Authenticity
The authenticity of a digital object refers to the degree of confidence a user can have that the object is the same as that expected based on a prior reference or that it is what it purports to be (See The CEDARS Glossary of Commonly Used Terms and BIBLINK Authentication of Electronic Publications).
The digital environment poses particular challenges for establishing authenticity. This is due to the ease with which digital material may be altered and copied, resulting in the possibility of a multiplicity of versions of a particular document.
Methods used in converting, storing, transmitting or rendering digital objects may result in distortions and therefore need to be documented. The process of migrating information from one system or format to another may result in changes which also need to be recorded.
Aspects such as a document's functionality, its dependence on particular software and its relationship to other documents are all features which need to be considered in the establishment of its authenticity.
A range of strategies for asserting the authenticity of digital resources has been developed: choice of a particular method will depend upon the purpose for which authenticity is required. Among these are the registration of unique document identifiers and the inclusion of metadata within well-defined metadata structures. Hashing and digital time stamping are 'public' methods which authenticate the existence of a document - in the case of the latter method, at a specific time.
Another class of methods for establishing authenticity includes encapsulation techniques and encryption strategies. A digital watermark can only be detected by appropriate software, and is primarily used for protection against unauthorised copying. Digital signatures are used to record authorship and people who have played a role in a document.
While this page has focused on the authenticity of digital resources, increased networking has resulted in a high level of activity in the area of authentication of users (the processes by which they can identify themselves), a vital aspect of access management systems. There is considerable overlap in the range of techniques which have been employed for ensuring secure access to digital information and those used for establishing the authenticity of digital objects.
Text last updated: Apr 1999
Acknowledgement
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ACM MM 2000: Electronic Proceedings
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
(Date Created: Nov 2000)
(United States of America)
- Proceedings of the 8th ACM International Conference on Multimedia 2000, October 30 - November 3, 2000, Los Angeles, CA, USA. ACMWebsite includes link to conference proceedings.
- http://www.sigmod.org/dblp/db/conf/mm/mm2000.html
-

Archiving the World Wide Web
Lyman, Peter
In: Building a National Strategy for Digital Preservation: Issues in Digital Media Archiving
(Date Created: Apr 2002)
(United States of America)
- A paper in the series of six environmental scans commissioned as part of the US National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), this article examines archiving the web from several perspectives. As well as technical issues, such as those involved in defining the digital object, authenticity and provenance and the technologies needed for preservation, the article considers the roles of librarians and computer scientists in managing digital material and organisational issues such as copyright and the responsibility to preserve.
- http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/web.html
- The collected papers are also available in PDF format via: http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub106abst.html
- Authentication
U.S. Government Printing Office
(Date Created: 13 Oct 2005)
(United States of America)
- This white paper was produced by the US GPO in recognition that confidentiality, integrity and non repudiation are critical elements for electronic government publications. The paper was produced to underpin the GPO's policy, procedures and guidelines on authentication.
- http://www.gpoaccess.gov/authentication/authenticationwhitepaperfinal.
pdf
-

Authenticity of Digital Resources : Towards a Statement of Requirements in the Research Process
Bearman, David; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA; Trant, Jennifer, Archives & Museum Informatics
In: D-Lib magazine
(Date Created: 15 Jun 1998)
- The authors of this article assert that further articulation of requirements for digital authenticity needs to occur before suitable mechanisms can be selected.
- ISSN: 1082-9873
- http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june98/06bearman.html
-

Authenticity of Electronic Records : a Report Prepared for UNESCO and the International Council on Archives
Millar, Laura
(Date Created: Jan 2004)
- This report, prepared for UNESCO and the International Council on Archives (ICA), extends the analysis and recommendations of the 2002 ICA report to UNESCO on authenticity of electronic records, especially with regard to developing countries. The central question addressed by this report is: what measures are necessary for records and archives professionals, especially in developing countries, to ensure the authenticity of electronic records and so ensure the preservation of, and continued access to this information.
- http://www.ica.org/en/node/30209
- ICA Study 13-2
-

Canonicalization : A Fundamental Tool to Facilitate Preservation and Management of Digital Information
Lynch, Clifford
In: D-Lib magazine
(Date Created: Sep 1999)
- This paper describes how canonical formats and canonicalization algorithms for various types of digital objects may be applied to help support the management of digital objects.
- http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september99/09lynch.html
-

