preserving software at scale: the stephen cabrinety collection
TRANSCRIPT
Preserving Software at Scale: The Stephen Cabrinety Collection
Michael Olson, Stanford University LibrariesDouglas White, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Disclaimer
Trade names and company products are mentioned in the text or identified. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the products are necessarily the best available for the purpose.
The Collection and NIST Grant
Collection consists of ~ 15,000 software titles from 1975 – 1995
Grant (Sept. 2013 – Aug. 2014) funded by National Institute of Standards and Technology
Contains all media types from this period Disk images to be added to National Software Reference
Library (NSRL) Reference Data Set Disk images and photographs will be ingested into the
Stanford Digital Repository
Initial Stanford Tasks
Page software to campus Register software titles in Digital Object Registry (DRUID,
Title, Source ID) Enter descriptive metadata in NSRL database Print tracking sheet Ship to NIST
NIST NSRL Collection
Contains 14,500 pieces of computer software.Focuses on Windows, Mac, Linux operating systems and
popular applications. Modern formats : DVD & CD ROMs, 5¼ in. & 3 ½ in. disks.
Efforts 2005 to date:19,500 media images395 media errors (2%)3,500 photograph sets25,200 photos
SUL Cabrinety Collection
Focuses on games for Atari, Commodore, Amiga, Sega, Nintendo, and Apple systems.
27 different operating systems represented. Several formats : 8 in., 5¼ in., and 3 ½ in. computer disks,
cassettes, cartridges, CD-ROMs.
NIST Efforts to date:900 media images158 media errors (17%)1,100 photograph sets61,100 photos
Workstation Equipment
Apple Mini, running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS5000K lighting stationCanon T3i, tetheredGolden Thread Object Level Target USB 3.5-inch floppy driveDevice Side Data FC5025 USB 5.25-inch floppy controller ATA 5.25-inch floppy driveUSB barcode scanner
Firefox browserJava photo organizer (custom, wraps gphoto2 etc.)Perl media imager (custom, wraps dfcldd etc.)
Cartridge Media
Using Retrode adapter for SEGA Genesis and Super Nintendo (SNES) games, plus plug-ins for Gameboy, Atari, Nintendo 64.
Could not generate a complete, consistent media image.
Every cartridge has metadata in a ROM “header” area; many include a checksum, for anti-piracy use.
NSRL can calculate the SNES and SEGA Genesis checksums.Game Boy and Nintendo are works in progress.
Detailed blog article recently published on Stanford website.
Results to date
Just received first batch of data from NIST – 360 GB = 870 software titles, 116,000 unique files
Capture success rate:– 83% with no modification or intervention– Can increase by 5% with human intervention during imaging– Can increase by 4% with intervention during image mount– 8% of media have many (> 10%) sector read errors
Lessons and Improvements Automation; less human interaction
Photography; use RAW and convert
Hardware for legacy media: Apple physical formats Large format floppy disks (8”) Cassettes
Cartridge batteries
Lessons and Improvements
Data modeling beginning this month for repository Copyright letter created to send to rights holders
Create persistent URL citation page (PURL) for software Integration into Stanford Catalog called SearchWorks –
when rights allow
Just received first batch of data from NIST 360 GB = 870 software titles, 116,000 unique files
Copyright permissions letter created