Panel 2 – Promoting Re-Use of Scientific Collections John Harrison SHAMAN Project University of Liverpool

Introduction First a little about me... Worked at the University of Liverpool for just over 6 years. Worked mainly developing search systems for archival holdings: Archives Hub: federated search network for archival holdings in UK Higher Education Institutions – launched last Friday!

SHAMAN Sustaining Heritage Access through Multivalent ArchiviNg Collaborative Research and Development Project into issues of Digital Preservation EU Funded. Attempts to build on OAIS work. Early focus on Memory Institution domain. Future work Industrial Design and Engineering (CAD) eScience

SHAMAN Theory of Preservation In order for data to be of use to future generations, we also need to preserve means of understanding an re-using data. Context Method of discovery within large-scale data sets Method of access and interaction Ideally all this should be achieved in a sustainable, infrastructure independent manner.

Sustainability and Infrastructure Independence Use Open Standards to describe: Structure of digital objects Metadata Data management policies and processes Preserve all this in the system, to enable migration of system to future technology.

University of Liverpool Ingest workflows Access Discovery mechanisms (DL / IR Capabilities) Display and Interaction Re-use

Access (I) - Discovery As quantity of data increases, mechanisms for identifying useful items within collections become more important. Support for resource discovery (digital library capabilities) within a collection directly within our data-grid storage infrastructure (iRODS). Future work to federate search across collections within a digital archive.

Access (II) – Display and Interaction Multivalent Render diverse file formats directly from original bitstream independent of native software. Platform for development of new and unforeseen capabilities for interacting with obejects across the diverse formats. Enables annotations to promote discovery and re-use.

Bringing it together Integrated Sub-Project (ISPs) develop proof-of- concept prototype software systems. Prototype digital archive bringing together ingest and access capabilities.

Prototype Digital Archive Data organized into a hierarchy of directories for logical arrangement of: Collection data Supporting documentation Creation context Preservation policies Methodology - Workflows - Software code