ICABS

IFLA-CDNL Alliance for Bibliographic Standards (ICABS)

ICABSis a strategic alliance of the national libraries of Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, Australia, the Netherlands and the United States. The programme aims to maintain, promote, and harmonize existing standards and concepts related to bibliographic and resource control. In this context, the KB has taken up the subject of digital preservation.

In 2004/2005 Ingeborg Verheul of the KB carried out a survey after recent developments in digital preservation among 15 national libraries. The results have now been published in the IFLA Publication Series, under the title Networking for Digital Preservation. Current Practice in 15 National Libraries. The book has been published by KG Saur in Munich. A PDF-versionis available online at the ICABS website. The main conclusions of the survey are that digital archiving is increasingly integrated into the day to day activities in libraries, that the OAIS Reference Model has been accepted as a worldwide standard and that significant progress has been made in building networks: both technical networks such as digital deposit systems and personal networks in the sense of international collaboration. A short summary is available here.

At the same time the National Library of Australia conducted an exploratory survey for ICABS after the online availability of guidelines and standards in the field of digital preservation. A summary of this report is available here.

This year an evaluation will take place of ICABS' objectives, methods and results, after which the strategy for the next three years will be determined.