Project
The Engineering and Science Library project was a collaboration between Piql (Norway, Spain), Airbus Defence and Space (Spain), and the Central Library of Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovakia). It developed on-site and hosted E-ARK conformant archival systems with embedded Archivematica preservation workflows for science and engineering content. The project has archived 2D technical drawings and documents at Airbus and scientific manuscripts and documents at UKSAV.
Archivematica (www,archivematica.org) is a very widely used, open-source, digital preservation engine that produces open archival information packages (AIPs) to a Library of Congress BagIt standard. Archivematica’s workflow includes: virus checking, check summing, file format identification, file format verification, normalisation (migration) of file formats at risk from obsolescence and generation of archival packages, including METS and PREMIS metadata. Archivematica includes a configurable file format policy registry (FPR) that determines which file types (of over 900) require normalisation, which target formats are used and can normalise for preservation and access. Archivematica has a lead developer, Artefactual, Inc. of Vancouver, Canada, who also provide software hosting, development and training services.
Archivematica has a broad user base and is open-source, but its architecture makes it difficult to develop to be E-ARK conformant. Many organisations considering digital preservation strategies would like to have the benefits of Archivematica and be E-ARK compliant. This is where the Engineering and Science Library can help.