Access to Digital Data
• A Framework of Data Types and Formats
• Post hoc rescue of digital materials (Digital
  Archaeology)
• Preservation of digital materials policy and
  strategy issues for the UK
• An Investigation into the Digital Preservation
  needs of Universities and Research Funders
• Guidelines for digital preservation
• Comparison of methods of digital preservation

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Cedars

• Funded by JISC through the Consortium of
  University Research Libraries (CURL) from April
  1998 for 3 yrs
• CURL Members
• Birmingham, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh,
  Glasgow, Imperial, Kings, Leeds, Liverpool,
  London, LSE, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham,
  Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, TCD, UCL, Warwick
• Associate members British Library, NLS, NLW,
  Wellcome
• Co-operating members SAS

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Collaborating Institutions

• CURL members
• Led by Leeds, Oxford and Cambridge
• Arts and Humanities Data Service
• Research Libraries Group
• British Library
• National Preservation Office
• UK Office for Library Networking

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Project Objectives

• To promote awareness
• To identify and disseminate
• appropriate strategies for collection management
• appropriate strategies for long-term preservation
• Practical work based on a realistic sampling of
  current digital resource collections

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Key Components

• Material which is the traditional preserve of the
  research library
• Intellectual content, not physical object
• Three flavours
• dynamic data
• primary sources
• intertwingled data
• Each raises different issues and problems

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Deliverables (1)

• Strategies for preservation which are
• grounded in realistically-scaled projects
• representative of a good spread of significant
  resources
• generalisable
• One or more possible models established for a
  digital archive

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Deliverables (2)

• Assess costs and resources required
• informed opinion on scaleability to national
  level
• Dissemination activities
• seminars, working papers, guides to good practice
• A focused investigation of preservation metadata
  (UKOLN)

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Summary

• Digital Preservation a pressing issue for
  research libraries
• CEDARS project funded by JISC and administered
  through CURL to explore the issues and
  implications for research collections
• 3 year project - start 1 April 1998
• http//www.curl.ac.uk/projects.shtml

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Web Address

• http//www.curl.ac.uk/projects.shtml