PREFORMA works on one of the main challenges that memory institutions are facing nowadays: the long-term preservation of digital data. In particular, the project offer memory institutions an open source conformance checker that controls if a file complies with standard specifications and with the acceptance criteria of the memory institution.
This software development is carried out in a collaborative environment with memory institutions and experts. Here below is the list of institutions and organisations that are cooperating with us to test and improve the conformance checkers.
AUSTRIAN MEDIATHEK
The Österreichische Mediathek is the Austrian archive for sound recordings and videos on cultural and contemporary history. It was founded in 1960 as Österreichische Phonothek (Austrian Phonothek) by the Ministry of Education and has been a branch of the Technisches Museum Wien (Vienna Technical Museum) since 2001. As video and sound archive, the Österreichische Mediathek is responsible for the preservation of the Austrian audio-visual cultural heritage (with the exception of film on photographic carrier material and photography).
Web: http://www.mediathek.at/
AUSTRIAN STATE ARCHIVES
The Austrian State Archives is a subordinate agency of the Federal Chancellery serving two purposes. On the one hand, they are central archives for the federal services of the Republic of Austria (supreme bodies and ministries), which have a legal responsibility to transfer their acts and documents to the State Archives. On the other hand, their historical departments are the keepers of the archival heritage of the Habsburg empire (1526–1918) and its central authorities, as well as of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (until 1806).
Web: http://www.oesta.gv.at/
CATALAN OPEN GOVERNMENT CONSORTIUM
The mission of the Catalan Open Government Consortium (AOC Consortium) is to collaborate with the Catalan government in the adoption and development of policies for improving public services. It fulfils various roles that have an impact on the use of electronic means in the completion of administrative procedures, such as the development of electronic government applications, tools and services and the promotion of their use, as well as the drawing up of criteria and recommendations in order to ensure interoperability. The AOC Consortium is composed of members of the Government of Catalonia and of Localret as representatives of local governments. iArxiu, one of the main products offered by the AOC Consortium to the Catalan administrations, is a digital archiving and preservation service which ensures that the files/documents generated or received by an organisation remain intact, reliable, authentic and accessible throughout their life cycle.
Web: http://web.aoc.cat/
CENTRE FOR LIBRARIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PADUA
The University of Padua, Italy (1222) is one of the most ancient in Europe and the second oldest University in Italy. All disciplines are covered (13 faculties and 65 departments). The Library System (SBA) is composed of 43 libraries and 69 service points coordinated by the University Centre for Libraries (CAB). SBA serves 67.000 students and over 2.300 academic staff. Holdings include about 2.500.000 documents and 9.000 print journals. Important features are: a single library management system and catalogue (OPAC) connected to the national catalogue (SBN), an outstanding electronic bibliographic service with locally hosted and remote databases (224) providing services to other universities, a strong focus on electronic resources (about 14.000 e-journals) available through the WAN and several digital library projects.
Web: http://www.cab.unipd.it/
DIGIBÍS S.L.
DIGIBÍS is an R&D&I software engineering company specialised in software development in the field of information exchange and management on the World Wide Web. Main area of activity are Libraries, Archives, Museums and Documentation Centres. Owned by the the Ignacio Larramendi foundation, DIGIBÍS also provides a metadata-enriched digitalisation service which strictly adheres to international regulations from Europeana, the W3C, the Library of Congress and other international institutions. Among its clients, it can count public bodies (Ministries, governments of Autonomous Communities, Cities) and private organisations, in Spain and abroad.
Web: http://www.digibis.com/
DUBLIN CITY PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES
Dublin city’s public library and archive services is central to the delivery of a collaborative strategy for a better quality of economic, social and cultural life for the city’s residents, workers, students and visitors. The Library Management Team consists of the City Librarian, Margaret Hayes, Deputy City Librarian, Brendan Teeling, nine divisional librarians and the City Archivist. Dublin City Archives contains records of the civic government of Dublin from 1171 to the late 20th century. These records include City Council and committee minutes, account books, correspondence, reports, court records, charity petitions, title deeds, maps and plans and drawings all of which document the development of Dublin over eight centuries. Dublin City Archives also acquires private collections that relate to the history of the city of Dublin or to individuals who worked within the Municipal City.
