New Stanford Digital Repository tool helps SUP preserve and now also serve durable media in its digital publications. When it comes to digital web-based content, longevity can really only be accomplished if something is designed from the start to endure. But it’s difficult to predict what features, formats, and methods will last when they are
While complex web-based projects present challenges in the way of longevity—the average lifespan of a typical website is supposedly two to five years—there are measures that we’re taking to mitigate inevitable decay. In addition to our guidelines package and three-pronged preservation strategy, which we begin planning for before a project is even published, we’re also
Preserving the interactive scholarly works we’re publishing continues to be a high priority within the scope of our initiative. Over the past year and a half, the possible solutions have become clearer, though implementing the different methods is still one of our bigger challenges. So far we’ve identified and begun pursuing three specific strategies for
When it comes to the format of interactive scholarly works, one size does not fit all. It’s been one of the greatest strengths and the greatest challenges of the kind of work we’re publishing under the Mellon-funded initiative. While other publishers, also in some cases with the help of the Mellon Foundation, are doing excellent
It will be another week before we can fully process and report out on what was a truly informative and productive last few days. Over the past several weeks we’ve been organizing and planning for the Preservation at Stanford University Press Workshop which was held May 14-15 at Stanford University. We brought together many of
In the book publishing world, a pretty clear line exists between the editorial and production workflows. That line is transmittal. For our digital projects, this line more blurry. You could even imagine it as a very wide line, with a transparency setting of 35% or so (for all the graphic designers out there), that sits
Progress continues on accessioning and depositing our first publication’s archive into our Stanford Library’s digital repository. While the project still lives in its original format online after its initial release almost two years ago, it’s never too soon to start safeguarding against the inevitability of digital decay. In fact, there’s a lot to be said
About this time last year, I began working on the Technical Guidelines for authors whose work we had accepted for publication. Completed in June, these guidelines were then posted on our website so current authors, as well as any prospective authors who might be interested, could view them. As expected, we’ve been learning a lot
A few weeks ago I posted an interview with Webrecorder’s Dragan Espenchied in which he detailed the features and uses of the web-archiving tool developed by Rhizome. A fellow Mellon-funded project, Webrecorder has been especially intriguing to us because it is perhaps the most specifically focused solution to providing readers of our web-based interactive scholarly
In the year 2017, over three decades since the personal computer became virtually commonplace in homes, it’s probably safe to assume many of us have come across the stray CD ROM or USB thumb drive or maybe even floppy disk and eagerly, or perhaps with trepidation, inserted it into a working computer or external drive
