Program History and Significant Milestones

Twenty Years of Preservation: 

Digital Preservation Milestones, 2000–2020

 

 

1998 (PREPARATORY WORK)DLib Article image

 

APRIL

Five-year project to build a first-generation production infrastructure for digital library collections, including support for digital preservation activities

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november00/flecker/11flecker.html  

 

1999DRS Functional Requirements document

 

MARCH

Functional Requirements for the LDI Repository, Phase 1

https://web.archive.org/web/19980514193504/http://hul.‌harvard.edu/ldi/

 

2000 (IN PRODUCTION)

 

OCTOBER

First object preserved in DRSFirst object in DRS

Harvard-Yenching Library, Hedda Morrison collection, Buddhist Nun Kneeling at Altar, ca. 1933-1946, HM01.6811

https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:198

 

2001

 

JANUARYScreenshot of DRS Storage refresh

DRS storage refresh

Migration of archival storage from in-database to attached storage area network (SAN)

 

FEBURARY

First page-turned (PDS) object preserved in DRSImage of first page-turned object

University Archives, Official Register of Harvard University XXVIII:4, February 24, 1931

https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:435151

 

MAYImage of DRS Policy Guide, version 1

DRS Policy Guide, version 1 

Guidelines associated with operation and use of the DRS, highlighting digital materials accepted for deposit, services, and the rights and responsibilities of content curators and collection managers

 

DECEMBER

E-journal article interchange XML DTDImage of E-journal article

Precursor of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Journal Archiving and Interchange Tag Suite (JAITS) and NISO Journal Article Tag Suite (JATS)

https://doi.org/10.1108/10650750310508126

 

2002

 

MARCHImage of Daguerreotype portrait

15,000th object preserved in DRS

Schlesinger Library, Daguerreotype portrait of unidentified woman, ca. 1840-1860, 91-M62-1-1z

http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:402454

 

JULY

Image of first Open Collections Project in the DRSFirst Open Collections Project (OCP) preserved in DRS

Baker Library, Women Working: 1800-1930 collection, Edith Abbott's Women In Industry: A Study in American Economic History, 1910

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005113793

 

OCTOBER

First geospatially-referenced image preserved in DRSImage of first GIS object in DRS

Map Collection, Ch'ing-hai upper Yellow River (Huang He) expedition, 1925-1927, sheet 3 (102°24'22" N, 34°42'26" E; 103°46'36" N, 36°11'21" E), in the Harvard Geospatial Library (HCL)

http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:439985

 

2003

MAY

First biomedical image preserved in DRS 

Countway Library, Biomedical Image Library (BIL)

 

2004

MAYImage of OCR text of W. Jett Lauck's Diversified Industries

1 millionth file preserved in DRS

Harvard College Library, Open Collections Program, OCR text of W. Jett Lauck's Diversified Industries, 1911, p. 373

http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:199589

 

AUGUST

First audio recording preserved in DRSScreenshot of Audio Player

Loeb Music Library, Archive of World Music, Matins for Sunday After the Elevation of the Holy Cross, 1960

http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:fhcl.loeb:sa8502894

 

2005

MAY

Initial release of JHOVE

Free open source file format identification, validation, and characterization tool, consistently the most frequently downloaded in the digital preservation community

https://jhove.openpreservation.org/

 

Image of Documentation for PDF-AOCTOBER

PDF/A standard (ISO 19005-1)

Archival profile of the upquitous PDF format developed under Harvard leadership of the ISO process

https://www.pdfa.org/resource/iso-19005-pdfa/

 

2006

AUGUST

Image of DRS Policy Guide version 2DRS Policy Guide, version 2.0

Policies associated with the Harvard Library Digital Repository Service (DRS) intended for Harvard collection managers who are using or considering making use of DRS services

 

2007

APRILPhotograph of Yossi Zwecker in "Peter Pan"

1 millionth object preserved in DRS

Judaica Collection, Photograph of Yossi Zwecker in "Peter-Pan", JPCDPIZ2565

https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:1458442

 

MAY

Specifications for Google Book Scanning projectSpecifications for digitized images and transfer packaging for Google Book Scanning (GBS) project

