iPres 2014

One perspective on the conference

Andrew Treloar, ANDS

First, my thanks

• For the invitation to attend and provide this summary

• And for the quality of the presentations/posters/talks

Next, some caveats…

PreservationPreservation eResearcheResearch

LibrariesLibraries DataData

© Leif Laaksonen, 2013

CC BY-NC-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/omtebekijken/5934591446/

Now, some observations…

A birds-eye view

On infrastructure

• “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it” - Santayana

• Too much wheel re-invention• Too much architecture before usecases• Too much technology push• But some encouraging signs of a desire to build

on what is there and meet the needs of real users• And some interesting research ideas

On data

• A number of talks about the importance of data to the scholarly record

• And by implication/explication, the importance of preserving that data and the processes that produced it

• Not the same as the existing born-digital challenge– see Van de Sompel and Treloar (2014) for why!

• New frontier for preservation community

On practice

• Good selection of talks (particularly in the short papers section)

• Useful reflections on what worked and what didn’t

• Value of iPres for formal and informal exchange of stories and experiences– c.f. Orr JE (1996) Talking About Machines: An

Ethnography of a Modern Job. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.

On theory

• Number of papers focussed on theory/modelling

• These seemed a bit sterile and divorced from practice (to me, at least)

• Reminiscent of Enterprise Architectures• NOTE: But hard to anticipate which theoretical

work will turn into productive practice

On pragmatics

• “le mieux est l'ennemi du bien” - Voltaire• Number of speakers arguing for solutions that

don’t try to be perfect• And a recognition (in the data domain at least)

that doing it perfectly (or even well?) is impossible

• Herbert’s idea of starting with a seed, rather than a collection

On sustainability

To conclude• Digital preservation is too important not to care

about– AT example

• Much of the work being reported at this conference will play a vital role in the solutions that need to be developed

• Thank you for your commitment and energy – please don’t lose it!

• http://www.slideshare.net/atreloar/closing-comments-at-ipres-2014-conference