Contents:
- Abstract
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Background
- 3. Automated Preservation Watch
- Sources of Information
- 5. A Monitoring System
- 6. Monitoring Scenarios and Events
- 7. Discussion and Outlook
- 8. References
This article analyses and investigates the feasibility of drawing sufficient information from diverse sources together and linking it in a meaningful way in order to enable an automated “preservation watch”. After an introduction, section 2 outlines the background of monitoring in the context of preservation and illustrates typical information sources that are of relevance. In Section 3 a model of drivers, events, conditions and triggers for preservation watch is presented. Section 4 describes the various sources of information that are being leveraged. Section 5 summarises the key design goals of a preservation watch system and presents a high-level design of the Watch component. Section 6 illustrates typical conditions and benefits of the approach in a scenario based on a real-world preservation planning case, while Section 7 summarises key risks and benefits and outlines the next steps ahead. The authors are from the Vienna University of Technology, KEEP Solutions and the University of Minho. Part of the work was supported by the EU in the 7th Framework Program through the SCAPE project. The paper was presented at the IPRES 2012 Conference in Toronto, Canada.
This article describing a high level preservation monitoring tool design, illustrates the complexity and importance of implementing preservation monitoring in digital repositories. It addresses an essential problem, how, in a repository storing millions of files, to monitor internal systems as well as external developments automatically, in order to enable successful preservation operations. It correctly exposes deficiencies in some of the currently available monitoring resources (such as registries and software catalogs) and makes a good case on the need to fill the knowledge gap by harnessing shared data from preservation repositories. The complex design itself is just in development, but the paper is useful for its overview of the what and why of monitoring, types of monitoring resources and how it stresses the need to share information among institutions involved in preservation management.