Digital archiving full story
The Ceramic Technologies Digital Library (CTDL) is organized as a double-level archive where the digital information is categorized mainly after its spatial dimensions: the 2D data obtained with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ 50 digital camera is archived at the first level, while the 3D data captured with the help of the Konica Minolta non-contact laser scanner is entered at the second level. The two levels are separate entities as are the web-based accesses, but their use is in many aspects complementary and reciprocal.
The 2 & 3D digital databases are created by the continuous collection and aggregation of digital imagery of ceramic vessels from various institutions. After raw-data processing on a Macintosh platform, the 2D imagery is archived on both external drives and on the main server at the Computing Centre of the EMA Greifswald University via a local Linux-based terminal server. The terminal server itself serves as a repository since data is stored on its hard drives too. Besides these places, test-data is also kept on the 'gaia'-lab server at the ASU in Tempe.
The data that is feeded into the terminal server at the Institute for Historical Studies is backed-up every 24 hours by IBM's Tivoli server application, which stores the copies on the mainframe server located at the Computing Centre at EMA University in Greifswald. These copies are kept indefinitely on high-storage magnetic tapes, which are also backup-ed on a different internal server at the Computing Centre. In this manner, the kernel of the digital archive is safely stored for the future.
The digital databases are accessed in different ways. The 2D data can be accessed through a front-end (4images application) application built on PHP side-scripting code and MySQL web-based database. At the moment, our efforts are focused on integrating seamlessly the front-end with the CTDL website so that the registered user can access the database and also upload own digital imagery in the online CTDL library.
Either way, the uploaded digital images are replicated in the back-end on the mainframe server at the Computing Centre with the metadata stored in the MySQL database. The replication is performed automatically and periodically ensuring the incorporation and immediate presentation of new and already-stored data. Click here (.pdf) for more information on the CTDL system architecture.
Note: all images were taken at the Computing Centre, Greifswald University. The last picture depict R. Haß and M. Rode at work.
April 7, 2008
