Digital Curation

As an in-depth explanation of the entire digital curation lifecycle, from creation to appraisal to preservation to organization/access to transformation, the first edition of this text set a benchmark for both thoroughness and clarity. Boasting the expert guidance of international authorities Oliver and Harvey, this revamped and expanded edition widens the scope to address continuing developments in the strategies, technological approaches, and activities that are part of this rapidly changing field. In addition to current practitioners, those pursuing a career as librarian, archivist, or records manager will find this definitive survey invaluable. Filled with up-to-date best practices, it covers such important topics as the scope and incentives of digital curation, detailing Digital Curation Centre’s (DCC) lifecycle model as well as the Data Curation Continuum; key requirements for digital curation, from description and representation to planning and collaboration; the value and utility of metadata; considering the needs of producers and consumers when creating an appraisal and selection policy for digital objects; the paradigm shift by institutions towards cloud computing and its impact on costs, storage, and other key aspects of digital curation; the quality and security of data; new and emerging data curation resources, including innovative digital repository software and digital forensics tools; mechanisms for sharing and reusing data, with expanded sections on open access, open data, and open standards initiatives; and processes to ensure that data are preserved and remain usable over time.Useful as both a teaching text and day-to-day working guide, this book outlines the essential concepts and techniques that are crucial to preserving the longevity of digital resources.

Dr. Gillian Oliver is Associate Professor at the School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her professional practice background spans information management in the United Kingdom, Germany, and New Zealand. Her research interests reflect these experiences, focusing on the information cultures of organizations. She is the co-author (with Fiorella Foscarini) of the book Records Management and Information Culture: Tackling the People Problem and is currently leading research funded by the International Council on Archives (ICA) to develop an information culture toolkit for archival authorities. As recipient of an Erasmus Mundus scholarship awarded by the European Commission, she was Visiting Scholar at Tallinn University in 2009. She is Honorary Research Fellow at the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute, University of Glasgow, and at The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. She is co-Editor-in-Chief of Archival Science, and a member of Archives New Zealand's Archives Council.

Dr. Ross Harvey is Editor of the Australian Library Journal and Adjunct Professor in Information Management in the School of Business IT and Logistics, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He has held academic positions at universities in Australia, Singapore, and the United States, most recently in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College, Boston. His research and teaching interests focus on the stewardship of digital materials in libraries and archives, particularly on their preservation, and on the history of the book. He has extensive experience in research projects in Australia and the United Kingdom, including the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute at the University of Glasgow and the Digital Curation Centre. He has published widely in the fields of bibliographic organization, library education, the preservation of library and archival material, and newspaper history. His most recent books are The Preservation Management Handbook, co-authored with M. Mahard, and the second edition of Preserving Digital Materials.