Development of the SIARD-DK Module in the Database Perservation Toolkit

The Danish National Archives (DNA) holds an extensive collection of more than 6,000 archived relational databases—so-called Archival Information Packages (AIPs)—collected from both public and private data providers in Denmark. A unit of the DNA called Indtægtsgivende Aktiviteter (INDAKT) have the production of the SIARD-DKs as a part of their business model. INDAKT seeks to establish a future-proof solution for producing archival versions in the SIARD-DK Bek.128 format through the use of DBPTK. INDAKT has until now utilized various tools, including in-house systems and the DBPTK, to convert relational databases from a wide variety of formats (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS Access) into SIARD-compatible archival packages. These databases are often accompanied by linked documents, images, and files in multiple formats. Currently, external documents are manually added to the AIP after ingest, often using file references. The future solution must allow seamless integration of these external and internal LOBs directly during archive creation, ensuring that: • Relationships between database records and associated files are preserved. • Full metadata and context information is included. • All documents are converted to long-term preservation formats (e.g., TIFF), if possible. Following a market analysis, INDAKT have chosen to further the development of Database Preservation Toolkit (DBPTK)—an open source software suite designed specifically to support the production SIARD-DK files from relational databases. In particular, the DBPTK Desktop Edition provides the basic functionality to meet our requirements, including handling large-scale databases and handling of external lobs and blobs, although not the extend that is needed. We are therefore seeking assistance with the configuration of DBPTK Desktop in order to establish a future-proof solution for the production of archival versions in the SIARD-DK Bek.128 format.