Special Session 12

5 July 2012
Long-term preservation… from the stars? File format assessment and technical issues in preservation projects for cultural resources

The aim of this meeting is to compare institutional experiences in a panel discussion on methods for implementing long-term preservation of digital cultural resources, including technical issues and strategies.

Organizer: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana

Program

Opening – chair Lucio Chiappetti

11:00 – 11:15  Rosa Caffo – Direttore dell’Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo unico delle Biblioteche italiane

11.15-11.45: Opening – chair
Lucio Chiappetti The Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) Format

11.45-12.15 Luciano Ammenti The FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) Format: 50 Years of Experience in Long-Term Digital Conservation

12.15.12.45 Bedrich Vychodil DIFFER (Determinator of Image File Format propERties)

12.45-13.00 Discussion

13.00-14.30 Lunch

14.30-15.00 Stefano Allegrezza ?Flexible Image Transport System: a new standard file format for long-term preservation projects??

15.00-15.30 Michael Seadle The Elements of Authenticity in Digital Preservation

15.30-16.00 Giovanni Michetti Digital Preservation: No One-Size-Fits-All Format

16.00-16.30 Coffee Break

16.30-16.45 Discussion

16.45-17.15 Thomas Ledoux Long-term preservation at the National Library of France: the Scalable Preservation and Archiving Repository (SPAR)

17.15-17.30 Discussion and Conclusion

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Abstracts of the talks

The Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) Format
Lucio Chiappetti, chair (INAF IASF Milano, Italy)
on behalf of the IAU FITS Working Group

The Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) data format was established by astronomers in 1979 as a mean of interchange of multiwavelength images among institutions. It has been endorsed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1983 and has become the de facto standard for archiving of astronomical data (of all sorts, not just images) and accompanying metadata, as well as a working format for many analysis software packages, and a MIME datatype (RFC 4047).
An important feature of FITS (currently mantained as a standard by the IAU FITS Working Group) is that its structure is completely specified in documents published in refereed scientific journals. In addition the “once FITS forever FITS” principle establishes that “any structure that is a valid FITS structure shall remain a valid FITS structure at all future times”.The main technical aspects of FITS will be presented, including the possibility of defining conforming extensions, and conventions for specific applications, for which the IAU mantains a registry. Ultimately the idea would be to assess the needs of non-astronomical users, and discuss the best way to contribute to feasible technical solutions.

The FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) Format: 50 Years of Experience in Long-Term Digital Conservation
Luciano Ammenti (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City State)

At the beginning of every digital conservation project. it is very important to clearly establish certain important parameters which will define and guide the workflow to be maintained.

For this reason, one must analyze, test and verify the type of device to be used, whether a planetary scanner or a camera body which is better adapted to the collections to be digitized.

One must also define the calibration instrument of the device which will allow checking of the quality of the acquired images; the file conservation format and the visualization format; and the conservation parameters of the various formats, the definition of the storage for the planned project and the necessary procedures for disaster recovery.

The Vatican Library, in collaboration with various technological partners, has carefully analyzed all these parameters during a two-year test bed procedure.

The results of this important test have generated the guidelines which will be observed in the course of all digital conservation projects.

DIFFER (Determinator of Image File Format propERties)
Bedrich Vychodil (The National Library of the Czech Republic)

DIFFER (Determinator of Image File Format propERties) Developing preservation processes for a trusted digital repository requires the utilization of new methods and technologies, which have helped to accelerate the whole process of control. The current approach at the Digital Preservation Standards Department at The National Library of the Czech Republic is to develop a quality control application for still image file formats capable of performing identification, characterization, validation and visual/mathematical comparison integrated into an operational digital preservation framework. The online application DIFFER utilises existing tools (JHOVE, FITS, ExifTool, KDU_expand, DJVUDUMP, Jpylyzer, etc.), which are mainly used separately across a whole spectrum of existing projects. This open source application comes with a well-structured and uniform GUI, which helps the user to understand the relationships between various file format properties, detect visual and non-visual errors and simplifies decision-making. An additional feature called compliance-check is designed to help us check the required specifications of the JPEG2000 file format.

Flexible Image Transport System: a new standard file format for long-term preservation projects?
Stefano Allegrezza (Università di Udine, Italy)

For the long term preservation of the images acquired in its large-scale digitization project, involving more than eighty thousand manuscripts, the Vatican Library has chosen to employ the FITS file format, rather than other more common file formats (such as TIFF, BMP, JPG, etc.). At first sight, this decision might appear, to say the least, unusual, since, although the FITS file format has been used in astronomy for more than thirty years, it has not been used previously, as far as it is possible to ascertain, for the long-term storage of data produced in digitization projects. However, analyzing the format specifications, some features emerge that make it a very interesting format in terms of digital preservation.

The presentation evaluates the characteristics of the FITS file format and discusses whether it can become the “standard file format” to be used in digitization projects in order to ensure the long-term preservation of digital assets, already acquired or to be acquired, by libraries and archives.

The Elements of Authenticity in Digital Preservation
Michael Seadle (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)

In the physical world authenticity is largely a matter of custody and provenance. In the digital world these concepts have a different meaning, in part because digital documents can easily and invisibly be changed.  Digital preservation is largely a matter of multiple copies and the integrity of these copies is one of the key elements in establishing authenticity. A single custodian lowers the barriers for making alterations and provenance becomes a question of the chain of copies. This presentation will discuss the technical and social aspects of these and other elements of authenticity in digital preservation.

Digital Preservation: No One-Size-Fits-All Format
Giovanni Michetti (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada)

Long-term preservation in the digital environment demands a deep understanding of preserved objects along with their relevant features: it is not just a matter of data longevity, it is rather a matter of knowledge/context longevity. Therefore, any long-term preservation strategy must clearly identify the objectives of the preservation action in order to analyze and evaluate the organizational, procedural, economical and technological issues accordingly.

Digital formats are a relevant component of any preservation strategy because their technical features should support the preservation objectives. Therefore, it is fundamental to analyze format properties in order to evaluate if they match the preservation requirements. To this aim, classification schemes may help: disclosure, robustness, dependence on specific hardware and/or software, documentation, and widespread adoption, are only some of the relevant aspects that need attention, and upon which a matrix for evaluation may be built. In addition, understanding the relevance of technical features not only per se but in the light of broader preservation requirements (e.g., authenticity), is key to any preservation process.

Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all format: conflicting factors need to be balanced in order to identify the best option for a specific environment or project, carefully weighing the different criteria adopted for assessment.

Long-term preservation at the National Library of France: the Scalable Preservation and Archiving Repository (SPAR)
Thomas Ledoux (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris)

The National Library of France has been designing a scalable preservation and archiving repository (SPAR) for more than 8 years in order to meet its main mission: long-term preservation and access of all its collection.

Based on the standard of the reference model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS), elaborated by the spatial community, the SPAR system is able to deal with the huge variety (diversity of provenance, format and legal status) of digital content the library collects and produces.

After more than 3 years of development, the system is been running since May 2010 to preserve all the digitized collection and is expending to the other material (audiovisual, web harvesting as well as third party content). Its design provides modularity, flexibility and independence from the storage infrastructure.

One of the main goals of the system is to be trusted by the users. Among the features, we can mention: an audit trail for every action made, the self-contained structure of the digital package and the auto-documentation of the system itself. Finally, every decision made is the result of the service level agreements that have been contracted between the Archive and the community of users.