Finalists: Portsmouth PhD student Angela Dappert, Professor David Anderson, Dr Janet Delve, and executive director of the Digital Preservation Coalition William Kilbride CREDIT: DPC/ Megan Taylor
Portsmouth experts in preserving our digital heritage – everything from CDs and digital art to databases, videogames and websites – have been shortlisted for international awards.
Their efforts were recognised at the House of Lords this week when three different aspects of their work appeared in the shortlists for Digital Preservation Coalition awards.
The University of Portsmouth group are the only UK university to have been shortlisted in the awards.
The categories in which the group are finalists are for making an outstanding contribution to research and innovation in digital preservation in the last two years, for which they were shortlisted twice; and for the most outstanding contribution to digital preservation in the last decade.
Dr Janet Delve, of the University of Portsmouth, led the development of the TOTEM database which was shortlisted in the category marking outstanding contribution to research and innovation in digital preservation in the last two years, and includes partners the universities of Cologne and Freiburg. Other members of the Portsmouth team included Dr Leo Konstantelos, Dr Antonio Ciuffreda, Dr Milena Dobreva and Professor David Anderson.
TOTEM describes computing environments needed for preserving all kinds of digital material.
Dr Ciuffreda was also involved in the nomination for the KEEP Emulation Framework, Europe’s first preservation project to concentrate entirely on emulation.
Ms Angela Dappert and Dr Delve also contributed to the international PREMIS library standard which was shortlisted in the category marking most outstanding contribution to digital preservation in the last decade.
Dr Delve said: “It is a real honour to be shortlisted in such prestigious awards and to win recognition of our work to find new ways of safeguarding this generation’s rich digital heritage for future generations.
“Our work has taken us into national libraries and archives across Europe and government departments. We have presented reports to the European Commission and shared our findings with the world’s thought leaders in digital preservation. The engine has been running on this work for some time now and will, eventually, mean the work lost to digital advances is minimised.”
Dr Delve, together with Professor Anderson and their partners have together worked on projects as diverse as KEEP; and the POCOS project which allows thought-leaders in preserving complex digital material such as 3D visualisations to share ideas and expertise and disseminate their findings and methods worldwide.
Chair of the Digital Preservation Coalition, Richard Ovenden, said major data losses continue to be suffered, and cited the examples of the lost content from the websites of now retired MPs Robin Cook and Claire Short, as well as the digital content on defunct firm Woolworths.
He said: “Digital preservation has a vital role to play in protecting some of the most dynamic and innovative sectors of the economy.”
The Digital Preservation Awards celebrate the excellence and innovation that will help to ensure our digital memory is available tomorrow.
This year’s Decennial Award marks the tenth anniversary of the awards and will be presented to the project, initiative or person that in the period 2002-2012, the judges assess to have made the most outstanding contribution to ensuring our digital memory is available in future. The shortlisted finalists will present their work to judges in November and the winners will be announced in December.
