20th International CODATA Conference
Session: CEOS/WGISS Data Resources, Technology and Services

GeoData Archiving and Long-Term Preservation

John Faundeen (faundeen@usgs.gov)

U.S. Geological Survey, USA

The archiving and long-term preservation of spatial data, known as GeoData, has long been a challenge. The rapidly increasing GeoData sources and the volumes generated have made the challenge a pressing issue for records managers and archivists.

In order to adequately preserve GeoData collections, policies need to be established and followed ensuring that future generations of scientists and researchers have access to the same data. Adherence to the concept of the lifecycle of records is one policy. The responsibility and interests as to the types of data collections relevant to the institution should be documented in a collection policy. Collection policies may be based upon national law mandating an institution to maintain and preserve certain collections. Similarly, a disposition policy states how and why an institution would pursue disposing of a collection. Retention policies are related to disposition policies and are often detailed in institution records schedules that state when the collections are to be purged.

Implementing the relevant policies requires strategies in terms of what to preserve and how to accomplish the preservation. Appraisals are a technique for assessing value of collections. Once the long-term value has been established, a schedule for preservation can be created. Today it is recommended that every three to five years a digital collection be migrated to newer media because of rapid hardware, software or firmware obsolescence.

Information technology (IT) has always been a critical element of archiving and long-term preservation strategies involving GeoData collections. Employing various hardware to write data to unique tape or optical media using specific firmware, IT became central to the success of the operation. Today, IT is even more involved and often utilizes mass storage technology configured to ingest GeoData residing on older media and reproduce that data on newer archive media.

Archiving and long-term preservation policies provide the foundation from which institutions can begin to strategize how to preserve their GeoData collections. Technology provides the means to accomplish the preservation activities. When thoughtfully crafted, policy, strategies, and technology combine to provide the means to ensure that the GeoData that is collected and maintained today, will be available for scientists and researchers tomorrow.

Keywords: GeoData, appraisal, lifecycle, collection policy, retention policy, archiving, long-term preservation