Preserving progress for future generations

Preserving progress for future generations. Rebecca Pool. Research Information. February/March 2015.
Digital preservation remains one of the most critical challenges facing scholarly communities today. From e-journals and e-books to emails, blogs and more, electronic content is proliferating and organizations worldwide are trying to preserve information before the electronic information is lost. Some of the organizations include: Portico (which preserves content on behalf of participating publishers; the number of open access journals it includes is rising, ); CLOCKSS (still grappling with the cost models of providing preservation service).

There is a rising demand for the preservation of dynamic content. No one is able to "capture dynamic content and [preserve] a day-to-day, or even, minute-to-minute feed of this content." There are only snapshots. CLOCKSS is developing the ‘how to’ process to preserve these ‘snapshots’ across multiple locations, validating each against the other, and is also exploring the best pricing structures to preserve such content.

Other organizations include LOCKSS, The Digital Preservation Network, HathiTrust, Preservica, Archivematica, and Rosetta, whose recent clients are the State Library of New South Wales and the State Library of Queensland.

The digital preservation development is clearly gaining momentum, growing in both size and complexity. "Clearly progress is being made and you can measure that by the maturity of solutions on offer." But for most organizations, the urgency of digital preservation has yet to hit home.

"Trying to sell the idea of digital preservation on the basis of return on investment has been very hard. By its nature, it’s a long-term activity and you’re really hedging your bets against future risks. I think we are still in the very early days of genuinely understanding the value of digital assets... and transferring this understanding over to financial assets doesn’t yet work very well." The European consortium 4C (Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation) has been investigating this problem. Their road map helps organisations appraise digital assets, adopt a strategy to grow preservation assets and develop costing processes. In addition they have developed a model for curation costs. The only way to understand the costs of preservation is though sharing, through openness and collaboration.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Aligning Customer Needs: Business Process Management (BPM) and Successful Change Management in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections

Aligning Customer Needs: Business Process Management (BPM) and Successful Change Management in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections. Joseph Gordon Daines III. Library Leadership & Management. November 2014. PDF
A lot of archival processing happens before an archival or manuscript collection can be made available for research use by patrons. It is central to the archival endeavor. This article looks at the role of business process management (BPM) in automating many of the workflows used to manage the manuscript and archival collections

BPM is a field of management focused on aligning organizations with the needs and wants of their customer bases. The Special Collections department identified its customer bases as its curatorial staff and its patrons. Enabling the curatorial staff to more efficiently prepare manuscript collections for research use would also enable better customer service. Several different BPM techniques were used to gain an understanding of the curatorial needs of  the department as it automated the  workflows. This enabled the department to successfully simplify and streamline its workflows during the course of automating them. The end result has been more efficient processing of archival collections and better service for our patrons.

A review of the requirements showed a need for two types of functionality:

1. task management, and 
2. archival content management.

Business process:

• Systematic management, measurement and improvement of all company processes through cross-functional teamwork and employee empowerment.
• Standardize activities and processes in order to improve organizational efficiency
• Business process: “a series of interrelated activities, crossing functional boundaries, with specific inputs and outputs.”
• The tools that will be examined are process mapping, process modeling, statements of work, and use cases. Processes are modeled using at least one of the following charts: general process charts, process flow diagrams, process activity charts, or flowcharts.
• Flowcharts are useful in identifying decision points and parallel activities in a process.gain an understanding of the sequence of activities in the process
• Statements of Work: A specific statement regarding the requirements needed in a service contract. The statement of work should include all aspects of job requirements, performance and assessment.
• Use cases also help identify the actors involved in various activities and what they want from those activities. For the purposes of use cases, actors are defined as “anything that interfaces with your system—for example, people, other software, hardware devices, data stores, or networks. Each actor defines a particular role.” Use cases typically include two components—a diagram featuring the actor(s) and how they interact with the system and a flow of events statement. The flow of events statement is “a series of declarative statements listing the steps of a use case from the actor’s point of view.”
• ProcessMaker provides a SOW template that aided the project in automating the workflow comprising the department’s implementation of the archival business process.
• The use of BPM tools and techniques in the Perry Special Collections provided the department with a methodology to examine and improve the workflow used to provide access to archival materials.
• Business processes enable leaders to make informed decisions that can improve library’s abilities to deliver their services. 
• BPM tools are not difficult to use and provide a wide range of benefits. Library leaders should use BPM tools to lead successful change initiatives.
  

