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This is a reminder for the KB conference. As a limited number of places is still available, please hurry for registration.

Tools and Trends:
International Conference on Digital Preservation at the occasion of the retirement of Johan Steenbakkers

On 1 and 2 November 2007, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands, KB) is holding an international conference on digital preservation. The conference is organised at the occasion of the retirement of Johan Steenbakkers, the KB’s director of e-Strategy. Tools and Trends will feature international speakers who will present newest developments of Tools for digital preservation and the latest Trends in long-term archiving.

In 1998 the European project NEDLIB was launched. This project was one of the first international projects to take on the topic of digital preservation. Since then, a lot of progress has been made developing concepts, tools and even standards. Johan Steenbakkers, director of e-Strategy at the National Library of the Netherlands (KB), was the project coordinator for NEDLIB. He was the initiator of digital preservation research at the KB, starting already in the early nineties, and responsible for the development and implementation of the e-Depot. His retirement is a very good occasion to present recent developments in digital preservation: what have we accomplished since NEDLIB?

The conference programme is available at: www.kb.nl/Tools_Trends

Everyone involved and interested in digital preservation is invited to participate in Tools and Trends. The conference fee is 100 Euro. This fee includes coffee breaks, lunches and conference dinner on November 1st. An online registration form is available at: http://www.kb.nl/hrd/congressen/toolstrends/registration-en.html

For more information, please contact Shirley van Maren [shirley.vanmaren@kb.nl] More Info

Planets is subject to annual review by the European Commission, which represents the European Union and oversees the execution of Framework Programme Six, under which Planets is funded. The review is usually undertaken with the assistance of a panel of external experts, who assess the quality of the deliverables submitted by Planets and advise the Commission on how well the project is doing in achieving its objectives.
The Planets review panel consists of the following experts:

• Catherine Lupovici, Head of the Digital Library Department, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF)
• Steve Knight, Manager of Digital Strategy Implementation, Electronic Services, National Library of New Zealand
• Andrew Wilson, Assistant Director, National Archives of Australia (NAA)
• Norbert Lossau, Director, Goettingen State and University Library, Germany

The Planets Year 1 review took place on 23-24 July 2007. The first day was devoted to various presentations from Planets, covering in detail the achievements and progress of year 1, as well as the workplan for the next 18 months. The panel had ample opportunities to ask questions, provide comments and interact with Planets participants during the day. The second day focused on project management aspects of Planets.

The Review Panel was very impressed with the first year of work by Planets and concluded that Planets is progressing according to plan. All the deliverables for year 1, as well as the implementation plan for the next period (albeit with minor revisions), were accepted. The Panel considered the conceptual basis of Planets to be “very sound”, and the work on automation of digital preservation processes to have great potential to provide useful answers to the wider digital preservation community.

The Panel also made recommendations to help maximise the impact of Planets. The areas in which more attention was recommended include Planets’ sustainability, greater exploration of the current state of digital preservation activities, and further analysis of the organisational impact of Planets.