Building a Preservation Policy

Digital Preservation

MetaArchive Cooperative, Digital Preservation Policy Planning WorkshopBoston College, Boston, MA October 26, 2010

Session 1

What is Digital Preservation?Trends in Digital Preservation

The Goal:To understand the coalescing landscape of digital preservation requirements and consider the potential investments needed for developing a policy driven approach to digital preservation.

Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

“The series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary.”

- Definition from Digital Preservation Coalition


Centralized & Distributed Preservation Full & Bit-level Preservation Preservation Metadata Open Source solutions Focus on economies of scale and benefits Roles & Responsibilities Sustainability Standards and auditing metrics National mandates Avoiding silos & pursuing interoperability


Centralized preservation: Preservation activities managed by single

institution Examples:▪ Chronicling America▪ DAITSS

Distributed preservation: Preservation activities managed by multiple

institutions replicating and/or geographically locating collections

Examples▪ LOCKSS▪ MetaArchive Cooperative ▪ Chronopolis


Many archives doing a bit of both Something of a false dichotomy

Full Preservation Focuses heavily on format migration and

normalization (may still preserve the original)▪ Highly concerned with monitoring and intervening against

format obsolescence up-front

Bit-level Preservation Focuses primarily on preserving the original bits▪ Avoids migration, normalization, and monitoring up-front

and cites long-lived support or convertability of the majority of formats


PREMIS Administrative metadata Technical metadata Structural metadata Provenance metadata

Metadata standards are always under development – mark the moment to learn and continue to watch the horizonSchultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

Open source is a well recognized best practice at this point – real question is: How open?

Why Open Source? Avoiding proprietary solutions can guard against

dependencies and sudden loss Open source formats and technologies maximize

communities of support and ensure flexibility and long-lived solutions

Open source approaches dramatically reduce technology costs and can lead to building of expertise


Digital preservation needs are great at most institutions and digital preservation can be costly

You don’t have (shouldn’t try) to save everything!

Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainability Economies of scale can reduce staff costs Focus on communicating the benefits to the

institution aids in selection and prioritization▪ Prioritization crucial for offsetting costs▪ Define the institutional value of your assets


Partnering with other institutions to preserve content is becoming more popular Sharing resources and expertise reduces costs Maintains control over institutional assets rather

than handing over responsibility to third parties Consumers also becoming Producers and

Preservers of digital assets

Modularizing the chain of preservation activities (ingest, storage, dissemination) Microservices and interoperability


Many grant funded projects are short-lived or narrowly focused

Institutions have been pressured to just enter the game and hope for the best

Diverse revenue streams becoming essential

NDIIPP transitions to NDSA Emphasis on Collaboration Promoting self-sustaining cost modelsSchultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

Trustworthy digital repositories! Reference Model for an Open Archival

Information System (OAIS) - 2002 Trusted Repositories Audit &

Certification (TRAC) – 2007 Metrics for Digital Repository Audit &

Certification – awaiting ISO standardization


NIH Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access Scientists seeking funding will soon be

required to submit data management plans – NSF Press Release (May 10, 2010)

Ensuring long-term accessibility and sharing of data and digital assets to improve research

There is no access without preservation A massive undertaking requiring top-down

institution-wide policies


Information, data, and research silos result from institutional management structures

Result is a multiplicity of practices and technologies that prevent sharing and re-use

An acknowledged problem We’re just getting started on solutions Institution-wide policies have potential to

help catalyze institutional change and break down silos


Documents

Building a Preservation Policy