Digital Preservation Matters.

Agreement Elements for Outsourcing Transfer of Born Digital Content.

Agreement Elements for Outsourcing Transfer of Born Digital Content. Ricky Erway, Ben Goldman and Matthew McKinley. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Research. 2014. [PDF]
The article Swatting the Long Tail of Digital Media: A Call for Collaboration (2012) held that few institutions would be able to have the hardware, software, and expertise to be able to read all digital media types. A group of archival practitioners started a pilot project to test outsourcing of the transfer of content from physical media they couldn’t read in-house. They realized the need for agreements between repositories and service providers to spell out the terms of such collaboration. The group began compiling a list of elements that should be considered when creating these agreements.

This article suggests elements to consider when creating an agreement for outsourcing the transfer of born-digital content from a physical medium, while encouraging adherence to both archival principles and technical requirements. The main areas are:

1. General Provisions: desired outcome, description of work, responsibilities and liabilities
2. Information Supplied by Service Provider: handling instructions
3. Information Supplied by Client: content, inventory,
4. Statement of Work: processing, exceptions, documentation, delivery, acceptance
5. Cost and Liability: schedule of costs and charges, responsibilities of each party

The parties should agree upon a clear set of requirements regarding the services that the Service Provider is to provide. 

Digital Preservation Matters.

Digital Preservation File Format Policies of ARL Member Libraries: An Analysis

Digital Preservation File Format Policies of ARL Member Libraries: An Analysis. Kyle Rimkus et al. D-Lib Magazine. March/April 2014.

Repository managers often create a smaller set of formats to simplify management; the formats vary by institutions. Many institutions have a migration strategy to migrate digital objects from the great multiplicity of formats used to create digital materials to a smaller, more manageable number of standard formats that can still encode the complexity of structure and form of the original.

Open file formats are generally preferred to closed, proprietary formats because the way they encode content is transparent. On the other hand, adoption of a proprietary file format by a broad community of content creators, disseminators and users, is often considered a reliable indicator of that format's longevity. Additional qualities such as complexity, the presence of digital rights management controls, and external dependencies are also seen as relevant factors to consider when assessing file formats for preservation. There is, however, no failsafe formula for file format policy decisions. Here are some of the formats that are mos mention in preservation policies:

The five most commonly occurring file formats in all policies:

1. Tagged Image File Format (extension TIFF, or TIF) (115),
2. Waveform Audio File Format (WAV) (80), 
3. Portable Document Format (PDF) (74), 
4. JPEG (JPG, JPEG) (70), and 
5. Plain text document (TXT, ASC) (69). 

The five most frequently occurring file formats given High Confidence in all policies:

1. Tagged Image File Format (TIFF, TIF) (88), 
2. Plain text document (TXT, ASC) (52), 
3. Portable Document Format (PDF) (49), 
4. Waveform Audio File Format (WAV) (47), and 
5. Extensible Markup Language (XML) (47). 

 The five most frequently occurring file formats given Medium Confidence in all policies:

1. Quicktime (MOV, QT) (47), 
2. Microsoft Excel (XLS) (39), 
3. Microsoft Word (DOC) (38), 
4. Microsoft Powerpoint (PPT) (38), and 
5. RealAudio (RAM, RA, RM) (35).

Digital Preservation Matters.

Five steps to decide what data to keep

Five steps to decide what data to keep. Angus Whyte. Digital Curation Centre. 31 October 2014.
 This guide aims to help UK Higher Education Institutions aid their researchers in making informed choices about what research data to keep. 

