The Long-term Preservation of Databases

Executive Summary On 9 to 11 April 2003, ERPANET hosted an expert workshop on the long-term preservation of databases. The workshop took place at the Swiss Federal Archives in Berne and assembled 65 participants from 16 countries all over Europe and the USA. As the third in a series of six expert meetings, the workshop aimed at gathering knowledge about the state-of-the-art in database preservation, fostering discussion and exchange, and at promoting and developing new approaches in the field of digital preservation. Seven approaches were presented as practical database preservation experience or as development projects with a strong focus on practical solutions. They represented state archives and research projects from across Europe, including an example from the United States. The range was from well-established projects (incorporating many years of experience), to current research in the early stages of implementation, with speakers sharing their experience of developing database preservation strategies. This first part of the workshop intended to provide participants with an overview of the current state of database preservation. The workshop's second half examined the issue from a different point of view. It presented different steps of the database preservation process, ranging from extraction, appraisal and description to access and adding value. These presentations gave the opportunity to discuss specific aspects of database preservation in greater depth, in particular archival requirements and a scientific data focus on value-adding. The workshop demonstrated that current development projects will provide archivists with appropriate methods and tools for the long-term preservation of complex relational databases. Presentations and discussions highlighted a series of valuable best practice elements, and also a number of issues that need further research. Introduction Databases have been, and continue to be, a key technology for the storage, organisation and interrogation of information. They are a core module in most of today's information systems. While the value of other types of digital information has been highlighted in recent years, databases and the information they contain have often been neglected. Their preservation is of high concern as they are often either irreplaceable or of such value that replacement would be prohibitively expensive. Databases not only retain the information in a highly structured manner, but they are in most of the cases constantly updated and must allow flexible interrogation of the valuable data. For their long-term preservation, this poses a number of unique problems. Different communities approach the archiving of databases in very different …