Carrying Authentic, Understandable and Usable Digital Records Through Time
Bikson, T.; RAND-Europe; Rothenberg, J.
(Date Created: 6 Aug 1999)
- This report to the Dutch National Archives and Ministry of the Interior presents the results of a study to define a strategy and framework for the long-term management and preservation of digital governmental records. A "testbed" in which specific digital preservation techniques can be prototyped and evaluated is proposed.
- http://www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl/bibliotheek/docs/final-report_4.pdf
-
Conference Report: Information Ecologies: the impact of new information 'species'
Electronic Libraries Programme
(Date Created: Dec 1998)
(United Kingdom)
- A summary of this conference, held in York in December 1998, and organised by the Electronic Libraries Programme is followed by links to some of the conference presentations. Preservation issues are included as one of the strands of this conference.
- http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/events/information-ecologies/
-

Cumulative Notarization for Long-Term Preservation of Digital Signatures
Gritzalis, Dimitris; Lekkas, Dimitrios
(Date Created: 2004)
- This is a technical paper on the long-term validation of digital signatures. Some preservation approaches will depend on trust in digital signatures, however these will often have a shorter life-expectancy than the documents they are associated with. The authors propose a means of basing signature verification on only those trust relationships, data and technologies available at the time of verification.
- http://www.syros.aegean.gr/users/lekkas/pubs/j/2004COMPSEC.pdf
- Also published in Computers & Security, Vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 413-424
-
Digital Archiving : a Necessary Evil or New Opportunity?
Steenbakkers, Johan F.
(Date Created: 2004)
(Netherlands)
- This article focuses on the contribution of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB)- the National Library of the Netherlands in cooperating with publishers to secure the permanent archiving of electronic publications. It provides a brief overview of e-depot which is the KB's deposit system, a description of the technology involved and the evolving nature of the relationship between the KB and electronic journal publishers.
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W63-4BV52PK
-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221 &_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3ab0c901795f97b1a891e20529da4 e85
- Also available in Serials Review, Vol. 30, no. 1 (Spring 2004) and for purchase from Science Direct.
- Digital Authenticity and Integrity : Digital Cultural Heritage Documents as Research Resources
Bradley, Rachel
(Date Created: 2005)
(United States of America; Canada)
- This article presents the results of a survey conducted in 2003 on how organizations and staff in the U.S. and Canada view the importance of authenticity and integrity in their digital repositories. The author discusses the survey's finding that authenticity and integrity represented a low priority compared to increasing access and preserving content.
- http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v005/5.2
bradley.html
- Portal : Libraries and the Academy, Vol. 5, no. 2 (2005), E-ISSN: 1530-7131
- Digital Containers for Shipment into the Future
Boudrez, Filip
(Date Created: Jul 2005)
(Belgium)
- This article (15 p.) discusses the eDavid preservation strategy which was based on recommendations of the DAVID project. It also discusses encapsulation as a storage strategy and and the XML schemas developed for the preservation programme.
- http://www.expertisecentrumdavid.be/docs/digital_containers.pdf
- Article also available in Dutch.
- Digital Preservation : Architecture and Technology for Trusted Digital Repositories
Giarlo, Michael J.; Jantz, Ronald
In: D-Lib magazine
(Date Created: Jun 2005)
- This article discusses the importance of establishing and maintaining trust and authenticity throughout the lifecycle of records within academic digital repositories. It gives an overview of technologies for enabling permanence and trust such as Persistent Identifiers, PIDs and naming conventions. The digital preservation architecture at Rutgers University Libraries digital repository is used to demonstrate this approach.
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1045/june2005-jantz
- http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june05/jantz/06jantz.html
-
Digital Preservation Conference: Report from York, UK
Beagrie, Neil; Dale, Robin
In: RLG DigiNews
(Date Created: Dec 2000)
- This is a review of the Preservation 2000 conference and Information Infrastructures for Digital Preservation workshop held in York, UK in December 2000.
- http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070511/viewer/file1
073.html#feature2
- RLG DigiNews Vol 4: No 6
- Digital Signature Dilemma
Blanchette, Jean-Francois
(Date Created: 2004)
- This article focusses on the use of digital signatures in the long term preservation of digital documents. Two differing concepts of electronic authenticity are discussed - physical, or bitwise integrity, and contextual.
- http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/blanchette/papers/annals.pdf
- Annals of Telecommunications preprint for publication May/June 2006
- Digital Signatures and Electronic Records
Boudrez, Filip
(Date Created: Jul 2005)
(Belgium)
- The first part of this article canvasses the use of digital signatures as proof of authenticity and intregity. The second half of the article discusses issues with the long term archiving of digitally signed documents and offers some solutions.
- http://www.expertisecentrumdavid.be/docs/digitalsignatures.pdf
- Article also available in Dutch.
-

