Are you or is anyone you know preserving GIS or other software?

The Software Preservation Network’s Research Working Group invites you to participate in a survey on practices, needs, and gaps related to software preservation. The goal of the Software Preservation Network (SPN) is to “make it easier to deposit, discover and reuse software”. Learn more about SPN here: https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/about/.
 
Why Does This Matter?
 
For decades, researchers and practitioners in information science, digital preservation, and allied fields have discussed the necessity of software preservation: preserving software is a prerequisite for preserving and providing access to digital cultural heritage and research, and software is increasingly considered a research product or artifact in itself.
 
How are cultural heritage professionals working on preserving software? What are the obstacles to software preservation? Do best practices exist?
 
To help answer these important questions, we need your input. This survey is the first in what we hope will be a longitudinal study of software preservation services over time.
 
Who Should Participate?
 
Any individual or organization involved in activities that involve or rely on software preservation is encouraged to take the survey. For the purposes of this survey, software preservation encompasses a wide range of experimental or established services or actions at organizations such as collecting original software media and documentation, consultations with software producers or users of specialized or obsolete software, preservation of software code or executable files, metadata creation for preserved software, etc.
 
The survey will close on February 19, 2019.
 
How will the survey information be used?
 
Anonymized data from the study will be made available to the profession, along with analysis of current trends and possibilities for future research. This study has been approved by the Georgia Institute of Technology Institutional Review Board.
 
Take the survey (roughly 15 minutes): https://b.gatech.edu/2Cs10Gf
 
Questions? Contact: [log in to unmask]
 
Thank you in advance for contributing your insights!
 
The Software Preservation Network Research Working Group
Jessica Benner, Carnegie Mellon University
Wendy Hagenmaier, Georgia Institute of Technology
Monique Lassere, University of Arizona
Christa Williford, Council on Library and Information Resources
Lauren Work, University of Virginia
 
Jessica G. Benner  | Library Liaison, Computer Science & GIS  | Carnegie Mellon University Libraries  | 4406 Sorrells Library  | 412-268-2426
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