Abstract
This paper states 16 principles for the long term retention and preservation of digital geographic information. The paper is mainly aimed at public sector geographic information providers in Europe (particularly those involved in mapping and cadastre) with the intention of highlighting the significance of fundamental concepts for digital geographic data archiving. Geographic information providers are mainly mapping agencies, but also archives preserving geographic data among a wider range of digital information. A supplementary objective is that the paper may provide useful information for providers of all types of geographic information right around the world. This paper states 16 principles for the long term retention and preservation of digital geographic information. The paper is mainly aimed at public sector geographic information providers in Europe (particularly those involved in mapping and cadastre) with the intention of highlighting the significance of fundamental concepts for digital geographic data archiving. Geographic information providers are mainly mapping agencies, but also archives preserving geographic data among a wider range of digital information. A supplementary objective is that the paper may provide useful information for providers of all types of geographic information right around the world. There are many reasons why people wish to retain access to information, though the main drivers for archiving digital geographic information are meeting legislative requirements, the short and long term exploitation (re-use not only access) of archived data for analyzing social, environmental (e.g. global climate changes) and economic changes over time as well as efficiency savings in managing superseded datasets. This paper sets out the path and describes what needs to be done now to future-proof the investment government agencies around the world have made in creating digital Geographic Data.Â
Highlights
Introduction and Version HistoryLooking back 100 years we find a lot of geographic information created at that time that is still very accessible and usable in the form of paper maps
The paper is mainly aimed at public sector geographic information providers in Europe with the intention of highlighting the significance of fundamental concepts for digital geographic data archiving
► Identify the potential consumers to whom the preserved data object(s) will be beneficial in terms of accurate interpretation and proper utilisation, and document these as assumptions. These 16 principles are the outcome of discussions between National Mapping Agencies (NMAs) and archivists drawn from institutions and legislative contexts across Europe
Summary
The International Journal of Digital Curation is an international journal committed to scholarly excellence and dedicated to the advancement of digital curation across a wide range of sectors. The IJDC is published by the University of Edinburgh on behalf of the Digital Curation Centre. This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution (UK) Licence, version 2.0.
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