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Building a Preservation Policy

This session explores the coalescing landscape of digital preservation requirements and the potential investments needed for a policy-driven approach. Topics covered include centralized and distributed preservation, full and bit-level preservation, preservation metadata, open source solutions, and more.

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Building a Preservation Policy

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  1. Digital Preservation Building a Preservation Policy MetaArchive Cooperative, Digital Preservation Policy Planning Workshop Boston College, Boston, MA October 26, 2010

  2. Session 1 Digital Preservation Trends

  3. In This Session • 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

  4. What is Digital Preservation? • “The series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary.” - Definition from Digital Preservation Coalition Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  5. Trends in Digital Preservation • 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 Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  6. Centralized & Distributed Preservation • 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 Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  7. Full & Bit-level Preservation • 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 Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  8. Preservation Metadata • 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 horizon Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  9. Open Source Solutions • 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 Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  10. Focus on economies of scale and benefits • 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 Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  11. Roles & Responsibilities • 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 Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  12. Sustainability • 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 models Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  13. Standards & Auditing Metrics • 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 Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  14. National Mandates • 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 Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

  15. Avoiding silos & pursuing interoperability • 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 Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

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