Scaling Emulation as a Service Infrastructure (EaaSI) (Subcontract)

The use of born-digital information requires ongoing support of underlying software that supports its application; a dependency that is challenged by the complexity of digital environments and the inherent obsolescence of developing technologies. In response, many organizations are engaged in the collection and preservation of software. However, no single organization can collect all of the software titles that might be required in order to access the contents of their existing collections. Additionally, acquisition alone does not guarantee software will function as planned, now or in the future. Preserved software and the digital objects it supports may remain inaccessible despite our best efforts.

The Scaling Emulation and Software Preservation Infrastructure (EaaSI) project builds on previous work by Yale University Library and elsewhere to apply the Emulation-as-a-Service (EaaS) model for access and use of preserved software and digital objects. The project is focused on developing a distributed, community-driven architecture that complements existing digital preservation infrastructure. This project supports efforts by Software Preservation Network (SPN) and Educopia to address key aspects of software preservation including legal advocacy, research about local software preservation needs, institutional capacity building for software preservation, collection development, professional development and training, and workflow recommendations.