E-Government and Digital Preservation
Dumortier, Jos
(Date Created: May 2003)
- This paper was presented at the Workshop on
E-Government: Legal, Technical and Pedagogical Aspects at Albarracín (Spain), 8-10th May 2003.
The paper discusses digital signatures within the context of digital archiving. Digital signatures are used to authenticate the originator and the integrity of information. The article discusses the long term validation of digital signatures and the implications of this for emulation and migration preservation strategies.
- http://www.unizar.es/derecho/fyd/lefis/documentos/Albareccin_JosDumort
ier.pdf
-
E-print Services and Long-term Access to the Record of Scholarly and Scientific Research
Day, Michael
In: Ariadne
(Date Created: 22 Jun 2001)
- This article considers some of the long-term preservation issues for e-print services (or archives), a potential application of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). Some of the major implications such as responsibility for preservation, and authenticity are discussed.
- http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/metadata/
-

Guide to Social Science Data Preparation and Archiving
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
(Last Updated: 2009)
- This is ICPSR's (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) guide to the task of preparing data for deposit in a public archive. It is mostly focused on quantitative data generated by statistical software like SPSS or SAS. Third edition 2005. Fourth edition 2009.
- http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/access/dpm.htm
l
- Site archived by the Internet Archive.
-
IASSIST 2000 : Data in the Digital Library: social, spatial, and government data services: Electronic Presentation Archive
University of Chicago
(Date Created: Jun 2000)
(United States of America)
- Presentations at the 26th conference of the International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) related to managing, preserving and providing access to digital collections in archives and libraries.
- http://www.src.uchicago.edu/datalib/ia2000/presentations/presentation.
htm
-

Integrity and Authenticity of Digital Cultural Heritage Objects
DigiCult Consortium
(Date Created: Aug 2002)
- The first of three thematic issue papers from the Preservation and Enhancement of Cultural Heritage Unit of the Information Society Directorate General of the European Commission addresses issues of preservation of the integrity and authenticity of digital objects. Amongst the articles are a discussion of what constitutes authenticity, a paper outlining the level at which authenticity should be addressed, a listing of standards and projects, and an argument for cooperation. The journal is illustrated with case studies from traditional archives as well as sound and vision archives.
- http://www.digicult.info/downloads/thematic_issue_1_final.pdf
-

