Abstract
The Chronopolis Digital Preservation Initiative, one of the Library of Congress’ latest efforts to collect and preserve at-risk digital information, has completed its first year of service as a multi-member partnership to meet the archival needs of a wide range of domains.Chronopolis is a digital preservation data grid framework developed by the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego, the UC San Diego Libraries (UCSDL), and their partners at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado and the University of Maryland's Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS).Chronopolis addresses a critical problem by providing a comprehensive model for the cyberinfrastructure of collection management, in which preserved intellectual capital is easily accessible, and research results, education material, and new knowledge can be incorporated smoothly over the long term. Integrating digital library, data grid, and persistent archive technologies, Chronopolis has created trusted environments that span academic institutions and research projects, with the goal of long-term digital preservation.A key goal of the Chronopolis project is to provide cross-domain collection sharing for long-term preservation. Using existing high-speed educational and research networks and mass-scale storage infrastructure investments, the partnership is leveraging the data storage capabilities at SDSC, NCAR, and UMIACS to provide a preservation data grid that emphasizes heterogeneous and highly redundant data storage systems.In this paper we will explore the major themes within Chronopolis, including:a) The philosophy and theory behind a nationally federated data grid for preservation. b) The core tools and technologies used in Chronopolis. c) The metadata schema that is being developed within Chronopolis for all of the data elements. d) Lessons learned from the first year of the project.e) Next steps in digital preservation using Chronopolis: how we plan to strengthen and broaden our network with enhanced services and new customers.
Highlights
The Chronopolis Digital Preservation Initiative, one of the Library of Congress’ latest efforts to collect and preserve at-risk digital information, has completed its first year of service as a multimember partnership to meet the archival needs of a wide range of domains
Congress has mandated that data and information generated through public funding be openly accessible and preserved for the long-term, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) launched an Electronic Records Archives (ERA) initiative in order to fulfill its mandate to preserve “essential evidence” that is being increasingly created, transmitted, and stored electronically (National Research Council, 2003)
At an April 2002 workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and The Library of Congress (LC), participants urged: “Solutions are urgently needed to prevent further loss of valuable digital information... these problems are urgent... action is needed not some time in the future; ... everyone - from creators to custodians - must contribute to the solution...” (Hedstrom, 2003)
Summary
The key concept underlying Chronopolis is a phased approach to the development of long-term preservation cyberinfrastructure that can be scaled and evolved over time. The Chronopolis model seeks to integrate these elements to provide a model for the data management and preservation cyberinfrastructure that will be required to ensure availability, access, and usability of our most valued digital data holdings. Arrangement – the process of structuring the metadata into a collection hierarchy, and aggregating digital entities into containers for storage management;. Storage – the process of replicating digital entities and metadata context onto at least three independent data grids to ensure collection survivability;. All three sites have mirror copies of the digital holdings
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