It will be relevant to researchers making decisions on a project-by-project basis, or formulating departmental guidelines. It assumes that decisions on particular datasets will normally be made by researchers with advice from the appropriate staff (e.g. academic liaison librarians) and taking into account any institutional policy on Research Data Management (RDM) and guidance available within their own domain.

Step 1. Identify purposes that the data could fulfill
Step 2. Identify data that must be kept
Step 3. Identify data that should be kept
Step 4. Weigh up the costs
Step 5. Complete the data appraisal 

The final step is to weigh the value of the data and any costs still to be incurred, "considering the long-terms aims, the qualities you identified, the time and money already invested in it and the risks of being unable to prepare any ‘must keep’ data for preservation."

Digital Preservation Matters

Step 1. Identify purposes that the data could fulfill

Step 2. Identify data that must be kept

Step 3. Identify data that should be kept

Step 4. Weigh up the costs

Step 5. Complete the data appraisal

- See more at: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides/five-steps-decide-what-data-keep#sthash.bSZLU9IQ.dpuf

Angus Whyte, Published: 31 October 2014

Angus Whyte, Published: 31 October 2014

Angus Whyte, Published: 31 October 2014

Angus Whyte, Published: 31 October 2014

Angus Whyte, Published: 31 October 2014

Guidelines for the creation of an institutional policy on digital preservation.

Guidelines for the creation of an institutional policy on digital preservation. Nestor. November 2014. [PDF].

nestor (Network of Expertise in long-term STORage and accessibility of digital resources in Germany) has just translated its guidelines on institutional preservation policies into English. The guideline provides digital archives with assistance in creating their own institutional policy on digital preservation. It address the questions:

1. What is the purpose of a policy?
2. What must a policy cover?
3. How is a policy produced?

It also addresses policies in cooperative long term preservation and gives a generic example of a institutional policy. Some items of note:

• the publication of institutional preservation policies has emerged as a good way to increase transparency. A policy document helps an institution to understand the challenges and to commit to a task.
• It sets out lastingly effective basic strategic and organisational elements of a digital archive and helps to increase confidence overall. In this way policies help to preserve the digital information of yesterday and today in a reliable manner and to safeguard it for tomorrow’s users.
• Digital preservation is not an end in itself; it is always aimed at a "designated community". 
• A digital archive needs a systematically developed and generally complex technical infrastructure.
• The construction of the technical infrastructure is thus dependent on the overall strategic and tactical planning of the institution as a whole, which ought to remain stable and as independent as possible from the rapid technological changes in the digital world. 
• The establishment of preservation policies can, under both scenarios, make a significant contribution to clarity in relation to the areas for joint action, differences, opportunities and risks that can be created.

This is an excellent resource on writing digital preservation policies.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Maturity levels & Preservation Policies

Maturity levels & Preservation Policies. Barbara Sierman. Open Planets Foundation. 20 October 2014.
Report of a presentation given at the iPRES 2014 conference in Melbourne on the SCAPE Preservation Policies.  The presentation explained  the SCAPE  Preservation Policy Modeland also  summarized / analysed the findings of 40 actual preservation policies. Organisations often overstretch themselves in formulating preservation policies that are not in line with their maturity (based on the  Maturity Model.)

Digital Preservation Matters.

ARMA 2014: The Convergence of Records Management and Digital Preservation

ARMA 2014: The Convergence of Records Management and Digital Preservation. Howard Loos, Chris Erickson. October 2014. [PDF]
Presentation on records management and digital preservation given at the ARMA 2014 conference.
Notes:

• Records Management mission: To assist departments in fulfilling their responsibility to identify and manage records and information in accordance with legal, regulatory, and operational requirements
• RIM Life Cycle to DP Life Cycle
• Challenges and successful approaches
• Storing records permanently with M-Discs
• Introduction to Digital Preservation, challenges, format sustainability, media obsolescence, metadata, organizational challenges,
• Life of digital media
• Best practices and processes
• OAIS model
• Rosetta Digital Preservation System
• Library of Congress Digital Preservation Outreach & Education (DPOE) Network

Digital Preservation Matters.

