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Showing posts from July, 2015

Archivematica for research data? The FAQs

Thinking of preserving research data? Wondering what Archivematica does? Interested in what it might cost? What follows is a series of FAQs put together by the "Filling the digital preservation gap" project team and included as part A of our phase 1 project report . We hope you find this useful in helping to work out whether Archivematica is something you could use for RDM. There are bound to be questions we haven't answered so let us know if you want to know more... ************************************************ Why do we need a digital preservation system for research data? Research data should be seen as a valuable institutional asset and treated accordingly. Research data is often unique and irreplaceable. It may need to be kept to validate or verify conclusions recorded in publications. Funder, publisher and often internal university requirements ask that research data is available for others to consult and is preserved in a usable form after the project that gener

Improving RDM workflows with Archivematica

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In a previous post we promised diagrams to help answer the 'How?' of the 'Filling the Digital Preservation Gap' project. In answer to this, here is a guest post by Julie Allinson, Manager of Digital York, who looks after all things Library and Archives IT. Having just completed phase one of a Jisc Research Data Spring project with the University of Hull, we have been thinking a lot about the potential phases two and three which we are hoping will follow. But even if we aren’t funded to continue the project, the work so far won’t be wasted here at York (and certainly the wider community will benefit from our project report !) as it has given us some space to look out our current RDM workflow and look for ways that might be improved on, particularly to include a level of curation and preservation. My perspective on all of this is to look at how things can fit together and I am a believer in using the right system for the right job. Out of lack of resource, or misunderstan

Archivematica fills the digital preservation gap – report now available

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Phase 1 of our Jisc Research Data Spring project “Filling the Digital Preservation Gap” is now complete. Over the 3 months of this project, the team from the Universities of York and Hull have been testing Archivematica, talking to other users, exploring the nature of research data, and thinking about workflows and the wider RDM infrastructure.  In conclusion, we are happy to recommend Archivematica as a solution for the preservation of research data for the following reasons: Source: Julie Allinson It is freely available It is an evolving and developing system It has an engaged international user community (who directly help fund and drive developments and improvements) It is configurable to the needs of different institutions Automated workflows can be created It is standards compliant We have produced a report that details our findings and this is now available on Figshare: http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1481170 The report has two distinct parts: Part A has been created as a