Technical specifications for TIFF and JPEG 2000 images and METS transfer package, used as the basis for subsequent GBS partner and HathiTrust mass digitization efforts

 

2008

FEBRUARY

DRS storage refresh

New reliance on SAM/QFS for automated file transfer to mirrored SAN arrays and robotic tape library

 

MAY

First website preserved in DRSFront page of the Harvard Physics Department Website, 2007

University Archives, A-Sites collection, Welcome to the Harvard Physics Department Website! February 26, 2007

https://wayback.archive-it.org/org-935/20070226154039/http://www.physics.harvard.edu/

 

JUNEVolume 5 of the The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1984

First Google-scanned book preserved in DRS

Volume V of The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1884

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101076453057

 

SEPTEMBER

50 TB preserved in DRS

1.9 million objects, 8.7 million files

 

NOVEMBER

Page-turned image of vocal score of Wagner's Rienzi, page 23110 millionth file preserved in DRS

Loeb Music Library, Page-turned image of vocal score of Wagner's Rienzi, p. 231

https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Loeb:2251895

 

2009

JUNE

100 TB preserved in DRS

3.4 million objects, 12.2 million files

 

2010

JULY

Front page of NDSA website, 2010Founding membership in National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA)

Advancing the capacity to preserve our nation's digital resources for the benefit of present and future generations

https://ndsa.org/

 

2011

SPRING

Membership in HathiTrust

Not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries preserving 17+ million digitized items

https://www.hathitrust.org/

 

2012Image of specifications for DRS Storage Refresh, 2012

SPRING

DRS storage refresh

Hardware replacement and addition of anticipated necessary capacity

 

2013

JUNE

Image of the NDSR website, 2013Co-hosted with MIT the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) Boston program

Two 9-month residencies for 10 residents at Boston area stewardship organizations

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/ndsr_boston/home

 

2014

APRILImage of Daniel Mahefasoa Brady, Mechanisms of Cross-Modal Refinement by Visual Experience, doctoral dissertation, 2012

First electronic thesis/dissertation (ETD) preserved in DRS

Daniel Mahefasoa Brady, Mechanisms of Cross-Modal Refinement by Visual Experience, doctoral dissertation, 2012

https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/10033910

 

DECEMBER

First email preserved in DRS

University Archives, Papers of Lawrence Bogorad collection, February 7, 2002

http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990094156850203941/catalog

 

2015

MAY

50 millionth file preserved in DRSImage of page-turned image, Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, July-December, 1889, p. 21

Museum of Comparative Zoology, Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) collection, Master page-turned image, Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, July-December, 1889, p. 21

https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FMUS.MCZ:15002367

 

2016

JANUARY

DRS Policy Guide, version 2.6Image of DRS Policy Guide, version 2.6

Policies associated with the Harvard Library Digital Repository Service (DRS) intended for Harvard collection managers who are using or considering making use of DRS services

https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/LsPUD

 

JANUARY

Web archiving environmental scanCover of the Web Archiving Environmental Scan report, 2016

Description and analysis of 23 international web archiving programs reporting on researcher use of – and impediments to working with – web archives

http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:25658314

 

 

MARCH

Front page of the International Internet Preservation Consortium websiteMembership in the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC)

Acquire, preserve and make accessible knowledge and information from the Internet for future generations everywhere, promoting global exchange and international relations

https://netpreserve.org/

 

JUNE

File Identification Tool Set (FITS) web pageInitial release of open-source File Identification Tool Set (FITS)

Free open source tool for identifying and validating file formats, extracting metadata embedded within files, and outputting the metadata in various formats

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/fits

 

2017

FEBRUARY

Still of Changing the Definition of AIDS, from the ACT UP Oral History Project collectionFirst video recording preserved in DRS

Americas, Europe, and Oceania Division, ACT UP Oral History Project collection, Changing the Definition of AIDS

https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:30402932

 

SPRING

Migration of obsolete audio formats

Migration of some 7,000 RealAudio recordings to MP3 and SMIL playlists to AES-60

 

SPRINGImage from the 2017 DRS Storage Refresh plan

DRS storage refresh

Integration with the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPPC) storage facility

 

OCTOBER

Image of the Harvard University Digital Strategy, version 1.0Harvard University Digital Strategy, version 1.0

Infrastructure for the preservation of and access to digitized and born-digital information, taking a tiered approach to supporting short-, medium-, and long-term needs

http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34830922

 

2018

JANUARY

Still from the video of Bernice Sandler appearance on Larry King television show, 1985, from the Schlesinger LibraryLargest file preserved in DRS (so far!)

