Adrian Brown – författare

A practical guide to the development and operation of digital preservations services for organizations of any size Practical Digital Preservation offers a comprehensive overview of best practice and is aimed at the non-specialist, assuming only a basic understanding of IT. The book provides guidance as to how to implement strategies with minimal time and resources. Digital preservation has become a critical issue for institutions of all sizes but until recently has mostly been the preserve of national archives and libraries with the resources, time and specialist knowledge available to experiment. As the discipline matures and practical tools and information are increasingly available the barriers to entry are falling for smaller organizations which can realistically start to take active steps towards a preservation strategy. However, the sheer volume of technical information now available on the subject is becoming a significant obstacle and a straightforward guide is required to offer clear and practical solutions. Each chapter in Practical Digital Preservation covers the essential building blocks of digital preservation strategy and implementation, leading the reader through the process. International case studies from organizations such as the Wellcome Library, Central Connecticut State University Library in the USA and Gloucestershire Archives in the UK illustrate how real organizations have approached the challenges of digital preservation. Key topics include: • Making the case for digital preservation • Understanding your requirements • Models for implementing a digital preservation service • Selecting and acquiring digital objects • Accessioning and ingesting digital objects • Describing digital objects • Preserving digital objects • Providing access to users • Future trends. Readership: Anyone involved in digital preservation and those wanting to get a better understanding of the process, students studying library and information science (LIS), archives and records management courses and academics getting to grips with practical issues.

The world wide web is arguably the most important, and certainly the largest and most ubiquitous, cultural and commercial information resource in existence. The requirements to actively preserve selected parts of it, and the attendant problems of archiving such a vast and ephemeral entity, are only now beginning to be fully appreciated. This important book is the first to offer practical guidance to information-management professionals seeking to implement web archiving programmes of their own. It is essential reading for those who need to collect and preserve specific elements of the web - from national domains or individual subject areas to an organization''s own website. Drawing on the author''s experience of managing The National Archives'' web-archiving programme, together with lessons learned from other international initiatives, this book provides a comprehensive overview of current best practice, together with practical guidance for anyone seeking to establish a web-archiving programme. It assumes only a basic understanding of IT and web technologies, although it also offers much for more technically oriented readers. Contents include: the development of web archiving; selection; collection methods; quality assurance and cataloguing; preservation; delivery to users; legal issues; managing a web-archiving programme; and; future trends. Written to address audiences from the whole spectrum of information-management sectors, this book is essential reading for three types of reader: policy-makers, who need to make decisions about establishing or developing an institutional web archiving programme; information-management professionals, who may be required to implement a web-archiving programme; and website owners and webmasters, who may be required to facilitate archiving of their own websites.

This very practical guide, offering a comprehensive overview of best practice, is aimed at the non-specialist, assuming only a basic understanding of IT and offering guidance as to how to implement strategies with minimal time and resources. Digital preservation has become a critical issue for institutions of all sizes but until recently has mostly been the preserve of national archives and libraries with the resources, time and specialist knowledge available to experiment. However, as the discipline matures and practical tools and information are increasingly available the barriers to entry are falling for smaller organizations which can realistically start to take active steps towards a preservation strategy. However, the sheer volume of technical information now available on the subject is becoming a significant obstacle and a straightforward guide is required to offer clear and practical solutions. Each chapter covers the essential building blocks of digital preservation strategy and implementation including: making the case for digital preservation; understanding your requirements; models for implementing a digital preservation service; selecting and acquiring digital content; accessioning and ingesting digital objects; describing digital objects; preserving digital objects; providing access to users; future trends. This is an essential handbook for anyone involved in digital preservation in medium or smaller sized organizations and those wanting to get a better understanding of the process. It''s also a useful guide to digital preservation basics for students studying library and information science, archives and records management courses and academics getting to grips with practical issues.