The Twelve Principles of Digital Preservation (and a cartridge in a repository…)

The Twelve Principles of Digital Preservation (and a cartridge in a repository…). Christina Duffy. British Library, Collection Care blog. 03 September 2013.

Following the library's strategic priorities are Twelve Principles of Digital Preservation. These principles define at a very high level how the library will approach the preservation of digital collections:

1. We integrate curatorial assessments of our digital collection content into preservation decisions, so that technical activities support curatorial requirements for the collections
2. We preserve metadata about our digital collections, so that we may understand and preserve the collections over time
3. We preserve the provenance of our digital collection content, so that we understand and can demonstrate its authenticity over time
4. We record any modifications to digital collection content (e.g. preservation action, normalisation) during the lifecycle, so that we can understand and demonstrate its integrity over time
5. We consistently apply and document our application of metadata standards, so that future generations can understand our collections
6. We maintain file-level integrity of our digital collections, so that we can protect against loss and damage
7. We preserve original files in our long term repository, alongside any other required representations of the content, so that we maintain the original artefacts acquired or deposited into our care as a ground truth representation of the content for future, currently unknown, preservation and access scenarios
8. We maintain Preservation Master copies of collection content in our long term repository, so that the format-based risks of preservation over time are minimised
9. We maintain and implement preservation plans for our digital collections, so that preservation actions are reliable and based on a holistic understanding of the collections and their context
10. We implement comprehensive end-to-end workflows, so that we may consistently manage and preserve our digital collections across the entire lifecycle
11. We regularly monitor our digital collection content for emergent preservation risks, so that we may mitigate against them
12. We integrate quality assurance checks into the lifecycle where appropriate, so that the authenticity and integrity of the content is maintained

These Principles are the first output of a workstream dedicated to defining the Library’s digital preservation standards, which will help ensure the strategic priorities are met. Other activities include:

• collection profiling: provide top level descriptions and preservation direction for different types of digital collections
• risk and preservation condition assessment: for content temporarily stored outside of our long term digital repository
• file format assessment: define preferred preservation formats for different types of content
• tool assessment: evaluate the performance of different tools on library content so that evidence-based recommendations can be made on which tools to use in which context
• training: ensure colleagues across the library are aware of digital preservation responsibilities, requirements, and recommendations relevant whilst content is in their care.

Digital Preservation Matters.

These principles define at a very high level how we as a Library will approach the preservation of our digital collections:

1. We integrate curatorial assessments of our digital collection content into preservation decisions, so that technical activities support curatorial requirements for the collections
2. We preserve metadata about our digital collections, so that we may understand and preserve the collections over time
3. We preserve the provenance of our digital collection content, so that we understand and can demonstrate its authenticity over time
4. We record any modifications to digital collection content (e.g. preservation action, normalisation) during the lifecycle, so that we can understand and demonstrate its integrity over time
5. We consistently apply and document our application of metadata standards, so that future generations can understand our collections
6. We maintain file-level integrity of our digital collections, so that we can protect against loss and damage
7. We preserve original files in our long term repository, alongside any other required representations of the content, so that we maintain the original artefacts acquired or deposited into our care as a ground truth representation of the content for future, currently unknown, preservation and access scenarios
8. We maintain Preservation Master copies of collection content in our long term repository, so that the format-based risks of preservation over time are minimised
9. We maintain and implement preservation plans for our digital collections, so that preservation actions are reliable and based on a holistic understanding of the collections and their context
10. We implement comprehensive end-to-end workflows, so that we may consistently manage and preserve our digital collections across the entire lifecycle
11. We regularly monitor our digital collection content for emergent preservation risks, so that we may mitigate against them
12. We integrate quality assurance checks into the lifecycle where appropriate, so that the authenticity and integrity of the content is maintained