Intellectual Preservation : Electronic Preservation of the Third Kind
Graham, Peter S., Syracuse University Library
(Date Created: 15 Mar 1994)
- The need for intellectual preservation arises because the great asset of digital information is also its great liability: the ease with which an identical copy can be quickly and flawlessly made is paralleled by the ease with which a change may undetectably be made. This paper examines three possibilities for causes of changes in electronic texts and suggests that digital time stamping is one solution being offered to the problem of intellectual preservation.
- http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/graham/intpres.html
-
Intellectual preservation and electronic intellectual property
Graham, Peter S., Syracuse University Library
(Date Created: 1993)
- Three possible solutions for authenticating electronic texts are described: encryption, hashing and digital time-stamping.
- http://archive.ifla.org/documents/infopol/copyright/graham.txt
- InterPARES 2 : a Progress Report
Duranti, Luciana; Moore, Shaunna
In: DigiCULT.Info Newsletter
(Date Created: Oct 2005)
- This article describes the activities, including projects and case studies, of InterPARES 2. The projects include modelling, terminology, policy and description of digital entities. The article also describes various case studies from the focus areas of arts, science and e-government which identified issues and current practices in records creation and maintenance.
- http://www.digicult.info/downloads/digicult_newsletter_issue10_2005_hi
res.pdf
- A Little Bit'll Do You (In) : Checksums to the Rescue
Entlich, Richard
In: RLG DigiNews
(Date Created: 15 Jun 2005)
- This article discusses the use and applicability of checksums as a means to track the authenticity and fixity of digital objects. It provides an overview on what are checksums and the different types of checksum algorithms that are currently used for fixity determination.
- http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070511/viewer/file5
58.html#article3
- Long Term Digital Preservation - An End User's Perspective
Doyle, Julie; Paquet, Eric; Viktor, Herna L.
(Date Created: Oct 2007)
- This paper given at ICDM'07 (The IEEE and ACM Second International Conference on Digital Information Management ,Lyon, France, October 28-31 2007) discusses the requirements of future end users of preserved digital documents. It presents a case study of an emulation framework to preserve 2D and 3D anthropometric data, testing of the emulation environment and evaluation using usability and authenticity criteria.
- http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/iit-publications-iti/docs/NRC-49840.pdf
- NRC 49840, paper given at The IEEE and ACM Second International Conference on Digital Information Management (ICDM’07). Lyon, France, October 28-31, 2007.
- Long Term Digital Preservation - Preserving the Authenticity and Usability of 3D Data
Doyle, Julie; Paquet, Eric; Viktor, Herna L.
(Date Created: 2008)
- This article presents a framework for the long term preservation of 3D data which uses emulation as a preservation strategy with a metadata framework to ensure future users can access and use the preserved 3D objects.
- http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/iit-publications-iti/docs/NRC-50420.pdf
- NRC 50420, Manuscript for International Journal of Digital Libraries, 2008.
- Long-term Preservation of Accurate and Authentic Digital Data : the Interpares Project
Duranti, L.
(Date Created: Oct 2005)
- This article describes the InterPARES Project, including the methodology, research activities, preliminary findings, and products such as MADRAS (Metadata and Archival Description Registry and Analysis System).
- http://journals.eecs.qub.ac.uk/codata/journal/contents/4_05/4_05pdfs/D
S426.pdf
- Data Science Journal, ISSN 1683-1470, vol. 4, 25 October 2005
-

Long-Term Preservation of Authentic Electronic Records: Findings of the InterPARES Project
International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES)
- This page provides links to the findings of the first stage of the InterPARES project (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems) which ran from 1999 to 2001. As well as a description of the project, there are reports from the Task Forces investigating authenticity, selection, long-term preservation and policies, strategies and standards. Additional resources include a glossary, diagrams of the selection and preservation functions and a template for record analysis. The reports are in PDF format.
- http://www.interpares.org/book/index.cfm
- L’édition électronique authentifiée de la législation en Europe : Authentication of digital legal information in Europe
Petitcollot, Pascal
(Date Created: 09 Aug 2008)
- This paper delivered at World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council (10-14 August 2008, Québec, Canada) considers authenticity and long term preservation of digital legal materials in Europe.
- http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/papers/157-Petitcollot-fr.pdf
-

On Making and Identifying a Copy
Paskin, Norman
In: D-Lib magazine
(Date Created: Jan 2003)
- The article canvasses issues associated with distinguishing particular instances and manifestations and the necessary granularity. It problematises the notion of a copy and the need to identify types of copies. The article is motivated by concerns regarding digital rights management, however, such issues are also appropriate to the management of multiple copies within a digital preservation system.
- http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/paskin/01paskin.html
- Mitigating Risk of Data Loss in Preservation Environments
Chadduck, Robert ; JaJa, Joseph F. ; Moore, Reagan W.
(Date Created: Apr 2005)
(United States of America)
- This paper describes approaches to minimise the risk of data loss and to preserve authenticity and integrity within a preservation environment. It describes Grid Bricks and Data Grids and uses the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) research prototype persistent archive as an example of how they are used.
- http://storageconference.org//2005/papers/04_moorer_risk.pdf
- New Techniques for Ensuring the Long Term Integrity of Digital Archives
JaJa, Joseph; Song, Sangchul
(Date Created: May 2007)
- This paper given at d.go 2007 (Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, May 20-23 2007, Philadelphia) describes a novel methodology to address the integrity of long term archives using rigorous cryptographic techniques.
- http://www.dgsociety.org/documents/p57-Song.pdf
- Also available in dgo vo. 228 Proceedings of the 8th annual international conference on Digital government research: bridging disciplines & domains pp57-65
-