Schlesinger Library, Bernice Sandler appearance on Larry King television show, 1985, video, 568 GB

https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:34744480

 

MARCH

Image from the Web Archiving Service (WAX) websiteWeb Archiving Collection Service (WAX) decommissioned; all content transitioned to Archive-It

WAX decommissioned due to the increasing unsustainable burden of maintenance and enhancement in favor of the Internet Archive’s Archive-It service

https://preservation.library.harvard.edu/web-archives-collections

 

MAY

400 TB preserved in DRS

 9.5 million objects, 81.3 million files

 

SEPTEMBER

Front page of the iPRES 2018 websiteHosted iPRES 2018, the 15th International Conference on Digital Preservation

Where Art and Science Meet: The Art in Science and the Science in Art, celebrating the first 15 years of iPRES, the premier international conference on digital preservation

https://ipres2018.org/

 

OCTOBERWebsite of the Harvard Library Digital Preservation program

Harvard Library Digital Preservation program

Formally established as independent administrative unit within Preservation Services

https://preservation.library.harvard.edu/digital-preservation

 

NOVEMBER

Inaugural Digital Preservation Reading ClubWebsite of the Digital Preservation Reading Club

Informal, monthly gathering of Library colleagues interested in discussing trends and topics relevant to digital preservation

https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/bLalDg

 

2019

JULYImage of the DRS Policy Guide, version 4

DRS Policy Guide, version 4.0

Controlling principles and obligations underlying the long -term preservation of digital resources by the Harvard Library’s Digital Repository Service (DRS)

https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/V64uD

 

AUGUST

Page-turned image of John Shaw's Observations on the Causes and Early Symptoms of Defects in the Form of the Spine, Chest, and Shoulders, and the Means of Correcting them ..., 1827, p. 88100 millionth file preserved in DRS

Countway Library, Page-turned image of John Shaw's Observations on the Causes and Early Symptoms of Defects in the Form of the Spine, Chest, and Shoulders, and the Means of Correcting them ..., 1827, p. 88

https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HMS.Count:41201147

 

SEPTEMBER

10 millionth object preserved in DRSJPEG 2000 image of map of Orange and Vaison la Romaine, from Jean Boule’s Orange, Vaison-la-Romaine, Carpentras: le Mont Ventoux: guide historique et touristique, 1980, page 6

Fine Arts Library, JPEG 2000 image of map of Orange and Vaison la Romaine, from Jean Boule’s Orange, Vaison-la-Romaine, Carpentras: le Mont Ventoux: guide historique et touristique, 1980, p. 6

https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:41325359

 

SEPTEMBER

Hosted New England regional Archive-It MeetupPhotograph of the 2019 New England regional Archive-It Meetup

Forty participants, 22 outside of Harvard, representing 16 institutions across the greater New England region, sharing web archiving goals, projects, ideas, and questions

https://communications.library.harvard.edu/blog/preservation-services-ho...

 

OCTOBER

Membership in the Open Preservation Foundation (OPF)Front page of the Open Preservation Foundation website

Global non-profit membership organization working to advance shared standards and solutions for the long-term preservation of digital content

https://openpreservation.org/

 

2020

JULY

First outsourced preservation storageImage from the large-scale Judaica Library video collection hosted at the University of Southern California

Large-scale Judaica Library video collection hosted at the USC Digital Repository for low-cost, high-density archival storage

https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:FHCL:100008850

 

OCTOBERFront page of the Preservation Services website

Twenty years of digital preservation at Harvard!

55 contributing Library programs, 318 thematic collections, 19 content genres, 90 format types, 10.2 million objects, 106 million files, 479 TB