Library solutions provider Ex Libris Group, Israel, has announced that after a successful beta-testing period at the National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ), version 1.0 of the Ex Libris Digital Preservation System has gone live as scheduled. The Digital Preservation System, developed in collaboration with the NLNZ, provides a complete, first-of-its-kind solution enabling academic, research, and national libraries to maintain the usability and integrity of their digital resources in perpetuity. Development of the system was also supported through collaborative work with an international peer review group.
Based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model and conforming to trusted digital repository (TDR) requirements, the Ex Libris Digital Preservation System provides institutions with the infrastructure and technology needed to preserve and facilitate access to the collections under their guardianship. The understanding that preservation and access belong together-that they are not mutually exclusive entities-dictated a design in which preservation support is built directly into the platform rather than serving as an add-on feature. This end-to-end solution offers full security, auditing, replication, and integrity checks that maintain the safety of collections over time, while persistent identifier tools and standard APIs (Application Programming Interface) enable institutions to make their collections easily accessible to users.
The National Library of New Zealand is using the Digital Preservation System to collect a range of digital material types from a wide variety of sources such as publishers, government agencies, and Web sites in the New Zealand domain; to review, validate, and organise such materials; and to make them available to end users in accordance with user access rights. Risk analysis and conversion tools enable the system to provide meaningful access to the digital objects over time. The integration of the system with other National Library of New Zealand applications is facilitated by a built-in software development kit and a suite of APIs.
December 2008 will see the general release of the Digital Preservation System by Ex Libris Group.
