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I would like to discuss known examples of patrons working with materials in born-digital collections. What case studies are already out there? What examples can we point to of born-digital materials that have been consulted and cited by scholars in their work? What wisdom is available anecdotally from those scholars who have worked with born-digital materials, either online or by visiting a collection? What provisions have institutions made for researcher access? How can researchers be educated about both the potential of born-digital materials, and the kind of problems and challenges they should expect to encounter?

Trust: Perceptions and Demonstrations

Ed Fay, London School of Economics

Trusted repositories have been discussed for many years, and attributes proposed based on OAIS (TRAC, nestor et al.) with current work taking the proposed certifications towards ISO standards. I would like to discuss whether these demonstrations meet the requirements or expectations of some or all of our user constituencies (technologists/system builders, depositors, curators, end-users, organisational management) - in essence whether the demonstrations match the perceptions. A further aspect which I think is worthy of discussion is how digital trust relates to traditional trust. Curating digital material is only an extension or format shift of a mission which organisations have been carrying out for many years. Rarely do depositors require demonstrations of strong-room standards-compliance (e.g. BS5454) so is trusted repository status an exercise purely for the specialists? Will trust continue to be placed in the organisation regardless of technical demonstrations? What, if anything, do trusted certifications need to demonstrate that they are not already?