Preserving Social Science Research
Data Using Fedora
Bryan Beecher
Technology Director, ICPSR
University of Michigan
This project focuses on developing a proof of concept that will help to facilitate the creation and sustainability of standards-based digital object repositories for social science data. The activities to bring about this transformative outcome entail development of potential technology services and shareable tools to transform metadata from the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) standards for social science into forms that can be ingested into a FEDORA-like repository. The products developed will demonstrate at the institutional level how the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model can be deployed using social science contexts.
The innovative nature of this effort will be in actual demonstration of end-to-end performance of integrated capabilities that address future needs anticipated for data curation, preservation, and access. The latter are of particular interest throughout the focus of social disciplines at the community, national and international levels of information exchange and discourse. International partners in the United Kingdom and Australia will participate in the testing and evaluation of this proof of concept to ensure broader participation and to extend global partnerships.