"Official Version": A National Summit to Solve the Problems of Authenticating, Preserving and Citing Legal Information in Digital Form - Conference Proceedings
Canadian Association of Law Libraries/Association canadienne des bibliotheques de droit
(Date Created: Nov 1997)
(Canada)
- Proceedings of a conference organised by the Canadian Association of Law Libraries/Association canadienne des bibliotheques de droit to address issues related to the access and use of legal information in digital form: authentication, preservation and citation. Proceedings include papers, panel discussions, reports from breakout sessions, and topic summaries.
- http://web.archive.org/web/20010219015502/http://www.callacbd.ca/1997s
ummit/index.html
-
Paradigma Project and its Quest for Metadata Solutions and User Services
Albertsen, Ketil; Nuys, Carol van; Pedersen, Linda; Stenstad, Asborg
(Date Created: 22 Aug 2004)
(Norway)
- A paper examining the National Library of Norway’s Paradigma Project, which was presented at the 70th IFLA Conference in Buenos Aires in August 2004. The initiative (which is engaged in the harvesting and archiving of the Norwegian domain as part of the NLN’s legal deposit responsibilities) is described, and its work in exploring appropriate metadata solutions is analysed. Other topics surveyed include the incorporation of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model into the archive design, and the implementation of a proposed authentication service for document verification.
- http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla70/papers/009e-Nuys.pdf
-

Preservation 2000 : An International Conference on the Preservation and Long Term Accessibility of Digital Materials : Conference Papers
Research Libraries Group
(Date Created: Dec 2000)
- Proceedings of the Preservation 2000 conference.
- http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/09/28/0000073852/viewer/file5
26.html
-

Preservation 2000: Review
Michael Day
In: Ariadne
(Date Created: Dec 2000)
- This paper is a review of the Preservation 2000 conference and the Information Infrastructures for Digital Information workshop held in York, UK in December 2000.
- http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/metadata/
-

Preservation of Digitized Reproductions
Society of American Archivists Council
(Date Created: 9 Jun 1997)
(United States of America)
- This statement of principles covers the issues of preservation of digitised material, selection for digitisation, quality of converted digital material, integrity and long-term access.
- http://www.archivists.org/statements/digitize.asp
-

Preserving Digital Information : Final Report and Recommendations
Garrett, John (co-chair); Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information; Waters, Donald (chair)
(Date Created: 20 May 1996)
- This report arose from a decision at the end of 1994 by the Commission on Preservation and Access (CPA) and the Research Libraries Group (RLG) to create a Task Force charged with investigating and recommending means to ensure "continued access indefinitely into the future of records stored in digital electronic form." This was a watershed exercise which generated thoughtful discussion on this topic worldwide.
- http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/past/digpresstudy/final-report.pd
f
-

Preserving the Authenticity of Contingent Digital Objects : The InterPARES Project
Eppard, Philip; Gilliland-Swetland, Anne
In: D-Lib magazine
(Date Created: Jul 2000)
- This paper describes the InterPARES project, a collaborative endeavour to develop a typology of requirements for maintaining the authenticity of records over time, and analysing appraisal and preservation processes to determine to what extent they meet these requirements.
- http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july00/eppard/07eppard.html
-
Principles for Digital Preservation
Gladney, Henry
(Date Created: 05 Nov 2004)
- Through philosophical examination, the author seeks to clarify issues about the focus for preservation of digital materials, issues of authenticity and provenance and the preservation of dynamic behaviour. The author then discusses the philosophy, methodology and principles of trustworthy digital objects (TDOs), summarizing several of the author's previously published papers on Trustworthy 100 Year Digital Objects.
- http://eprints.erpanet.org/archive/00000070/01/Principles_preprint.pdf
- Trustworthy 100-Year Digital Objects : Durable Encoding for When It's Too Late to Ask
Gladney, Henry
(Last Updated: 20 Oct 2004)
- This document, the second in the "Trustworthy 100-Year Digital Objects" series, discusses the technical challenges of digital preservation and then presents a potential solution for issues of technology obsolescence. The author proposes that a method of durable encoding will provide a solution superior to transformative migration and preservation emulation. A technical discussion on the encoding and packaging of Trustworthy Digital Objects (TDOs) and the use of Universal Virtual Computer (UVC) coding and emulators ensues.
- http://eprints.erpanet.org/archive/00000007/
-
Trustworthy 100-Year Digital Objects : Evidence Even After Every Witness is Dead
Gladney, H. M.
(Date Created: May 2003)
- Unpublished discussion paper (43 pages) by Dr Gladney which was later rewritten. This paper considers how publishers can guarantee the long-term authenticity of electronic papers.
- http://eprints.erpanet.org/archive/00000008/
- Trustworthy 100-Year Digital Objects : Syntax and Semantics : Tension Between Facts and Values
Gladney, Henry
(Last Updated: 08 Jan 2004)
- As the fifth part of the "Trustworthy 100-Year Digital Objects" series, this article focuses on digital document authenticity and evidence of trust. Gladney discusses the difficulties of accurate communication, exploring epistemology through topics such as meanings, objectivity, syntax, semantics and ambiguity. He proposes a mathematical language definition of authenticity and explains his method for providing durable authenticity evidence in construction of Trustworthy Digital Object (TDO) packages. Gladney discourages the notion of trustworthy repositories and recommends the creation of reliable documents instead.
- http://eprints.erpanet.org/archive/00000051/
-

