Digital Curation Centre - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Purpose

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) was established to help solve the extensive challenges of digital preservation

Digital preservation

Digital preservation is the set of processes, activities and management of digital information over time to ensure its long term accessibility. The goal of digital preservation is to preserve materials resulting from digital reformatting, and particularly information that is born-digital with no...

and digital curation

Digital curation

Digital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital assets.Digital curation is generally referred to the process of establishing and developing long term repositories of digital assets for current and future reference by researchers, scientists,...

and to lead research, development, advice, and support services for higher education institutions in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The original call to establish the DCC described its function as

"...to provide a national focus for research into curation issues and expertise in the processes of digital archiving, preservation and management. Particular emphasis will be placed on the needs of users of the Centre's outputs."

Scientists, researchers and scholars across the UK generate increasingly vast amounts of digital data, with further investment in digitization and purchase of digital content and information. The scientific record and the documentary heritage

Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...

created in digital form are at risk from technology obsolescence, from the fragility of digital media

Digital media

Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...

, and from lack of the basics of good practice, such as adequate documentation for the data.

Activities

Working with other practitioners, the DCC supports UK institutions who store, manage and preserve these data to help ensure their enhancement and their continuing long-term use. The DCC also provides a national focus for research and development into digital curation

Digital curation

issues and to promote expertise and good practice, both national and international, for the management of all research outputs in digital format.

It provides information about tools developed by the DCC and others which support all parts of the digital curation lifecycle. It provides training in the use of tools and other aspects of digital curation. It provides online tools, such as the Data Management Planning tool, to support the creation and management of research data.

The DCC runs a number of regular events to support different aspects of its mission. The International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC) acts as a focus for research activity in digital curation as well as reports of practice. The Research Data Management Forum brings together practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds including government, publishers, researchers and funders, to focus on particular topics of common interest. The Data Management Roadshows aim to raise awareness amongst UK universities of the assistance that the DCC can offer with establishing or improving research data services.

History

JISC took a decision to establish the Digital Curation Centre some time in 2002, having funded a number of projects in the field of digital preservation. JISC's then digital preservation focus, Neil Beagrie, recognised that a number of the more compelling challenges required more than simple preservation of materials. The term digital curation

Digital curation

was coined to refer to more active long-term management of digital material. The original call for bids to run the center was withdrawn in July 2003, allowing the UK's e-science programme to add funding for a 4-year research programme to complement the work on education and advocacy funded by JISC. The revised call from July 2003 required bids by 2003-09-18 with an intention to establish the DCC early in 2004. The range of expertise required meant that the funders expected to see collaborative, multi-centre bids. A number were shortlisted with the winning bid chosen on 2003-11-26. Led by the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

(involving its School of Informatics, the National e-Science Centre (NeSC), the EDINA

EDINA

EDINA is a UK-based data centre , which provides data applications delivered over the Internet and aimed primarily at Higher Education staff and students in the United Kingdom....

national data centre and the AHRC Centre for the Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law) the winning consortium also included HATII at the University of Glasgow

University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

, UKOLN

UKOLN

Formerly known as The United Kingdom Office for Library and Information Networking, UKOLN is a centre of expertise in digital information management, providing advice and services to the library, information, education and cultural heritage communities...

at the University of Bath

University of Bath

The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....

, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council

Science and Technology Facilities Council

The Science and Technology Facilities Council is a UK government body that carries out civil research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astronomy .-History:It was formed in April 2007 as a merger of the Particle...

(STFC).

The DCC began operations early in 2004, with a formal launch on November 5 of that year at Edinburgh's e-science institute. Although it was intended that the centre would be inaugurated by the Duke of Edinburgh, then the university's Chancellor, he instead had to attend the funeral of Princess Alice and his place was taken by Lord Sutherland of Houndwood. The first Acting Director was Peter Burnhill, head of EDINA. He was succeeded by Chris Rusbridge from 2005-02-21 who served until 2010-04-19, when he was succeeded by Kevin Ashley.

Following the initial 3-year grant, JISC has funded 2 further phases of work at the DCC commencing in 2007 and 2010. The latter continues until March 2013. Research funding from the e-science core programme did not continue after the core programme itself was wound up. The DCC has continued research and development activities funded by a wide range of grants from other sources.

In 2011 the DCC received additional funding from HEFCE's Universities Modernisation Fund (UMF) to implement salient recommendations from the UK Research Data Service report of 2010.

Purpose

Activities

History

See also