"KOPAL" - CO-OPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF A LONG-TERM ARCHIVE OF DIGITAL INFORMATION
Objective
The objective of KOPAL was the practical
testing and implementation of a co-operatively created and
operated long-term archive system for digital information. As
network partners, the German National Library, the
Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen
and IBM Germany implemented a co-operatively operated
solution, capable of subsequent re-use by others, for the
long-term preservation of digital resources. The technical
operation of the system is taken care of by the
Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH
Göttingen (GWDG).
The participation of the German National Library as the
national archive library and the Niedersächsische Staats- und
Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen as an innovative university
information centre guaranteed that complementary viewpoints and
differing user interests were taken into account in the
realisation of the project. The technical realisation of the
functions KOPAL is based on prior work accomplished since
2000 in a joint development project of the Koninklijke
Bibliotheek (Royal Dutch Library) and IBM. IBM has
undertaken its further development toward a co-operatively
maintained system equipped with standardised interfaces within
the framework of KOPAL. The ingest & retrieval software
produced by the network partners (koLibRI) has the status
of Open Source software. Comprehensive and heterogeneous
data have been fed into the system during the term of
the project in order to prove the concept's capacity and
usefulness. Since mid-2007, the archival system has been
transferred into the productive use by the German National
Library.
Funding
Federal Ministry for Education and Research, sub-project of the "Competency Network New Services, Standardisation, Metadata" project (Kompetenznetzwerk Neue Dienste, Standardisierung, Metadaten)"
Project duration
2004 - 2007
Project homepage
Reinhard Altenhöner
