International Archives Day - June 9, 2012

June 9 has been designated as International Archives Day by the International Council on Archives. Given the current (ongoing since May 2012) turmoil in Canada around the elimination of the National Archival Development Program (NADP), a funding source for archives and archival organizations, by the Library and Archives Canada (LAC), as well as the severe cuts at LAC by its current head, Dr. Daniel J. Caron, is it any wonder that no one appears to be celebrating this event in Canada? Most publicly funded archives are also closed on Saturdays and Sundays, which might also explain the lack of hoopla.

OpenMetadata.org opens

OpenMetadata.org has launched. It's a catchy but very misleading name since it deals only with statistical and scientific metadata. The site is the property of "a small group of private companies working with research data and statistics, dedicated to providing services around metadata standards such as SDMX and DDI. Our goal is to provide better visibility and use of existing data resources, whether these are publically available or require permission to access." (About Us).

One of the databases you can consult that makes use of these standards is the Open Survey Catalog, compiled in collaboration with the International Household Survey Network (established 2004). As the name implies these are essentially questionnaires on a wide variety of topics. You may or may not, however, be able to access the actual data because the word catalog means this is a database describing these surveys.

Buy American? President Obama bought French game Just Dance 3 for Christmas

According to a tweet from French multinational computer gaming company Ubisoft, United States President Obama obtained their game Just Dance 3 as a family Christmas present. So much for Buy American! What's that about Do what I say, but not what I do....

The Ubisoft tweet also caught the attention of the venerable Forbes with this headline
"President Barack Obama Endorses Ubisoft's Just Dance 3 Videogame For Christmas". Forbes missed the obvious Buy American contradiction.

KEEP project releases new version of Emulation Framework (EF)

The European project KEEP released a new version of the Emulation Framework (version 1.1.0). The software is open source (Apache v2 license) and free to use for any organisation or individual. The software allows you to access old computer files and programs using emulation without the need to go through difficult installations and configurations.


Source: DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK, 02011 12 22

The Burgess Shale, a new Web site from the Royal Ontario Museum

The Royal Ontario Museum developed a Virtual Museum of Canada Web site around The Burgess Shale, a UNESCO World Hertiage Site, which is located entirely in BC in Yoho National Park. The ROM has done fieldwork at the Burgess Shale. None of the Burgess Shale fossils appear to be on display anywhere in BC, so it's great to have this opportunity for a virtual visit. The guy with the sledgehammer kind of worries me though.