La préservation de l’information scientifique et technique

Abstract

During a fifteen years period, the long-term preservation of digital information has only been a matter under consideration for a few scientific or patrimonial institutions. These have played a key role in the understanding of the subsequent risks and the definition of standards in this domain. The exponential progress of the digital information in every domain, as well as the mandatory aspect of its preservation have sped up the awareness process even at the highest management level of companies or public administrations. Thus, a significant number of projects have kicked off during the last four years, with the objective of rolling out infrastructures dedicated to the long term preservation of electronic data. Among those projects, the one currently run at the CINES, which main goal is to provide the scientific and technical community in the Higher Education and Research sectors with a genuine long term preservation service for digital information, is now operational. Here is a brief outline of the PAC system...