What do we mean by authentic? What's the real McCoy?
Bennett, L.J.; Gladney, Henry
In: D-Lib magazine
(Date Created: Jul 2003)
- Henry Gladney examines the problem of defining authenticity. With consideration of the limitations of communication and the ambiguities created by language, Dr Gladney describes a model of object transmission in order to distinguish objective facts from subjective values and opinions, and provides a definition of "authentic" for various object classes, from digital documents through material artefacts to natural objects.
- http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july03/gladney/07gladney.html
Top
-

Authenticity in a Digital Environment
Cullen, Charles; Hirtle, Peter; Levy, David; Lynch, Clifford; Rothenberg, Jeff
(Date Created: May 2000)
- The report is based on a workshop organized by CLIR in January 2000. The workshop aimed to clarify the meaning of 'authenticity' when related to digital information. Five authors give their papers on the topic, responding to questions asked by CLIR about what authenticity means.
- ISBN: 1-887334-77-7
- http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub92abst.html
-

Guidelines On Best Practices For Using Electronic Information
European Commission (DLM Forum)
(Date Created: 1997)
- These multidisciplinary guidelines (61 p.), developed at the 1996 DLM Forum, help to define short and medium-term strategies for managing and preserving electronic information.
- ISBN: 92-828-2285-0
- http://dlmforum.typepad.com/gdlines.pdf
-

Variable Media Approach - Permanence through Change
Depocas, Alain ; Ippolito, Jon ; Jones, Caitlin
(Date Created: 2003)
- The Variable Media Network is a group of cultural institutions in the USA seeking approaches to preserve digital art. Digital art is particularly evasive as it may be distributed, ephemeral, or interactive in nature. Possible preservation approaches may be emulation or also ‘re-interpretation’; the latter attempts to capture the key ideas of a piece of art and allows considerable freedom in reproducing these key ideas in the future. In any approach the artist must be tightly engaged in preservation activities. This publication describes the Variable Media Approach, at the basis of which is a questionnaire designed to capture the essence of a digital artwork. Numerous case studies illustrate the approach.
- ISBN: 0-9684693-2-9
- http://www.variablemedia.net/pdf/Permanence.pdf
Top
- DIAL '06 : 2nd International Conference
on Document Image Analysis for Libraries
27 - 28 Apr 2006
, Lyon
(Date Created: 2006)
(France)
- Topics include Imaging & compression standards for document preservation, guaranteeing authenticity of document images and file formats & representations of document images, as well as OCR. Proceedings available at http://liris.cnrs.fr/dial2006/proceedings.html list papers.
- http://liris.cnrs.fr/dial2006/
- Electronic and Digital Signatures: ARMA Metro NYC Chapter Meeting
22 Oct 2009
, The Muse Hotel, New York NY
ARMA Metro NYC Chapter
(United States of America)
- This meeting of the ARMA Metro NYC Chapter has presentation by Jean-François Blanchette which will address the failure of electronic signatures to live up to its earlier promise, through an exploration of issues including risk, liability, proof, evidence, and user friendliness, as realized in competing models of electronic signatures, particularly in relation to retention.
- http://armanyc.org/professional/programs
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Policies, Strategies & Guidelines
|
-

