s (HATII, University of Glasgow; principal
director), Niklaus Bütikofer (Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv), Hans
Hofman (Nationaal Archief/National Archives of the Netherlands), and
Maria Guercio (ISTBAL, University of Urbino). At each of these nodes a
content editor supports their work, and Peter McKinney serves as a
co-ordinator to the project. An Advisory Committee with experts from
various organisations, institutions, and companies from all over Europe
gives advice and support to ERPANET.
Chapter 2: Scope of the Case Studies
While theoretical discussions on best practice call for urgent action
to ensure the survival of digital information, it is organisations and
institutions that are leading the drive to establish effective digital
preservation strategies (2). In order to understand the processes these
organisations are undertaking, ERPANET is conducting a series of case
studies in the area of digital preservation. In total, sixty case
studies, each of varying size, will investigate awareness, strategies,
and technologies used in an array of organisations. It is anticipated
that upwards of 500 organisations, institutions and public bodies will
eventually contribute to this research. The resulting corpus should
make a substantial contribution to our knowledge of practice in digital
preservation, and form the foundation for theory building and the
development of methodological tools. The value of these case studies
will come not only from the breadth of sectors included, but also
through the depth at which they will explore the issues.
ERPANET is deliberately and systematically approaching disparate
sectors from industry and business to facilitate discussion in areas
that have traditionally been unconnected. With these case studies
ERPANET will broaden the scope and understanding of digital
preservation through research and discussion. The case studies will be
published to improve the approaches and solutions being developed and
to reduce the redundancy of effort. The intervie