Sheer curation

Sheer curation is an approach to digital curation where curation activities are quietly integrated into the normal work flow of those creating and managing data and other digital assets. The word sheer is used to emphasis the lightweight and virtually transparent nature of these curation activities.

Sheer curation depends on the hypothesis that good data and digital asset management at the point of creation and primary use is also good practice in preparation for sharing, publication and/or long-term preservation of these assets. Therefore, sheer curation attempts to identify and promote tools and good practices in local data and digital asset management in specific domains, where those tools and practices add immediate value to the creators and primary users of those assets.

The aim of sheer curation is to establish a solid foundation for other curation activities which may not directly benefit the creators and primary users of digital assets, especially those required to ensure long-term preservation. By providing this foundation, further curation activities may be carried out by specialists at appropriate institutional and organisation levels, whilst causing the minimum of interference to others.

Sheer curation is usually contrasted with post hoc preservation, where a project is initiated to preserve a collection of digital assets that have already been created and are beyond the period of their primary use.

The sheer curation approach is being explored in the ImageStore project [ [http://imageweb.zoo.ox.ac.uk/wiki/index.php/The_ImageStore_Project The ImageStore Project - ImageWeb ] ] , part of the UK Digital Curation Centre's SCARP project [ [http://www.dcc.ac.uk/scarp/ Digital Curation Centre: DCC SCARP Project ] ] .

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