Description:

This workshop will explain the expected use of ISO 16363 and 16919 for ISO audits of digital repositories and the next steps in India, as well as the rest of the world. Examples will be given based on the test audits which have been conducted and there will be an opportunity to discuss examples from attendees’ repositories. The workshop will be conducted by David Giaretta, who led the group which wrote these standards.

Description:

Most changes in the natural world occur over time-scales of 60-120 years, and it requires data of a comparable age to inform models adequately. But though the world is rich in appropriate historic data, is it poor in its ability to access them. Researchers need their data in digital form, but most historic data are non-digital (pre-digital) so they are effectively unuseable, and it is our basic scientific knowledge which suffers. Born-digital data are at most only 20-30 years old; without access to older data, forecasts of change must involve some guesswork, and we cannot afford to guess when so much is at stake. The historic data have got to be digitized.

The situation, its challenges and advantages, will be discussed at a 2-hour Workshop, and will capture the interest and the concern of participants from a wide variety of backgrounds. Whether scientific researchers, database managers, archivists or cultural historians, most will recognize familiar problems. The event will be organized and led by DARTG, the Task Group on Data At Risk run by CODATA, the International Council for Science's Committee on Data for Science and Technology. DARTG is primarily focussed on the need to digitize pre-digital data, but is concerned as well with early digital records that are now very difficult to access (and even to locate).

The Workshop will commence with brief presentations by a Panel of DARTG members plus selected counterparts from among the Indian hosts. It will then move into an extended discussion involving questions from the audience. Topics for discussion can range from the specific, such as Old Weather, to the cultural challenges of engaging the public in data awareness and data rescue. DARTG's long-term vision is to establish an international Federation of all projects engaged in accessing historic data, and the discussions will want to evaluate the prospects for such a Federation, considering ways to expand existing schemes while emphasising both efficiency and breadth of impact.