Web: http://www.dublincity.ie/main-menu-services-recreation-culture/dublin-city-public-libraries-and-archive
FLEMISH INSTITUTE FOR ARCHIVING
The Flemish Institute for Archiving (VIAA) seeks to preserve the digital heritage of Flanders in a sustainable manner and wishes to make it accessible to everyone. Which is why VIAA – together with partners from the cultural, heritage and media sectors – has started a project to digitize, store, index and provide access to audiovisual material, photos, documents, etc.
Web: http://viaa.be/
FONDAZIONE BIBLIOTECA EUROPEA DI INFORMAZIONE E CULTURA
The Fondazione Biblioteca Europea di Informazione e Cultura (BEIC), established in Milan, 2004, pursues educational and instructional goals through the realization and management of a new multimedia, free access, open shelf library that makes freely accessible a vast complex of works, including some of the most important writings and works to have been produced by sciences, arts and humanities, stretching across a timescale that ranges from the ancient world to the modern age.
Web: http://www.beic.it/
IMPACT CENTRE OF COMPETENCE IN DIGITSATION
The Impact Centre of Competence in Digitisation is a not for profit organisation, comprised of public and private institutions, with the mission to make the digitisation of historical printed text “better, faster, cheaper”. It provides tools, services and facilities to further advance the state-of-the-art in the field of document imaging, language technology and the processing of historical text.
Web: http://www.digitisation.eu/
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOUND AND AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES
The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) was established in 1969 in Amsterdam to function as a medium for international co-operation between archives that preserve recorded sound and audiovisual documents. IASA has members from 70 countries representing a broad palette of audiovisual archives and personal interests which are distinguished by their focus on particular subjects and areas, e.g. archives for all sorts of musical recordings, historic, literary, folkloric and ethnological sound documents, theatre productions and oral history interviews, bio-acoustics, environmental and medical sounds, linguistic and dialect recordings, as well as recordings for forensic purposes.
Web: http://www.iasa-web.org/
NALIS FOUNDATION
The main task of the NALIS Foundation is to contribute the development of science, education and culture in Bulgaria. It assists the improvement of the library and information communication between research institutions, universities and the bigger book repositories; it develops various programs and takes part in their implementation; it organizes training, specializations and qualifications in the field of library information and communication systems; it coordinates activities as part of certain international, local and regional projects related to the development of library and information cooperation; it organizes workshops, conferences and forums; it carries out information activities and publishing.
Web: http://www.nalis.bg/
NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF ANDORRA
The National Archives of Andorra (Catalan: Arxiu Nacional d’Andorra) are created by all those government bodies responsible for the custody of official documents. The Department of Archives and Records Management, which is part of the Ministry of Culture, is the global unit of archival practices and represents the direction of the entire archival system of the Government of Andorra.
Web: http://www.cultura.ad/arxius
NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CROATIA
The Croatian State Archives in Zagreb (CSA) is the central archival institution in the Republic of Croatia. It performs archival services related to archival and current records created by state bodies, state and public institutions and enterprises, by corporate bodies, and by families and individuals whose activity covers the whole or a greater part of Croatia, or is of national interest.
Web: http://www.arhiv.hr/
NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF DENMARK
The Danish National Archives collects and stores historic sources and makes them available to the public. Its Reading Rooms are open to all who wish to use the records, Parish Registers, census lists, financial accounts and other types of unique documents, registers and files. The raw material – the records – originates from the Danish public authorities. The Danish National Archives ensure that authorities arrange and transfer their records in a condition that renders them useful to future users of the archives – and not least, to the authorities themselves.
Web: https://www.sa.dk/
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ESTONIA
The National Library of Estonia (in Estonian: Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu) is a national public institution in Estonia, which operates pursuant to the National Library of Estonia Act. It was established as the parliamentary library of Estonia on December 21, 1918. According to the Act, the National Library of Estonia is the custodian of Estonian national memory and heritage, and acts as the repository centre of the Estonian literature and national bibliography, the main information provider for the Estonian parliament and many other constitutional institutions, a national centre of library and information sciences, a site for the continuing education of librarians, and also as a cultural centre.
