An ANU-based partnership tackling digital obsolescence has been praised by the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) in a new report.

The Australian Partnership for Australian Repositories (APSR) is an alliance between ANU, the University of Sydney, the University of Queensland, the National Library of Australia (NLA) and the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing.

Established two years ago, APSR provides training and support for universities developing digital repositories, as well as undertaking technical development and academic research into issues around information sustainability.

The new PMSEIC report – From Data to Wisdom: Pathways to successful data management for Australian science – gives an overview of current approaches to the management of large amounts of scientific information and data, and investigates the nature of data repositories and digital libraries.

In the report APSR emerges as a significant player, with its recent survey into sustainability issues for research data mentioned on several occasions. The report’s authors pay particular praise to the Australian e-Research Sustainability Survey Project, which was conducted by ANU researchers Dr Markus Buchhorn and Paul McNamara.

Another APSR project, the Automated Obsolescence Notification System (AONS), was highlighted as a case study in the report. This system automatically detects file formats that are about to expire.

APSR concluded its first round of funding at the end of 2006 and has been given extension funding for work in 2007. APSR is supported by the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative as part of the Commonwealth Government's Backing Australia's Ability plan.

For more information:
http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/science_innovation/publications_resources/
profiles/Presentation_Data_for_Science.htm

Australian eResearch Sustainability Survey:
http://www.apsr.edu.au/publications/WPapers.htm

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