Partner

Networking with partners

Mutual cooperation and the sharing of knowledge are an essential part of successful digital preservation. With increasing digitalisation in society and science, institutions of all kinds (libraries, museums, state archives and more) work on preserving our digital cultural and scientific heritage beyond the lifetime of the original hardware and software. As technology is constantly evolving, digital preservation is a never-ending process. The digital archive evaluates continuously their target groups, for which objects are preserved, their requirements and general developments in Open Science.  These various challenges require significant organizational, human, technical and financial input. One way to reduce the effort involved and achieve synergy effects is by collaborating and networking with partners, as well as by participating in standardization processes and technical innovations.

Cooperation of the three German national specialist libraries

The three German national specialist libraries TIB - Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences use the Rosetta digital preservation system in cooperation. For further technical development of Rosetta, they are active in the german speaking Rosetta user group (DRAG) and the international Rosetta User Group (RUG). The three partners are also involved in various digital preservation networks, where they help shape the development of standards and best practices in digital preservation.

Memberships

ZB MED is member of the Open Preservation Foundation (OPF) and nestor, the network of expertise in long-term storage of digital resources in Germany. Employees of the digital archive participate in the nestor coordination group, as well as in several working groups (WG) with the topics SIP concretization, format identification and documentation in digital preservation.

In order to preserve long-term access to a large number of licensed e-journals and e-books, ZB MED participates in the national Portico consortium. This consortium is part of DFG-funded project “NatHosting II”. The Portico membership ensures access to established preservation of relevant content, independent of publisher platforms. Participating in Portico results as well in ZB MED supporting and participating in international distributed digital preservation. For long-term preservation of content not covered by Portico, or covered only partially, ZB MED pursues additional solutions.