Web: http://www.nlib.ee/
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE NETHERLANDS
Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), the national library of the Netherlands, brings people and information together. To that end, the KB makes the library collection-the Netherlands visible, sustainable and practicable. The free access to this common ownership of publically funded libraries ensures people are given new ideas and will be able to continue on the basis of each other’s insights. This network of libraries is a source for research and helps people to become better skilled, smarter and more creative. The KB assumes a central position in this network.
Web: https://www.kb.nl/
ONLUS ICT AD DUAS LAUROS
Onlus ICT Ad Duas Lauros is a non-profit association founded in 2011, the mission is to promote, disseminate, transmit in Italy for now but in the future in the World, the knowledge of great historical, cultural, spiritual heritage of the territory in South East of Rome. This territory has a unique historical stratification, starting from prehistoric era in the Pleistocene, the Roman villas of the Republican period until the late Roman Empire of Constantine with the mausoleum of S. Elena (IV century AD) and the catacombs of Saints Peter and Marcellinus. The Prenestina and Casilina routes in Middle Age have been way of transit for pilgrimages from Europe to the Holy Land and for this reason will be elected to the Council of Europe Cultural itinerary of the Via Francigena. Our mission is create an archive of documents, images, photographs, multimedia of this heritage for the memory of future generations, but also to promote the knowledge of youngs and didactics tools for schools, in addition for developing new economies based on web tools and social mapping for tourism.
Web: http://www.duaslauros.it/index.php
SABADELL HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
The Sabadell Historical Archives (AHS) is a public institution belonging to the City Council which has as its main functions the collection, preservation, data processing and diffusion of the documentary heritage of the city. Over the years the AHS has gathered together a total of 5,000 cubic metres of documents originating from a wide variety of sources. The AHS stands out as one of the most important municipal archives in the country thanks to its long track record in the recovery of our industrial heritage with more than 50 archives from textile and metalwork firms. The Archives also contain a good number of personal documents (from musicians, writers, professionals), from institutions and organisations, patrimonial archives linked to the old line families of the city, etc. And finally, it has an important local antiquarian library with some 20,000 volumes (the collection dates back to the XV century), a wide local newspaper library (more than 1,300 headlines) and sound and vision collections.
Web: http://www.sabadell.cat/ahs
STANDARDISATION FORUM IN THE NETHERLANDS
The Standardisation Forum in The Netherlands is an independent governmental organization that supports the Dutch government in the use, development and establishment of open standards for electronic exchange. In this way it promotes interoperability, not only within the Dutch government system itself, but also in the relations between government agencies on the one hand and citizens and companies on the other.
The Standardisation Forum actively encourages and supports government use of open document standards for long term preservation, such as PDF/A. For this reason it is in the process of developing a tool that measures the degree of compliance of documents published by the Dutch government on its (many) websites.
Web: https://www.forumstandaardisatie.nl/
UNITED NATIONS MECHANISM FOR INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNALS
The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) was established by the United Nations Security Council on 22 December 2010 to carry out a number of essential functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), after the completion of their respective mandates.
Web: http://www.unmict.org/
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY IN BRATISLAVA – CENTRAL DATA ARCHIVE
University Library in Bratislava (ULB) is the oldest and largest research library in Slovakia. It was established in 1919 as a library of Comenius University. Until 1954, in addition to its academic mission, it served as a national library. Since 1954 it has been an independent scientific library serving the general public. At the end of 2013, ULB archive contained a total of 2,650,000 library units.
In 2012, University Library in Bratislava and TEMPEST started to build a nationwide digital archive for preservation and storage of the cultural heritage: the Central Data Archive (CDA). CDA is realised in the framework of the Operational Programme Informatisation of the Society (OPIS), prevailingly financed by the EC regional development fund. The archive stores digitised historical papers and documents, digital copies of collections of art and artworks, as well as historical audiovisual recordings.
Web: http://www.ulib.sk/english/, http://cda.kultury.sk/en
WROCLAW UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Wrocław University Library is an all-University institution that – together with departmental libraries – organizes research and teaching environment for the academic community. Its mission is to serve teaching and research needs of the University community as well as to promote science and culture amongst the general public.
Web: http://www.bu.uni.wroc.pl/
Join us in testing and improving the conformance checkers!
You could become one of the pioneer institutions to test and implement the new open source tools developed in PREFORMA!