No abstract

The JHOVE characterization framework is widely used by international digital library programs and preservation repositories. However, its extensive use over the past four years has revealed a number of limitations imposed by idiosyncrasies of design and implementation. With funding from the Library of Congress under its National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP), the California Digital Library, Portico, and Stanford University are collaborating on a two-year project to develop and deploy a next-generation architecture providing enhanced performance, streamlined APIs, and significant new features. The JHOVE2 Project generalizes the concept of format characterization to include identification, validation, feature extraction, and policy-based assessment. The target of this characterization is not a simple digital file, but a (potentially) complex digital object that may be instantiated in multiple files.

profit organization that helps the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. She has worked on the Portico digital preservation service, a part of ITHAKA that preserves scholarly literature published in electronic form and ensures that these materials remain accessible to future scholars, researchers, and students. She is currently engaged with partners at the California Digital Library and Stanford University in developing the next-generation JHOVE2 tool. Her past work includes the design and development of print and electronic publishing systems. She has served as a representative to XML vocabulary standards groups. She received her BA in English Literature from Yale University, her MA in English Literature from Cornell University, and her MS in Computer Science from Rutgers University.

There has been tremendous growth in the amount of digital content created by libraries, publishers, cultural institutions and the general public. While there are great benefits to having content available in digital form, digital objects can be extremely short-lived unless proper attention is paid to preservation. Reflecting on our experience with the digital preservation service Portico, we provide background on Portico's history and evolving practice of sustainable preservation of the digital artifacts of scholarly communications. We also provide an overview of the digital preservation landscape as we see it now, with some thoughts on current requirements for preservation, and thoughts on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is an advocate and catalyst for digital preservation, ensuring our members can deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services. It is a not-for-profit membership organization 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 supports its members through knowledge exchange, capacity building, assurance, advocacy and partnership. The DPC's vision is to make our digital memory accessible tomorrow. The DPC Technology Watch Reports identify, delineate, monitor and address topics that have a major bearing on ensuring our collected digital memory will be available tomorrow. They provide an advanced introduction in order to support those charged with ensuring a robust digital memory, and they are of general interest to a wide and international audience with interests in computing, information management, collections management and technology. The reports are commissioned after consultation among DPC members about shared priorities and challenges; they are commissioned from experts; and they are thoroughly scrutinized by peers before being released. The authors are asked to provide reports that are informed, current, concise and balanced; that lower the barriers to participation in digital preservation; and that they are of wide utility. The reports are a distinctive and lasting contribution to the dissemination of good practice in digital preservation.