CERN’s Digital Memory: When Patrimony Data meets Scientific Data

Since 1954, the European Organization for Nuclear Physics (CERN) has developed and exploited accelerator technologies to run fundamental research on high-energy particles. Punctuated by the discovery of new particles and the invention of the World Wide Web, the last 65 years have seen an explosion in the amount of data captured, whether scientific datasets or multimedia documentary. Both are now considered an essential component of the Institute’s heritage, and they must be preserved for future generations. Thus, as they are digitized, nearly 450,000 photographs, 4,000 hours of audiovisual material, and 6,000 hours of sound recordings from the past are now being added to the data acquired digitally. This massive digitization gives access to content full of surprises, and to new projects of enhancement through art, cinema, or virtual reality. This exciting content is gaining a new audience at the same time that it is subject to the new risks of digital obsolescence. By managing it on the same infrastructure as the physics data, the multimedia heritage benefits from common developments. In particular the two content types will share a preservation platform conforming to the OAIS model. A proof of concept based on the open source software Invenio and Archivematica will be explained.