Guidelines On Best Practices For Using Electronic Information
European Commission (DLM Forum)
(Date Created: 1997)
- These multidisciplinary guidelines (61 p.), developed at the 1996 DLM Forum, help to define short and medium-term strategies for managing and preserving electronic information.
- ISBN: 92-828-2285-0
- http://dlmforum.typepad.com/gdlines.pdf
- Ingest Guide for University Electronic Records
Tufts University and Yale University
(Date Created: 25 Sep 2006)
(United States of America)
- This guide is a product of the Preservation of University Records grant project (NHPRC 2004-083) which was a collaboration between Tufts and Yale Universities . It describes the actions for a trustworthy ingest process and presents a detailed description of the complex ingest workflow step by step. It is based on the work of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) and builds upon its OAIS framework.
- http://dca.lib.tufts.edu/features/nhprc/reports/ingest/index.html
- Also avilable for download in PDF from this website.
- ISO Archiving Standards : Overview
NASA
(Regularly Updated)
- This site contains links and background information to the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and other archival standardization efforts.
- http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/isoas/overview.html
- Preserver Guidelines Preserving Digital Records : Guidelines for Organizations
InterPARES 2 Project
(Date Created: 2006)
(Canada)
- These guidelines (12 p.) developed by the InterPARES 2 Project provide practical advice to organisations responsible for long-term preservation of digital records on the management of, and establishing and maintaining the authenticity of digital records.
- http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2(pub)preserver_guide
lines_booklet.pdf
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Projects and Case Studies
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BIBLINK
European Commission
(Last Updated: 15 Jul 2000)
- Project BIBLINK, funded through the European Commission's Telematics Applications Programme, aimed to establish a relationship between national bibliographic agencies and publishers of electronic material, in order to establish authoritative bibliographic information for the benefit of both sectors. Areas of investigation have included: metadata, permanent naming, data transmission and authenticity. The project finished in February 2000.
- http://hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/biblink/
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InterPARES 2: Experimental, Interactive and Dynamic Records
Luciana Duranti
(Last Updated: 31 Dec 2006)
(Canada)
- The website of the InterPARES 2 Project, the second phase of the originating InterPARES project, which was funded for 2002-2006. Details are given of the scope of the project, international participants and research output produced. It was succeeded by the third phase InterPARES 3.
- http://www.interpares.org/ip2_index.cfm
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Project Prism
Cornell University
(Date Created: 2000)
(United States of America)
- "Project Prism at Cornell University is a four-year effort to investigate and develop the policies and mechanisms needed for information integrity in digital libraries." The project focussed on five key areas: preservation, reliability, interoperability, security and metadata in the context of a component based digital library architecture with a special focus on distributed collections and web content. Prism is utilizing the FEDORA (Flexible and Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture) digital object management infrastructure.
- http://prism.cornell.edu/
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Information Hiding & Digital Watermarking : An Annotated Bibliography
Petitcolas, Fabien A. P.
- The postscript version of this annotated bibliography was updated quarterly. Unable to maintain HTML version Feb 2006. Latest print version 13 Aug 1999 has 405 references.
- http://www.petitcolas.net/fabien/steganography/bibliography/
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DigiCULT.Info Newsletter
DigiCULT Consortium
(Last Updated: Oct 2005)
- This newsletter, with its mix of news items, announcements and articles, provided a regular look into selected technology areas affecting the cultural domain, along with summarising the progress of DigiCULT Forum. DigiCult was an an IST Support Measure (IST-2001-34898) to establish a regular technology watch for cultural and scientific heritage over the period of 30 months (03/2002-08/2004).
- http://www.digicult.info/pages/newsletter.php
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- State-by-state Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources
Baish, Mary Alice; Matthews, Richard J.
(Date Created: 29 Mar 2007)
(United States of America)
- This comprehensive report examined the results of a state survey in 2006-2007 that investigated whether U.S. government-hosted legal resources on the Web are official and capable of being considered authentic. The report includes 6 key findings related to authenticity and permanence of public access. The report followed on from the AALL's 2003 Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Information.
- http://www.aallnet.org/aallwash/authenreport.asp
- Available for download as PDF and to order in hardcopy from this website.
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