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Most of scientific research is now based on digital data resources,
and databases are playing an increasingly important role. Much of the
data is either impossible (e.g. climate and demographic data) to
reproduce or can only be recovered at enormous costs
(e.g. data from high energy physics experiments or space flight
missions). Nearly every reference manual, dictionary and
gazetteer benefits from some form of database management support, and
there has been an explosion in the number of curated databases in
biology. These databases represent a huge investment of human effort.
The need for preservation is self-evident.
While considerable thought has been given to the preservation of fixed
"digital objects" studied in the past, the preservation of databases,
which have an internal structure and which may change over time,
poses new challenges. Typically databases are centrally managed, and
their survival depends on the viability of commercial organisations or
the continued public funding of data centres. Libraries, the
traditional curators of scientific and scholarly reference material,
have largely abrogated their archival responsibility to
databases. Database preservation raises new technical, economic and
legal issues. For example:
- What are the salient features of a database that should be preserved?
- What are the different stages in the database preservation's life cycle?
- How do we keep archived databases readable and usable in the long term (at acceptable cost)?
- How do we separate the data from a specific database management environment?
- How can we preserve the original data semantics and structure?
- How can we preserve data while it continues to evolve?
- How can we have efficient preservation frameworks, while
retaining the ability to query different database versions?
- How can multi-user online access be provided to hundreds of archived
databases containing terabytes of data?
- Can we move from a centralised model to a distributed, redundant
model of database preservation?
- What documentation is preserved together with a database, and in what format?
- What are the legal encumbrances on database preservation?
- What can be learned from traditional archival appraisal for the
selection of databases for preservation?
- To what extent can the preservation strategies, and procedural policies developed
by archivists be adapted for databases?
The workshop aims to bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and
practitioners who will address archival issues associated with databases. All
participants’ presentations will be hosted by the workshop site and a short report
with the final conclusions of the workshop discussions will be published.
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