These Principles are the first output of a workstream dedicated to defining the Library’s digital preservation standards. More work is already underway to define the policies that will be associated with each principle and, in turn, the resulting requirements for meeting that policy. This workstream is part of a larger programme of work being undertaken in digital preservation to ensure our strategic priorities are met. Other activities include:
• a collection profiling exercise to provide top level descriptions and preservation direction for different types of digital collections (eg e-theses, web archives, ebooks, AV material etc)
• a risk and preservation condition assessment exercise for content temporarily stored outside of our long term digital repository
• a file format assessment exercise to define preferred preservation formats for different types of content
• a tool assessment exercise to evaluate the performance of different tools on library content so that evidence-based recommendations can be made on which tools to use in which context
• a training programme to ensure colleagues across the library are aware of digital preservation responsibilities, requirements, and recommendations relevant whilst content is in their care
- See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/collectioncare/2013/09/the-twelve-principles-of-digital-preservation.html#sthash.y4lgHR40.dpuf

These principles define at a very high level how we as a Library will approach the preservation of our digital collections:

1. We integrate curatorial assessments of our digital collection content into preservation decisions, so that technical activities support curatorial requirements for the collections
2. We preserve metadata about our digital collections, so that we may understand and preserve the collections over time
3. We preserve the provenance of our digital collection content, so that we understand and can demonstrate its authenticity over time
4. We record any modifications to digital collection content (e.g. preservation action, normalisation) during the lifecycle, so that we can understand and demonstrate its integrity over time
5. We consistently apply and document our application of metadata standards, so that future generations can understand our collections
6. We maintain file-level integrity of our digital collections, so that we can protect against loss and damage
7. We preserve original files in our long term repository, alongside any other required representations of the content, so that we maintain the original artefacts acquired or deposited into our care as a ground truth representation of the content for future, currently unknown, preservation and access scenarios
8. We maintain Preservation Master copies of collection content in our long term repository, so that the format-based risks of preservation over time are minimised
9. We maintain and implement preservation plans for our digital collections, so that preservation actions are reliable and based on a holistic understanding of the collections and their context
10. We implement comprehensive end-to-end workflows, so that we may consistently manage and preserve our digital collections across the entire lifecycle
11. We regularly monitor our digital collection content for emergent preservation risks, so that we may mitigate against them
12. We integrate quality assurance checks into the lifecycle where appropriate, so that the authenticity and integrity of the content is maintained

These Principles are the first output of a workstream dedicated to defining the Library’s digital preservation standards. More work is already underway to define the policies that will be associated with each principle and, in turn, the resulting requirements for meeting that policy. This workstream is part of a larger programme of work being undertaken in digital preservation to ensure our strategic priorities are met. Other activities include:
• a collection profiling exercise to provide top level descriptions and preservation direction for different types of digital collections (eg e-theses, web archives, ebooks, AV material etc)
• a risk and preservation condition assessment exercise for content temporarily stored outside of our long term digital repository
• a file format assessment exercise to define preferred preservation formats for different types of content
• a tool assessment exercise to evaluate the performance of different tools on library content so that evidence-based recommendations can be made on which tools to use in which context
• a training programme to ensure colleagues across the library are aware of digital preservation responsibilities, requirements, and recommendations relevant whilst content is in their care
- See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/collectioncare/2013/09/the-twelve-principles-of-digital-preservation.html#sthash.y4lgHR40.dpuf

National Library of Australia’s Digital Preservation Policy

Digital Preservation Policy 4th Edition (2013). National Library of Australia.  May 26, 2013.
This site outlines the National Library of Australia’s policy on preserving its digital collections, and collaborating with others to preserve digital information resources. The primary objective of their digital preservation activities is maintaining the ability to meaningfully access digital collection content over time. The primary concern is preserving the ability to access the Preservation Master File from which derivatives files may be created or re-created over time. To this end, preservation of digital library material includes:

•     Bit-level preservation of all digital objects, ie. keeping the original files intact;
•     Ensuring that authenticity and provenance is maintained;
•     Ensuring that appropriate preservation information is maintained;
•     Understanding and reporting on risks which affect ongoing access;
•     Performing appropriate actions to ensure that objects remain accessible;
•     Periodic review of preferred formats and digital metadata standards

Preservation of the Library's digital collections involves four main goals:

1.     Maintaining access to reliable data at bit-stream level;
2.     Maintaining access to content encoded in the bit streams;
3.     Maintaining access to the intended content; and
4.     Maintaining the stated preservation intent for all digital material over time.

