Guidelines for Preserving New Forms of Scholarship

For custom websites or software, publishers should request an installation script from the authors or developers. This can be used in combination with a clean installation package (one that is unpolluted by extraneous files and data generated in the live environment during deployment and use) to install the software or website in a new environment. In addition to the install script, the authors or developers should provide a document listing the machine requirements and any dependencies that will be installed or used by the script. If a script is not available, at minimum the authors or developers should provide documentation that describes the requirements, dependencies, and detailed installation process with sample commands as appropriate. This information can be placed in a README file placed in the root of the project. While installation scripts may stop working as technology evolves, they provide information about how to get the software working and can be vital context for a preservation service, or when migrating to new infrastructure.

These guidelines also discuss the installation package for a web application:
61. Create installation packages for custom websites that don’t require a live server
62. Create installation packages for custom websites that do require a live server
67. Keep the source code and compiled version of the software

Previous Post Next Post