Publications

In June 2009, Planets carried out a series of 18 face-to-face and telephone interviews with some of the world’s leading IT companies. The interviews explored interviewees’ perceptions of the emerging market-place for digital preservation tools and services. Results confirm engagement is being led by memory institutions and driven primarily by legislation. Elsewhere, however, there is confusion over what digital preservation is and what it entails. Comprehensive policies and long-term budgets to cover preservation of digital collections are not yet the norm. Despite this, there are common expectations about what a digital library system should do; specifically in relation to the type of content it should be able to manage, scalability and the need to comply with international standards. There is perceived high demand for technology to support automation of digital preservation processes and for consultancy, training, awareness-raising and exchange of best practice. [PDF, 50KB]

The National Archives of the Netherlands is the largest public archives in the Netherlands and the custodian of the national record of Dutch Government. Increasingly, these records are digital, and are being housed in the National Archive's custom-built e-Depot. Since 2002, the National Archives has carried out research into the feasibility of strategies to preserve different types of digital objects. This case study considers the appropriateness of emulation to preserve dynamic records such as spreadsheets and databases where migration is not a suitable option. [PDF, 525KB]

The Royal Library in Copenhagen is the National Library of Denmark. In 2008, it merged with the Danish Folklore Archives. As a result, the Royal Library has need to ingest a rapidly growing collection of materials from published works, manuscripts, documents and maps to pictures, photographs and music representing Danish folklore and that of other parts of the world. This case study examines how the two institutions have used Planets characterisation and planning tools to profile digital objects before transferring them to the Royal Library's digital preservation store. [PDF, 1513KB]

The report presents the findings of interviews with over 76 civil servants in 17 Government agencies in the Netherlands and Belgium. It aims to establish how communication and information are created, managed, shared and preserved in Government settings, and to provide information managers with insights into issues to be addressed with recommendations. The report is a parallel study to the qualitative research carried out in academic communities with 400 researchers at University of Aarhus [see report] and interviews with 18 researchers at Glasgow University [see report]. [PDF, 699KB]

This report documents the methodology and results of a feasibility study. [PDF, 873KB]