Integrating Preservation Functions Into the Web Server

<p>Digital preservation of theWorldWideWeb poses unique challenges, different fromthe preservation issues facing professional Digital Libraries. The complete list of a website’s resources cannot be cited with confidence, and the descriptive metadata available for the resources is so minimal that it is sometimes insufficient for a browser to recognize. In short, the Web suffers from a counting problem and a representation problem. Refreshing the bits, migrating from an obsolete file format to a newer format, and other classic digital preservation problems also affect the Web. As digital collections devise solutions to these problems, the Web will also benefit. But the core World Wide Web problems of Counting and Representation need a targeted solution.</p> <p>As the host of web content, the web server is uniquely positioned to assist in the preservation of the resources it serves. It both knows the resources it has, and knows what kind of resources they are. This dissertation presents research in which preservation functions have been integrated into the web server itself. The CRATE Model defines a method for addressing the Counting Problem and the Representation Problem using existing web server-compatible technology. A series of experiments which evaluated this approach are presented, along with a technical review of the MODOAI web server module which acts as the preservation agent. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by a quantitative analysis of its use in a commercial web testing environment.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Year dc:date.available

2008

Author dc:creator

• Smith, Joan A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Michael L. Nelson
• Kurt Maly
• Steven J. Zeil
• Mohammed K. Zubair
• Simeon Warner

• Digital preservation
• Web servers
• World Wide Web
• CRATE model
• Digital libraries
• Computer Sciences
• Digital Communications and Networking

Statement dc:rights

• <p>In Copyright. URI: <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).</p>

Identifier

9780549753667

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.odu.edu:computerscience_etds-1021