While specific preservation activities may focus on one or more of these goals, the Library’s preservation responsibility is only fulfilled when all four goals have been adequately addressed.

The Library uses the concepts in the Open Archival Information Systems (OAIS) Reference Model and other international standards and best practices, such as PREMIS and Open Planets Foundation.

Digital Preservation Matters.

British Library Digital Preservation Strategy.

British Library Digital Preservation Strategy. The British Library. March 2013.
The British has published their digital preservation strategy for 2013 - 2016. Their vision is that by 2020 they will put in place end-to-end workflows that deliver and preserve their digital collections in a trusted long term digital repository so that they may be accessed by future users.
This is not a strategy for the digital preservation team alone, but a strategy for the whole library. They are working to confidently, reliably, and cost-effectively manage and preserve all types of digital content destined for long term preservation and embed best practice in digital collection content management in all areas of the Library. With acquisition comes responsibility: we must preserve and make this content accessible for our future users. They recognize a benefit from collaboration with other national and international institutions on digital preservation initiatives

This strategy outlines four strategic priorities to be met by 2016:

1. Ensure our digital repository can store and preserve our collections for the long term:
2. Manage the risks and challenges associated with digital preservation throughout the digital collection content lifecycle
3. Embed digital sustainability as an organisational principle for digital library planning and development not just technical solutions but also clear organisational
4. commitment and resources.

Digital Preservation Matters.

The NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation: An Explanation and Uses.

The NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation: An Explanation and Uses. Megan Phillips, et al. National Digital Stewardship Alliance. February 28, 2013.

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) is refining a a set of recommendations and guidelines for those involved with preserving digital assets long term.  The guidelines are organized into five functional areas that are at the heart of digital
preservation systems: storage and geographic location, file fixity and data integrity, information security, metadata, and file formats.

The tiered, matrix approach of the Levels of Digital Preservation features multiple levels and content areas that can be adapted over time. The flexible approach allows users to achieve different levels in different content areas according to their unique needs and resources.


The guidelines were initially developed as a reference for prioritizing enhancements to digital preservation systems. They are also useful for developing guidelines for content creators, validate local preservation guidance, as minimum requirements for developing preservation services,  and to help assess compliance with best practices.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Tor Books says cutting DRM out of its e-books hasn’t hurt business.

Tor Books says cutting DRM out of its e-books hasn’t hurt business. Megan Geuss.   Ars Technica. May 4, 2013.

Tor Books announced last April that it would only retail e-books in DRM-free formats because its customers are “a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them. It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of e-reader to another."

This week, Julie Crisp, editorial director at Tor UK, wrote that the publisher has seen “no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles, despite them being DRM-free for nearly a year.”

Tor's 2012 decision was largely applauded by its customers and authors. The authors agreed to a scheme which would allow their readers greater freedom with their novels.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Digital Preservation Best Practices and Guidelines.

Digital Preservation Best Practices and Guidelines. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. Website. April 23, 2013.
This site contains many useful tools and resources for digital preservation:

• Naming conventions for files
• How to manage digital files
• Examples of many policies and guidelines
• Electronic records management policies/guidelines by state
• Best practices
• File formats
• Email policies
• Preservation metadata

Digital Preservation Matters.

'Oh, you wanted us to preserve that?!' Statements of Preservation Intent for the National Library of Australia's Digital Collections

'Oh, you wanted us to preserve that?!' Statements of Preservation Intent for the National Library of Australia's Digital Collections. Colin Webb, David Pearson, Paul Koerbin. National Library of Australia. D-Lib Magazine. January/February 2013.
Clarifying preservation intentions is likely to be a good starting point for preservation planning for diverse digital collections. This applies both in terms of identifying what needs to be kept and what does not warrant the use of limited preservation resources, and in terms of opening up conversations about what is required in order to achieve preservation intentions. This paper describes an approach being explored by the National Library of Australia to negotiate formal and reviewable statements of 'preservation intent' for each of the digital collections in its care with those responsible for those collections. The paper looks at the relationship with the widely discussed concept of 'significant properties', as well as the other benefits that the approach is delivering. The paper also looks at the preservation intent statements for archived web collections at the NLA as an illustrative case.

