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Closing comments by Andrew Treloar at the iPres 2014 digital preservation conference
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iPres 2014
One perspective on the conference
Andrew Treloar, ANDS
First, my thanks
• For the invitation to attend and provide this summary
• And for the quality of the presentations/posters/talks
Next, some caveats…
PreservationPreservation eResearcheResearch
LibrariesLibraries DataData
© Leif Laaksonen, 2013
CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/omtebekijken/5934591446/
Now, some observations…
A birds-eye view
On infrastructure
• “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it” - Santayana
• Too much wheel re-invention• Too much architecture before usecases• Too much technology push• But some encouraging signs of a desire to build
on what is there and meet the needs of real users• And some interesting research ideas
On data
• A number of talks about the importance of data to the scholarly record
• And by implication/explication, the importance of preserving that data and the processes that produced it
• Not the same as the existing born-digital challenge– see Van de Sompel and Treloar (2014) for why!
• New frontier for preservation community
On practice
• Good selection of talks (particularly in the short papers section)
• Useful reflections on what worked and what didn’t
• Value of iPres for formal and informal exchange of stories and experiences– c.f. Orr JE (1996) Talking About Machines: An
Ethnography of a Modern Job. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
On theory
• Number of papers focussed on theory/modelling
• These seemed a bit sterile and divorced from practice (to me, at least)
• Reminiscent of Enterprise Architectures• NOTE: But hard to anticipate which theoretical
work will turn into productive practice
On pragmatics
• “le mieux est l'ennemi du bien” - Voltaire• Number of speakers arguing for solutions that
don’t try to be perfect• And a recognition (in the data domain at least)
that doing it perfectly (or even well?) is impossible
• Herbert’s idea of starting with a seed, rather than a collection
On sustainability
To conclude• Digital preservation is too important not to care
about– AT example
• Much of the work being reported at this conference will play a vital role in the solutions that need to be developed
• Thank you for your commitment and energy – please don’t lose it!
• http://www.slideshare.net/atreloar/closing-comments-at-ipres-2014-conference