Pilot Projects

1. Persistent Archives Project
   
   The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), the University of Maryland, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) are collaborating to build a pilot persistent archive that makes use and extends data grid and digital library technologies. The current prototype consists of node servers at SDSC, University of Maryland, and NARA, linked through the Storage Request Broker (SRB) data grid middleware, and currently holds several terabytes of NARA selected collections. The main purpose of this project is the development and testing of scalable and cost-effective technologies for the long term preservation of digital information with a particular focus on NARA-type collections.
   
   
   Partner Sites
   • San Diego Supercomputer Center - NARA Project
   • National Archives - Electronic Records Archives
   
   
   
2. Earth Science Information Partnership (ESIP) Federation Data Grid
   
   The University of Maryland, through the Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF), is leading an effort to prototype a data grid for the access, information discovery, and preservation of earth science data. The GLCF, a digital library holding over 12 TB of land cover data, is heavily utilized by a broad spectrum of international researchers interested in environmental and ecological studies. The amount of data downloaded from the GLCF has been around 5TB-8TB per month. The ESIP data grid prototype combines the earth science resources available at the GLCF, George Mason University, and University of New Hampshire. A current technology effort focuses on issues related to the long term preservation of data available through the ESIP Federation using the data grid prototype as a testbed.
   
   
3. Light-Weight Preservation Environment(LPE) This pilot project is in collaboration with Fujitsu researchers focusing on the development of a preservation infrastructure for existing commercial models and emerging grid and web technologies. More specifically, we are developing a prototype system that uses the Globus Toolkit to distribute, replicate, and migrate data as necessary between many autonomous systems that can be independently installed and maintained by application service providers. The major components of the LPE are: Policy Manager, Data Replication and Migration Managers, Transformation Manager, and Data Storage Sites.