Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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simplicity, and sensible file nam<strong>in</strong>g. As Dutschke expla<strong>in</strong>ed, “There is an unfortunate tendency to want
to make the file name carry verbal mean<strong>in</strong>g, to allow humans to understand how it refers to the reallife
object” (Dutschke 2008). She argued that this was unnecessary; because the catalog<strong>in</strong>g for files
occurs elsewhere <strong>in</strong> tables of the database, such <strong>in</strong>formation need not be encoded <strong>in</strong> the file name.
Simple and transparent file names, she <strong>in</strong>sisted, helped limit future costs of hav<strong>in</strong>g to update <strong>in</strong>valid
semantic values or fix<strong>in</strong>g typ<strong>in</strong>g errors.
While the database used for data entry and collection is currently Microsoft Access, Dutschke po<strong>in</strong>ted
out that on a regular basis every DS partner exports its own, collection- specific <strong>in</strong>formation <strong>in</strong>to XML
and then forwards those XML data to the central DS organization. “It is on the XML-encoded data that
technology experts write the applications that make the data useful to scholars,” Dutschke reported,
“via mesh<strong>in</strong>g the data from multiple partners, search<strong>in</strong>g it, retriev<strong>in</strong>g it, display<strong>in</strong>g it.” In addition,
because XML is both nonproprietary and platform <strong>in</strong>dependent they have chosen to use it for “data
transport, long-term storage and manipulation.” Cayless et al. (2009) have also argued for the use of
XML as a long-term preservation format for digitally encoded epigraphic data. Two other long-term
preservation challenges that were identified by Dutschke were the challenges of mass storage and the
security of the files.
While technical <strong>in</strong>teroperability and f<strong>in</strong>ancial susta<strong>in</strong>ability were two key components of the long-term
preservation of any digital project, Dutschke ultimately concluded that the most important questions
were political; <strong>in</strong> other words, were the DS partners committed to its long-term survival, and did the
larger user community value it To stabilize the DS consortium, the DS has created a govern<strong>in</strong>g body
that has developed policies for the daily management of decision mak<strong>in</strong>g. They also conducted a user
survey to which 200 people responded and 43 of which agreed to be <strong>in</strong>terviewed <strong>in</strong> detail; the major
conclusion of this survey was the unrelent<strong>in</strong>g demand for more content. This led Dutschke to offer the
important <strong>in</strong>sight that digital projects need to understand both their current and future user demands,
ultimately posit<strong>in</strong>g that “the will to susta<strong>in</strong>ability lies not only with<strong>in</strong> the project and its
creators/partners; it also lies with its users.”
One last critical issue raised by Dutschke addressed the needs of the DS and the digital humanities as a
whole to develop a greater understand<strong>in</strong>g of the costs and needs of cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure:
It’s not simply that digital projects cost money; all human endeavour falls <strong>in</strong>to that category.
It's that digital projects rema<strong>in</strong> so new to us that we, as a nation and even as a world-wide
community of scholars work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the humanities, haven't fully understood the costs nor
factored them out across appropriate bodies. The steps DS has taken towards a more reliable ad
efficient technology, and the steps it has not taken reflect growth and uncerta<strong>in</strong>ty <strong>in</strong> the field
overall. DS and the digital world as a community still lack a cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure not simply <strong>in</strong>
terms of hardware or software, but even more importantly as a shared and recognized expertise
and mode of operation (Dutschke 2008).
Throughout this review, the uncerta<strong>in</strong>ty regard<strong>in</strong>g the way forward for a digital <strong>in</strong>frastructure at both
the <strong>in</strong>dividual and the cross-discipl<strong>in</strong>ary levels was frequently discussed. While technological issues
and f<strong>in</strong>ancial concerns were often raised, Dutschke also broached the important question of the lack of
shared expertise and bus<strong>in</strong>ess models <strong>in</strong> terms of understand<strong>in</strong>g how best to move forward toward
build<strong>in</strong>g a humanities cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure.
The second major virtual library of manuscripts is the Manuscriptorium, which, accord<strong>in</strong>g to its
website, is seek<strong>in</strong>g to create “a virtual research environment provid<strong>in</strong>g access to all exist<strong>in</strong>g digital