[Denise Hills]

Hello RDA Data Rescue!
I would like to call your attention to a session soliciting abstracts at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual meeting. Information about the meeting can be found here. Abstracts are due soon – 1 August 2018 23:59 EDT/03:59 +1 GMT – and I wanted to be sure you hadn’t missed this relevant session! Note that you need to be an AGU member to submit as first/presenting author, but membership is quite reasonable.
Session information:
IN021: Data rescue is more than just a PDF
Data rescue seeks to recover older datasets and metadata from the trappings of paper, dated media and/or recording hardware. It has had a higher profile in recent years, stemming from concerns that scientific data might be at risk of removal from government websites.
Appropriate identification of data-at-risk, a key step often missed in well-intentioned grass-roots efforts, recognises the need to identify data sets that need to be preserved and/or replicated. It requires anticipating changes in curation personnel and evolving technologies, so they are always available as a global resource for future research, particularly research involving longitudinal components. But many well-intentioned data rescue efforts have failed: mere duplication of datasets or simple scanning of documents does not mean that the data is rescued.
This session solicits papers that discuss what is necessary for appropriate data rescue and identification of data-at-risk, as well as exemplars of sustainable data rescue.
If you have any questions about the session or its scope, please feel free to reach out to me, Lesley Wyborn, Steve Diggs, or Dave Gallaher, the co-conveners of the session. We look forward to a great session!
The link to submit an abstract is here: https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm18/prelim.cgi/Session/46227
Thanks!
Denise

Discussion

[Chandra Shekhar Roy]

Dear Sir,
I like to submit the below abstract for your kind consideration. I am the member of Data Rescue IG in RDA. Being an LDC country’s member we took the initiatives to development of Metadata, Time series data through a Project(DCMPT). Please read the full document where we are seeking for technical assistance from your organization.
With best regards.
Roy

Abstract: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has vowed to convert Census/Surveys micro data for next generation technology format use processed in IBM proprietary technology. After Bangladesh’s independence, there is a rich repository of statistical information in IBM 360 to ES/9000 mainframe tapes, dating back to late 1970s and early 2000s time.
The overarching objective is to strengthen the prevailing national statistical archiving system. BBS will be making available of this large volume of converted data to the citizens of Bangladesh (if needed world community) so that academic and scholarly debates can take place taking cognizance of historical data.
This is a big step towards dissemination of Big Data covering Bangladesh’s economic developmental trend since its birth in 1971. By revisiting time series data, it is hoped that well-informed and meticulous policies can be designed and formulated in the future. Most fundamentally, availability and easy accessibility to such a large volume of Big Data will inspire reassessing economic theories and indicators of development informing Bangladesh’s position in global rankings like SDG.
Key Words: mainframe, historical data, IBM, archiving, SDG.

[Frédéric Clette Clette]

Dear Sir,
For different reasons, we cannot respond positively to this request for
collaboration:
– We are currently a very small data center, and with our limited
manpower, we cannot undertake such new tasks.
– Our topic of expertise is solar activity, and therefore, it does not
correspond to the type of information in your repository.
– At the technical level, we don’t have any equipment here able to read
old IBM-type tapes. We entire switched to disks and optical media a long
time ago.
Still, I wish you success for this important recovery of unique data
about your country.
Best regards,
Frédéric Clette
World Data Center SILSO

[Author]

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