The approach described in this paper is based on a conviction that methods and solutions in digital preservation do not exist in a policy vacuum. Rather, they are only meaningfully discussed as solutions to problems that threaten or frustrate the organisation's explicit access intentions.
This approach still refers to significant properties as a critical part of the preservation planning process. We believe it puts the full identification and evaluation of significant properties into a more useful context: that is, being later in the decision-making process.
At the very least, we aim to be in a position to know whether preservation action will be needed and whether a bit-level preservation copy will be good enough when access to content is lost.
As with most preservation processes, evaluating and articulating preservation intentions is likely to be an ongoing process requiring proactive management and periodic review. Our current conception of it still requires further development but it has given the NLA a useful start in real preservation planning.

Without some kind of understanding between curators and preservers, we are doomed to recurring nasty surprises based on mismatched expectations.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Establishing a Digital Preservation Policy

Establishing a Digital Preservation Policy. JISC. March 2013.
Rapid advances in technology can lead to digital collections becoming obsolete very quickly and a digital preservation policy is a crucial part of managing this risk. Digital preservation can be a costly process and will need continual attention well after all materials have been digitised and ingested into a collection. The digital preservation policy should highlight an organisation's ongoing commitment to digitally preserving valuable collections.

Digital preservation and digitization, though related, are distinct activities. The preservation of digital resources continues long after a digitization project has been completed. Digital preservation is not a time-limited process.

A preservation policy should be directly connected to the aims and goals of the institution. Clearly establishing the benefits of a digital preservation strategy at an early stage will allow these benefits to be measured and show the need for commitment by the institution. Implementing a preservation policy may only be possible by first raising awareness of the benefits of digital preservation and the potential dangers of ignoring it.

Strong policies should also be inclusive and cross-departmental. Creating a policy at an early stage may provide a basic digital preservation policy, which can then be developed as required. Tying in high-level policy documents can be especial beneficial when quantifying the benefits of preservation.

When an institution is digitizing content, it is important that a digital preservation policy is implemented as soon as possible. A best practice is to have a preservation strategy in place before any content is digitized so that standards are followed. However, a phased introduction may be necessary, perhaps beginning with the needs of the digitization project and evolving to embrace the needs of the institution.

A digital preservation policy should include:

• An explanation of how the policy relates to other organisational goals, objectives and mission statements. This section should also quantify the benefits of a sustainable digital collection.
• How the digital preservation policy sits along side other institutional policies, such as records management, IT or digitisation work. It should also highlight the use of agreed upon and interoperable standards.
• The objectives of preservation activities, this section should outline how activities mentioned in the principle statement will be undertaken and by whom. Will preservation actions be carried out in-house or outsourced? For how long will materials be 
• preserved?
• Detail of just how digital preservation will be implemented. Which department will undertake what activities and when? Objectives of the policy should be spelled out in practical terms.
• The scope of preservation activities should also be made clear. What will be preserved? Will you undertake to store ‘archival masters' only or multiple versions of a file? In detailed policies, preferred file formats should also be listed.
• Accountability. Who, ultimately will be responsible for digital preservation within an organisation? How will the organisation fund staff training, equipment, outsourcing, and storage. Who will be responsible for future changes to the digitisation strategy? Signing-off an agreed policy could help its long-term prospects.
• Glossary: Anyone unfamiliar with digital preservation may require a detailed glossary.
• Version Control: Date of policy. It's status and review date should also be included.

A preservation policy must be aware of ongoing digital preservation costs and that the costs will vary by collection. 

