Digital Preservation Building a Preservation Policy Meta Archive

Digital Preservation Building a Preservation Policy Meta. Archive Cooperative, Digital Preservation Policy Planning Workshop

Overview

The Topic at Hand Digital Preservation Policy Building University Libraries have begun the process of engaging digital preservation ▪ Performing digitization ▪ Building digital libraries ▪ Establishing institutional repositories Digital Preservation Policies have often lagged behind digital preservation activities

What We Will Be Covering Session 1: Digital Preservation Trends Session 2: Policy & Planning Overview Resource: Policy Template Resource: Digital Assets Survey Session 3: Policy Development

Politics and Values Policy building for digital preservation is all about Politics and Values: Who has the authority to start a preservation policy development initiative? When is the right time to broach the subject? When should administration be involved? What are the institutional values that will determine success?

Digital Preservation Building a Preservation Policy Meta. Archive Cooperative, Digital Preservation Policy Planning Workshop

Session 1 Digital Preservation Trends

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.

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

Trends in Digital Preservation Centralized & Distributed Preservation Full & Bit-level 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 & 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 ▪ Meta. Archive Cooperative ▪ Chronopolis

Full & Bit-level Preservation Many archives doing a bit of both Somewhat 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

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

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

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 Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access 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

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

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

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

National Mandates NIH Public Access Policy (2008) mandates access via Pub. Med Central NSF will soon require submission of data management plans 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

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

Digital Preservation Building a Preservation Policy Meta. Archive Cooperative, Digital Preservation Policy Planning Workshop

Session 2 Preservation Policy Overview & Assessment

In This Session What is a Digital Preservation Policy? Policy Building Process Walkthrough the Policy Template Preservation Preparedness Activities Examples (interspersed)

What is a Digital Preservation Policy? “Digital preservation policies document an organization’s commitment to preserve digital content for future use; specify file formats to be preserved and the level of preservation to be provided; and ensure compliance with standards and best practices for responsible stewardship of digital information. ” From Long Definition of Digital Preservation, prepared by the ALCTS Preservation and Reformatting Section, Working Group on Defining Digital Preservation, accessed at http: //www. ala. org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/resources/preserv /defdigpres 0408. cfm.

Policy Building Process Build a diverse team of stakeholders Identify leading trends & best practices Review necessary policy elements Evaluate preservation preparedness Form draft policy statements Seek approval through proper channels

Building on Successful Digital Preservation Policies

DP Policy Template Addressing issues of Scope and Selection Criteria can help to clarify policies on: Strategies Operating Principles Roles & Responsibilities Metadata Permissions & Access Distributed Responsibilities Economics & Sustainability Challenges Outreach & Education

Scope This section summarizes the resource groups (e. g. , units, departments, or external parties) for which the institution takes responsibility and prioritizes these according to institutional importance.

Scope Who are the key departments and individuals you might need to coordinate with to identify assets and discover preservation needs for each of the primary resource groups that might exist across your institution?

Scope Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Selection Criteria This section outlines the way decisions are made regarding what will be preserved.

Selection Criteria Once you have grasped the range of digital assets and their preservation needs you need to apply a set of reasonable criteria for how they should be prioritized for selection. A good opportunity to begin thinking about available resources and sustainable strategies and how these relate to priorities

Selection Criteria Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Breakout Activity Selection Activity Using a scenario of a particular institution and its digital assets (as provided by the presenters), prioritize the various collections of digital assets for preservation. Digital Assets survey

Defining Your Digital Assets Defining digital assets at your institution Digitized (e. g. , scanned newspapers) Born-digital (e. g. , websites) Electronic records (e. g. , spreadsheets, databases, emails) Digital Research Data (e. g. , raw sensor data) Where do your digital assets reside? At the departmental & unit level? Outside your institution? Who are the major producers and consumers? Researchers? Scholars? External parties? Can they be deposited for preservation? To what extent?

Strategies This section summarizes the lifecycle management practices of the institution. Broad categories might include content creation, content integrity, and content maintenance.

Strategies Perform a technical assessment of your Library’s existing approaches and capacity for creating, and maintaining digital assets. Factor in organizational structure, staffing and skill sets. Address issues of quality control through preservation planning & risk assessment

Strategies OAIS NEDCC - Readiness Assessment CRL – Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification (TRAC) Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment (DRAMBORA) Data Seal of Approval (DSA) Planet Preservation Planning Tool – (Plato)

Strategies Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Operating Principles This section provides overview of methodologies and philosophies undergirding preservation activity (e. g. , OAIS, TRAC, etc).

Operating Principles Communicate position toward trustworthy preservation by identifying steps taken to ensure use of standards ▪ ▪ ▪ OAIS Digital Preservation Readiness Assessment Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification (TRAC) DRAMBORA Data Seal of Approval

Operating Principles Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Roles & Responsibilities This section details who is involved and at what level they are involved. Who is charged with preservation responsibility?

Roles & Responsibilities Preservation responsibility will undoubtedly be a joint endeavor (particularly between your Library, campus IT, and other external parties) and policy should reflect solidified agreements between all parties charged with responsibility.

