TBBS – THE BORING BAGIT STORE: Storing digital art and cultural assets in a distributed storage infrastructure

Abstract

The paper introduces TBBS (The Boring BagIT Store) a tool for the distributed storage of digital data and cultural assets. TBBS responds to at least three requirements that smaller and medium size cultural institutions face to ensure the permanent storage and custody of their digital cultural assets: a) secure (encrypted) storage of archival data packages; b) distributed (asynchronous) storage, with possibly varying storage qualities; and c) easy to use storage administration with reasonable monitoring options. After a short introduction to the collection portfolio of the House of Electronic Arts Basel (HeK), which serves as a descriptive example for the determination of some of the standard requirements of TBBS, the article outlines the sub-elements of TBBS. The text starts with the GENERAL REPORT as a visible result of TBBS and then goes back step by step explaining the individual elements, technologies used and procedures.