Digital curation
Encyclopedia
Digital curation is the selection, preservation
, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital
assets.
Digital curation is generally referred to the process of establishing and developing long term repositories of digital assets for current and future reference by researchers, scientists, historians, and scholars. Enterprises are starting to utilize digital curation to improve the quality of information and data within their operational and strategic processes..
to address the challenges.
is used to emphasis the lightweight and virtually transparent nature of these curation activities. The term sheer curation was coined by Alistair Miles in the ImageStore project , and the UK Digital Curation Centre's SCARP project . The approach depends on curators having close contact or 'immersion' in data creators' working practices. An example is the case study of a neuroimaging research group by Whyte et al., which explored ways of building its digital curation capacity around the apprenticeship style of learning of neuroimaging researchers, through which they share access to datasets and re-use experimental procedures .
Sheer curation depends on the hypothesis that good data and digital asset management at the point of creation and primary use is also good practice in preparation for sharing, publication and/or long-term preservation of these assets. Therefore, sheer curation attempts to identify and promote tools and good practices in local data and digital asset management in specific domains, where those tools and practices add immediate value to the creators and primary users of those assets. Curation can best be supported by identifying existing practices of sharing, stewardship and re-use that add value, and augmenting them in ways that both have short-term benefits, and in the longer term reduce risks to digital assets or provide new opportunities to sustain their long-term accessibility and re-use value.
The aim of sheer curation is to establish a solid foundation for other curation activities which may not directly benefit the creators and primary users of digital assets, especially those required to ensure long-term preservation. By providing this foundation, further curation activities may be carried out by specialists at appropriate institutional and organisation levels, whilst causing the minimum of interference to others.
A similar idea is curation at source used in the context of Laboratory Information Management Systems LIMS. This refers more specifically to automatic recording of metadata
or information about data at the point of capture, and has been developed to apply semantic web techniques to integrate laboratory instrumentation and documentation systems Sheer curation and curation-at-source can be contrasted with post hoc digital preservation
, where a project is initiated to preserve a collection of digital assets that have already been created and are beyond the period of their primary use.
Preservation (library and archival science)
Preservation is a branch of library and information science concerned with maintaining or restoring access to artifacts, documents and records through the study, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of decay and damage....
, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
assets.
Digital curation is generally referred to the process of establishing and developing long term repositories of digital assets for current and future reference by researchers, scientists, historians, and scholars. Enterprises are starting to utilize digital curation to improve the quality of information and data within their operational and strategic processes..
Aspects of digital curation
Digital curation entails:- Collecting verifiable digital assets
- Providing digital asset search and retrieval
- Certification of the trustworthiness and integrity of the collection content
- Semantic and ontological continuity and comparability of the collection content
Challenges faced by digital curation
Significant and major challenges faced by digital curation are:- Storage format evolution and obsolescence
- Rate of creation of new data and data sets
- Broad access and searching flexibility and variety
- Comparability of semantic and ontologicalOntologyOntology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
definitions of data sets
Response to digital curation challenges
The challenges faced by digital curation are resulting in:- specialised research institutions
- academic courses
- dedicated symposia
- peer reviewed technical and industry journals
to address the challenges.
Sheer curation
Sheer curation is an approach to digital curation where curation activities are quietly integrated into the normal work flow of those creating and managing data and other digital assets. The word sheerSheer
Sheer may refer to:*Sheer fabric, a semi-transparent and flimsy fabric*Sheer , a measure of longitudinal deck curvature in naval architecture*Sheer curation, a lightweight approach to digital curation*Sheer Islands, Nunavut, Canada...
is used to emphasis the lightweight and virtually transparent nature of these curation activities. The term sheer curation was coined by Alistair Miles in the ImageStore project , and the UK Digital Curation Centre's SCARP project . The approach depends on curators having close contact or 'immersion' in data creators' working practices. An example is the case study of a neuroimaging research group by Whyte et al., which explored ways of building its digital curation capacity around the apprenticeship style of learning of neuroimaging researchers, through which they share access to datasets and re-use experimental procedures .
Sheer curation depends on the hypothesis that good data and digital asset management at the point of creation and primary use is also good practice in preparation for sharing, publication and/or long-term preservation of these assets. Therefore, sheer curation attempts to identify and promote tools and good practices in local data and digital asset management in specific domains, where those tools and practices add immediate value to the creators and primary users of those assets. Curation can best be supported by identifying existing practices of sharing, stewardship and re-use that add value, and augmenting them in ways that both have short-term benefits, and in the longer term reduce risks to digital assets or provide new opportunities to sustain their long-term accessibility and re-use value.
The aim of sheer curation is to establish a solid foundation for other curation activities which may not directly benefit the creators and primary users of digital assets, especially those required to ensure long-term preservation. By providing this foundation, further curation activities may be carried out by specialists at appropriate institutional and organisation levels, whilst causing the minimum of interference to others.
A similar idea is curation at source used in the context of Laboratory Information Management Systems LIMS. This refers more specifically to automatic recording of metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
or information about data at the point of capture, and has been developed to apply semantic web techniques to integrate laboratory instrumentation and documentation systems Sheer curation and curation-at-source can be contrasted with post hoc digital preservation
Digital preservation
Digital preservation is the set of processes, activities and management of digital information over time to ensure its long term accessibility. The goal of digital preservation is to preserve materials resulting from digital reformatting, and particularly information that is born-digital with no...
, where a project is initiated to preserve a collection of digital assets that have already been created and are beyond the period of their primary use.
See also
- Digital artifactual valueDigital artifactual valueDigital artifactual value is a preservation term that refers to the intrinsic value of a digital object, rather than the informational content of the object. There are currently no established standards for what constitutes digital artifactual value...
- Digital asset managementDigital asset managementDigital asset management consists of management tasks and decisions surrounding the ingestion, annotation, cataloguing, storage, retrieval and distribution of digital assets...
- Digital Curation CentreDigital Curation Centre- Purpose :The Digital Curation Centre was established to help solve the extensive challenges of digital preservation and digital curation and to lead research, development, advice, and support services for higher education institutions in the United Kingdom...
- Data format managementData Format ManagementData format management is the application of a systematic approach to the selection and use of the data formats used to encode information for storage on a computer....
- Digital obsolescenceDigital obsolescenceDigital obsolescence is a situation where a digital resource is no longer readable because the physical media, the reader required to read the media, the hardware, or the software that runs on it, is no longer available. A prime example of this is the BBC Domesday Project...
- Digital preservationDigital preservationDigital preservation is the set of processes, activities and management of digital information over time to ensure its long term accessibility. The goal of digital preservation is to preserve materials resulting from digital reformatting, and particularly information that is born-digital with no...
External links
- Digital Curation and Trusted Repositories: Steps Toward Success
- Animations introducing digital preservation and curation
- DigCurV A project funded by the European Commission to establish a curriculum framework for vocational training in digital curation.
- Content Strategist as Digital Curator, A List Apart Journal, December 2009