Author Archives: Kevin Ashley

From 1997 until February 2010, I was head of the Digital Archives Department at ULCC, who are the collective authors of this blog. The department provides digital preservation and repository services to others, as well as training and consultancy. They are also active in research and development activities and in the provision of specialist digitisation services. All of these are reflected to varying extents in DA log. I try to write about interesting events I’ve been to, the work of the department, and questions in the general area of preservation, data curation & management and repositories that occur to me from time to time.

A repository for pi(es)

As you may have read recently, Fabrice Bellard has announced the computation of π to almost 2.7 trillion decimal places using a faster algorithm that allows desktop technology to be used, rather than the supercomputers that are usually used to break this particular record. Bellard is an extremely talented programmer who has made a useful [...]

DPC AGM – and thoughts on preserving research data

Last Monday (2009-11-23) saw DPC members travel to Edinburgh for a board meeting and for the annual general meeting of the company. We elected a new chair – Richard Ovenden – and offered our thanks to Bruno Longmore for the effective leadership he has offered as acting chair following the departure of Ronald Milne for [...]

Moving Home

It’s been quiet here recently. Partly because people have been busy with projects such as CLASM and ArchivePress, but also because we’ve been busy readying ourselves for a move. After nearly 40 years in the same purpose-built premises, we’re relocating to Senate House, the home of the University of London’s federal activity. Many staff members [...]

Good news from the DPC

My day today began with one of those moments that remind us how technology, and the world, changes. On the train I sat next to someone reading and scribbling on an academic text of some sort on which the words “network research” and “SNA” appeared prominently. I began reading, as one does (yes, I shouldn’t, [...]

On the limits of preservation

A recent article in New Scientist on the outer fringes of the chiptune scene prompted me to think about preservation, emulation and the fact that some digital things simply aren’t preservable in any useful sense. Chiptunes are typically created using early personal computers or videogames and/or their soundchips. In that respect, they depend on technology [...]