Report: Preserving Geospatial Data

From email...

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The Digital Preservation Coalition is delighted to announce an important addition to its series of Technology Watch Reports:

Preserving Geospatial Data by Guy McGarva of the University of Edinburgh, with contributions from Steve Morris (NCSU) and Greg Janée (UCSB).
http://www.dpconline.org/docs/reports/dpctw09-01.pdf

'Increasingly large amounts of geospatial data are being created and collected.' Explained Guy McGarva, principal author. 'Much of this data has long term value but its preservation is a complex problem caused not least by the variety of formats. It is very important that people understand the approaches and actions that need to be considered when preserving geospatial data with the aim of ensuring future access.'

The report is designed for repository managers and archivists who may be expected to preserve and manage geospatial data but don't have a background in geospatial sciences. The report provides an advanced introduction to the often daunting world of geospatial data management and it supports efforts to ensure that these valuable and complex data sets can be secured for future generations.

Key recommendations of the report pertain to formats, metadata and the systems used to manage geospatial data. They also underline the need for careful rights management when preserving commercially sensitive third party data.

This report is the seventh in the series - previous reports have included hot topics such as the preservation of PDF files, the Jpeg 2000 standard, Preservation metadata, large scale storage, institutional repositories and the Open Archival Information System. Future reports Including File Format Selection and Web Archiving are in development.

Commenting on this latest addition, William Kilbride - Executive Director of the DPC - said, 'Geo-spatial technologies are set to become one of transformative technologies of the next decade. The growing prevalence of location-aware services already points to this. But time and space go together. This report sets a premium on long term access to spatial data, and it provides practical recommendations as to how to secure that long-term.'

'The Geodata Team within Edina have a well deserved reputation for supporting researchers and teachers.' He added. 'Services like Digimap have set a benchmark for access to complex spatial data. It is really pleasing to see that experience and expertise also looks to the long term.'

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Notes:
1. The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is a not-for profit membership organisation whose primary objective is to raise awareness of the importance of the preservation of digital material and the attendant strategic, cultural and technological issues. It acts as an enabling and agenda-setting body within the digital preservation world and works to meet this objective through a number of high level goals. Its vision is to make our digital memory accessible tomorrow. For more about the DPC see: http://www.dpconline.org/

2. EDINA is the JISC national academic data centre based at the University of Edinburgh*. Our mission and purpose is to 'enhance the productivity of research, learning and teaching' across all universities, research institutes and colleges in the UK. We do this by delivering first-rate online services and by working with support staff in university and colleges and with other partners in the academic community, and beyond, and by carrying out successful R&D projects. For more about EDINA see: http://edina.ac.uk/

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