ViPER is an easy-to-install virtual machine running popular open source preservation tools with graphical user interfaces: DROID, HandBrake, JHOVE, MediaInfo, Tika and veraPDF. ViPER is a tool through which you can research them before making decisions about which to use in your production environment, by using a shared folder to quickly research a file set. It’s a singular environment with many tools, updated twice a year, and is open source!
You may know ViPER by its working title of VRE or Virtual Research Environment.
ViPER is a project result within the Dutch Digital Heritage Network, developed and safeguarded by the Open Preservation Foundation (OPF) in collaboration with the National Archives of the Netherlands (NA). The NA takes care of the functional management, while the OPF takes care of the technical management and availability.
In early June, the OPF hosted a webinar, in which Marin Rappard and Remco van Veenendaal of the National Archives of the Netherlands unveiled the fully branded and updated ViPER product, showed you where to get it, how to configure and use it, and demo-ed its features. The video will be available to our members soon via the members portal.
So, ViPER is your VRE?
Yes! Heritage organisations must meet a number of requirements to archive digital collections – (pre-)ingest, validation, checking file type, et cetera. Digital preservation tools help you run through these checks. ViPER helps you try them out. It’s an open source application that is easy to install.
Download it, find out more and play around from the website, or from github. Please also see the news item from the Dutch Digital Heritage Network for more information, quotes and perspectives.
