Long-term preservation of ETDs in Algeria: discussion through the CERIST Deposit system

Abstract

In Algeria, and according to an official decree issued in August 2000 by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, an electronic copy of every Master's and PhD thesis defended in every academic institution must be deposited at CERIST Research Center. This as a condition to get the diploma. CERIST is then entrusted with a mission to build a database of national theses and update of the national inventory of current theses and researches. However a serious problem of archiving and preserving of these ETDs is more and more arising. Thus, We have noticed that from December 2001 until November 2002 a great number of ETDs is deposited and constitute a set of more than 1000 floppy discs and 100 CD-ROMs. What would guarantee that these digital materials deposited by students might be preserved and safeguarded? What would guarantee that the content of these materials might be preserved and accessible at any time regardless the machine, the operating systems, and software. the user will be running in the future? Through our paper we will clarify the problem of the long-term conservation and preservation of electronic documents in the Algerian context? And in which way we may apply an international recognised standards and techniques for setting up and organising the local ETD's archives?