Roles & Responsibilities Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Breakout Activity Roles & Responsibilities Using the DCC life cycle model, think about which individuals (and departments) at your institution would be involved in the various aspects of the life cycle. Assign each stage of the life cycle to individuals/departments who will be responsible for it.

Metadata This section describes policy/policies for ascribing metadata to preservation objects. May include schema references or documentation bodies (e. g. , LC, DLF, NARA).

Metadata is increasingly becoming central to trustworthy preservation, and policy statements should articulate your Library’s position on capturing some level of preservation metadata, and the role it will play in managing that metadata.

Metadata Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Permissions & Access This section documents policies around permissions and access of preserved content.

Permissions & Access Establishing the options for access and use of your institutions’ digital assets will go a long way toward both defining what sorts of management and dissemination workflows might need to be developed, as well as how to communicate the terms of such access and use.

Permissions & Access Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Distributed Responsibilities This section contains information about what the institution’s relationship is to other institutions, and whether it may partner with other institutions to preserve its own collections or the collections of other institutions and under what circumstances.

Distributed Responsibilities Rights & Agreements Navigating the rights issues can go a long way toward articulating the terms under which partnerships can be pursued to further preservation development.

Distributed Responsibilities Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Economics & Sustainability This section documents expected costs and who shoulders the responsibility for those costs.

Economics & Sustainability Financial Sustainability: Sustainable Management & Financial Plans Multi-Year Budget ▪ Factoring in financial cycles Review Schedules (annual) Seek diverse revenue streams to support preservation activities

Economics & Sustainability Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Challenges This section acknowledges the challenges the institution/field faces in preserving digital collections.

Challenges Remember Trends in Digital Preservation Perform Risk Assessment Committing to analyze and report on risk, benefit, investment and expenditures Identifying the real and potential threats to the digital preservation program, the digital collections, producers and consumers Should include an inventory of file formats, technology infrastructure, legal mandates, staffing, etc.

Challenges Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Outreach & Education This section gives an overview of any outreach and education activities undertaken by the institution.

Outreach & Education Champion your policies Share your development Develop workshops Join coalitions and working groups Know your sphere of influence Be open to learning and evolving!

Outreach & Education Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Circling Back Around Policy Statement Summary Statement

Policy Statement This is a simple statement that relates digital preservation to the institution’s mission and the communities it serves.

Policy Statement Review your institution’s broader mission statements Consider other legal, ethical, and policy mandates Articulate the needs and the opportunities related to your institution’s resource groups

Policy Statement Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Summary Statement This is a set of simple paragraphs that summarize the overall intent of the institution.

Summary Statement Why does your institution preserve content (e. g. , institutional, legal, consortial obligations)? Who wrote this policy? How often is this policy re-evaluated and by whom?

Summary Statement Placeholder slide for local policy building examples

Date/Authors This section provides the date of last revision and contact information for the authors

Related Documents This section lists other institutional documentation that has a relationship to digital preservation and/or this policy itself. Examples might include such documentation as Disaster Plan, Records Management Policy, and Collections Development Policy.

Definitions/Glossary This section would clarify terms used throughout the document.

Digital Preservation Building a Preservation Policy Meta. Archive Cooperative, Digital Preservation Policy Planning Workshop

Session 3 Policy Development Meta. Archive Cooperative, Digital Preservation Policy Planning Workshop

In This Session The Goals: To discuss some of the major challenges that often prevent us from forming policies (and how to overcome them!), and to provide a clear starting point and game plan for developing and implementing policies.

Politics and Values Who has the authority to start a preservation policy development initiative? When is the right time to broach the subject? When should administration be involved? What are the institutional values that will determine success?

Breakout Activity Justification for Policy Development Consider the chain of command for establishing policy at your institution. Identify the individual(s) who will need to approve moving forward with establishing the policy. In no more than 2 paragraphs, write a convincing argument for why a digital preservation policy is needed at your institution. Refer to the mission of your institution and/or its strategic areas of emphasis.

Preservation Policy Timeline Determine if you can lead the charge Approach administration for blessings Form a committee Bring in external voices WORK! Carry your work back to your community Integrate the community’s suggestions Take the final draft to your administration

Along the way… Use policy creation as a moment for cross- team and inner-team discussion about digital preservation responsibilities Team-building potential

Along the way… Use the policy meetings as a planning tool. Where does your University aspire to be in a year? In five years? Remember Session 2

Policy Review As you write your policy, write in expectations for how the policy will mature and how you will keep it alive When does it expire? Who is responsible for updating it? What happens if that person/people move away? What is the next step?

Make it accessible Share your newfound knowledge—and newly created policy—with others in the field Presentations Prominent link “How to” documentation

Next Steps Share the experience of this workshop and create a buzz Brown bag lunch presentation Staff development program Meet with department heads Schedule a local training session Identify helpful/interested people

Next Steps Put together a group of people The importance of buy in Know who is a friend and who will be a challenge Make it personal; what are the consequences Determine responsibilities Develop policies and procedures Survey collections and assess risk

Next Steps For long-term sustainability you need support from top administrators Schedule a meeting and make a presentation Hook into your institution’s mission statement Do your homework & know your figures Distribute a draft proposal in advance Be passionate, be eloquent, and be inclusive

Questions/Comments?