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Preservation of Files in Scholars\' Bank


Scholars\' Bank accepts most file formats on deposit. File formats are tracked in a format registry.

As far as resources and technology permit, the University of Oregon Libraries will take steps to ensure that the files deposited in Scholars' Bank survive uncorrupted and continue to be usable. The steps taken to ensure longterm viability of the materials include:

  • nightly production of ASCII text backup, when possible, for those files that are text-based
  • nightly incremental backup of files and metadata to the Libraries\' mass storage unit
  • bi-weekly backup from the mass storage unit to tape
  • bi-monthly export of the metadata and directory structure as a tar file to another system
  • storage of magnetic tapes outside of the main library building
  • conversion of some file formats upon deposit to more secure file formats
  • periodic checking of file integrity to avoid data corruption
  • monitoring the technological environment to prepare for file migration as file formats become obsolete or the software needed to run them becomes unavailable

Because the technological environment is changing rapidly, it may not be possible to preserve the usability of every file format that is deposited in Scholars\' Bank. The University of Oregon Libraries will make a good-faith effort to maintain the viability of the materials deposited in Scholars\' Bank or return them to their authors if unable to do so.

The University of Oregon Libraries are endeavoring to comply with the Open Archival Information System Reference Model (available at: http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0b1.pdf) and the RLG-OCLC Attributes of a Trusted Digital Repository (available at: http://www.rlg.org/legacy/longterm/repositories.pdf)

For details of the work being undertaken by the Libraries in the area of digital preservation, consult the work site of the Digital Content Coordinators at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/diglib/digcon.html

Policies and Guidelines

Scholars' Bank Home

Maintained by the Scholars' Bank Steering Committee: scholars@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 08/24/2006