The sooner the issues associated with digital preservation are addressed, the easier it will be to develop hands-on preservation procedures to ensure preservation objectives are met. A digital preservation policy is required for digitization projects, but more so for the long-term management and maintenance of digital collections.
 

Digital Preservation Matters.

Sustaining Our Digital Future Institutional Strategies for Digital Content

Sustaining Our Digital Future: Institutional Strategies for Digital Content. Nancy L Maron, Jason Yun and Sarah Pickle. Strategic Content Alliance. January 29, 2013. (PDF, 91 pp.)
The shift with digital media in scholarly communications is transformative; data sets, dynamic digital resources, websites, digital collections,  crowd sourced or born digital content: there are challenges and opportunities, along with questions about who is responsible for maintaining them, and how to maximize the value of the content.

Some findings:

• project have received support from the host institution, but few have plans for ongoing support.
• There are potential partners on campus, but project leaders do not seek them early
  enough when critical decisions are being made.
• Digital projects across campuses may be hosted by many groups, which poses challenges for discovery. There is often no single place for users to find digital projects and some projects can too easily slip from view.
• Current funding styles do not support ongoing operation
• „Campus-wide solutions are beginning to emerge, but even these tend to address just the basic “maintenance” issues of storage, preservation and access.
• „Focus is often on creating new content, with little thought about ongoing efforts to enhance the content or update user interfaces.

Recommendations:

•  Perform an early and honest appraisal to find which projects are likely to require support after completion:
1. Digital content requiring just “maintenance”: plan that the content will be deposited and integrated into some other site, database, or repository.
2. „Digital resources requiring ongoing growth and investment: These require early sustainability planning, including identifying institutional or other partners and careful consideration of the full range of costs and activities needed to keep the resource vibrant.
•  Be realistic in assessing the future needs of the resource at its outset and in continuing support.
•  „Identify campus partners early on.
•  „Consider how central your project is to the overall mission of the institution.
• „Consider if projects could be drawn together to create a deeper network of support, both for “maintenance” projects and those with the potential to really grow.
• Develop ways to help users find decentralized content and to reach out to content users. These could start as an inventory of all of the digital holdings or common catalogs.
• „Determine where scale solutions pay off, where experts are best placed to champion a project, or create common storage, usage and preservation systems for an organization.
• Continue to identify and support ongoing development of the “front-end”, including user needs, interface development, and content enhancement. Pay attention to the changing needs of users and determine what enhancements the digital resource will require.

Libraries, museums, technology departments, and digital humanities centres are among the players that have begun to emerge as potential leaders of greater coordinated digital support on university campuses. Libraries have begun to consider the support of digital resources to be a critical part of their missions. Some universities provide advisory support to project leaders and libraries provide help for digital projects, from help to understand grant requirements, co-developing projects, providing hosting, curation, and preservation expertise.

 Sustainability and Use: 

•  Research data platforms: At some institutions major initiatives are underway to develop research data platforms. The goal of the platform is not just preservation and storage but access and reuse. The first step is to have a platform. From there they can test and refine the service for researchers depositing data sets, library  curated collections, and university departments.

• "A coherent digital policy from early review, guidelines on costings and deposit standards, to forecasting what ongoing activities will be needed and who will carry them out, would ideally remove much of the risk of “digital time bombs” while obliging both project leaders and university leaders to take a moment to envision the ongoing impact they want these resources to have, and how to best achieve that."

• Unlike universities (who often play the role of reluctant, passive, or simply unaware host, to a great deal of digital content created by their scholars) museums and libraries tend to be the ones initiating this work and are eager to build and maintain these collections.

• Despite the benefits of centralisation, the mere presence of a catalogue and centralised
  repository does not ensure greater usage of or engagement with its holdings.

• Many institutions devote considerable attention to the upfront creation of content, but not nearly as much to its ongoing enhancement or reuse, resulting in collections that are certainly present in the main catalogue, but otherwise exist only as capsules of content, frozen in time.

•  Once the project is finished, management of the digital resource is not always clear.

Digital Preservation Matters.