Jerome McDonough, GSLIS associate professor, has received the Best Paper award in the Digital Media: Content and Communication track at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, held in Maui in January.
His paper, “Knee-Deep in Data: Practical Problems in Applying the OAIS Reference Model to the Preservation of Computer Games,” examines the reference model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) through the Preserving Virtual Worlds project, in which McDonough and partners explored the application of the OAIS Reference Model for the preservation of computer games, videogames, and electronic literature within a research library setting. The paper identifies practical problems in determining the appropriate range of representation and context information needed to preserve computer games and discusses possible solutions to those problems.
The Preserving Virtual Worlds project, funded by the Library of Congress’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIP), investigated what preservation issues arose with computer games and interactive fiction, and how existing metadata and packaging standards might be employed for the long-term preservation of these materials. McDonough is now principal investigator on Preserving Virtual Worlds II, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which focuses on determining properties for a variety of educational games and game franchises in order to provide a set of best practices for preserving the materials through virtualization technologies and migration, as well as provide an analysis of how the preservation process is documented.