FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 29, 2014
Read it online: http://bit.ly/ZZCJSK


Digital Preservation Network (DPN) Launches Member Content Pilot
A step toward establishing an operational, long-term preservation system shared across the academy

The Digital Preservation Network (DPN) is a federation of more than 50 academic institutional members who are collaboratively developing the means to preserve the complete scholarly record for future generations. DPN has launched a Member Content Pilot program as a step toward establishing an operational, long-term preservation system shared across the academy. The pilot is testing real-world interactions between DPN members through DPN “nodes” that ingest data from members of the Digital Preservation Network and package it for preservation storage. Three DPN nodes (Chronopolis/Duracloud, The Texas Preservation Node, and the Stanford Digital Repository) will be functioning as First Nodes. All five DPN nodes (the three named above along with APTrust and HathiTrust) will be providing replication services for the pilot data.

The higher education community has created many digital repositories to provide long-term preservation and access. DPN replicates multiple dark copies of these collections in diverse nodes to protect against the risk of catastrophic loss due to technology, organizational or natural disasters.

Participating DPN Member Content Pilot members include Chronopolis, University of California San Diego; Dartmouth University; the DuraSpace organization; Texas Preservation Node and; Yale University.

Steven Morales, DPN Chief Business Officer, is pleased with pilot project progress. “The DPN Technical Working group, comprised of the five Replicating Nodes for DPN, have done a phenomenal job linking together their existing repositories, he said, It feels great to be at a point where we can begin testing the network with real content.”

The pilot provides:

• A functioning preservation network capable of Services sufficient to allow First Nodes to accepting and replicating Member Pilot content and replicate it to Replicating Nodes using the developing DPN network.

• Opportunity for all participating Members and First Nodes to play out a realistic content deposit scenario and to discuss and capture the requirements and questions raised.

• A preliminary report to the DPN membership regarding results.

DPN Timeline

In 2012 DPN was launched with the support of founding member institutions. By 2013 replicating nodes had been brought together to begin building the network, software and messaging system. 2014 has been a testing year. This summer three rounds of successful internal testing was completed. In the current phase real member content is being tested as DPN members have joined together as “first nodes”. Content has been identified and prepared for packaging into DPN “bags”.

Through the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 multiple rounds of testing will be ongoing. A soft launch of a production system will be available in the summer of 2015 through the end of 2016 with all member schools participating.

About The Digital Preservation Network

The Digital Preservation Network (DPN) will ensure that the complete scholarly record is preserved for future generations. It will be the long-term preservation solution shared collectively across the academy that protect local and consortia preservation efforts against all types of catastrophic failure. The supporting ecosystem enables higher education to own, maintain and control the scholarly record throughout time. While commercial entities may partner with us to contribute to this effort at different points in time depending on priorities and business models, final control must reside with the academy. http://www.dpn.org/.