Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

Preservation Management of

Digital Materialskeynote presentation and

workshop at

Digital Continuity Forum

Melbourne Australia

2001

Neil Beagrie

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

OverviewDigital Preservation –all of the actions required to

maintain access to digital materials beyond the limits of media failure or technological change.

background

• growth of electronic materials

• issue in digital preservation

Preservation Management of Digital Materials a Handbook

• the study and research

• the handbook

Digital Preservation - What you can do

practical applications in institutions

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

Growth of Electronic Materials

Computer Disk Storage after Michael Lesk

http://www.gii.getty.edu/timeandbits/ksg.html

• In the USA it is estimated that 75% of federal government transactions will be electronic by 2000 AD

• 1.5 kilometers of paper records transferred to PRO each year:estimated 95% originate from electronic source

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

The Issues• Media Degradation - media degrades and information is easily

destroyed without adequate care

• Technological Obsolescence- only accessible through hardware and software -rapid obsolescence

• Authenticity - electronic records easily amended and have to be moved through new technologies

• Intellectual Property -no automatic right to copy & archive for preservation, added complexity and access issues in digital materials

• Need for further Research, Policy and Guidelines

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

Awareness & Preparation• Digital Preservation Needs and Requirements in RLG Member Institutions

M.Hedstrom and S. Montgomery Dec 1998 http://www.rlg.org/preserv/digpres.html

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

The Study

• AHDS/JISC Proposal to Library and Information Commission – Preservation of and access to the Recorded Heritage Research Programme

• Major growth in digitisation and need for guidance Now have 6years+ of research projects and services in digital preservation -plethora of experience world-wide to draw on

• builds on AHDS study A Strategic Framework for Creating and Preserving Digital Collections and AHDS Collections Manual

• research July 1999 – Sept 2000 then testing and consultation to March 2002

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

The Research• Desktop research and advisory group

• detailed case studies

– The British Library

– The University of Hull

– Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of Scotland

• specialist interviews

• peer and public review of draft

• Testing of draft handbook by institutions, BL, Cambridge, Oxford

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

The Handbook

• Introduction to key issues and decisions

• Integrated “lifecycle” approach to issues

• Applicable to museums, archives, libraries and other repositories

• UK legislation focus but international scope

• tools -– decision tree

– checklists

– case studies

– selection of key further reading and exemplars

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

Decision tree

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

Checklist for Digitisation

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

Some reviews

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

• publication by British Library Oct 2001 price £15

• order from:

– Turpin Distribution Services Ltd

Email turpin@turpinltd.com

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

Digital Preservation -What can you do?

•Read the Handbook - Consult and take advice

•Tailor it for your institution

•inventory your electronic collections

•Develop policy for electronic collections, acquisitions and digitisation, retention and disposal

–select open data formats or if not available proprietary standards which are stable and widely adopted

–document thoroughly the resources you create

–licensing- negotiate for perpetual access/archiving

•implement strategies for maintaining long-term access to electronic data either in-house or via third party provider

•Audit

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

Questions ?

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

Questionnaire"In general, the research for the Handbook found that the level of awareness of and interest in digital preservation is gradually increasing but is not keeping pace with the level

of digital resource creation." (Background p.6)

Q1 Using your own institution as a frame of reference, does the statement above match your own experience?

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

X X X X X

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

QuestionnaireQ4a Which of these do you believe present the greatest challenge to your institution? (please provide details of why)Not sure if we have a “continual programme of active management from the design and creation stage”.

Since I am not sure what the challenges are at [institution], it is hard to answer this question. Allocation of resources for digital preservation does seem to be necessity.

dot points 5 and 6 – priorities and nature of technology. I am answering this question from a corporate perspective noting that does not have an integrated records management system.

In a nutshell I think the biggest problems for [institution] are management or agreement

on priorities and technology. Development of policies.

Development of universal classification scheme.

Cultural change from personal/sectional records to organisational wide context.

Funds to implement new system/resource allocation.

Agreed priorities

Technology infrastructure

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

QuestionnaireQ6 At what stage is your own institution regarding the

development of institutional policy and guidelines as advocated in the decision tree?

The Digital Strategic Plan 2001-2004 addresses digital issues including creation, provision of access and development of digital standards.

There is a commitment to develop appropriate technology infrastructure to preserve, store and provide access to digital resources.

[institution] Digitisation Guidelines lists a number of principles including digitising to internationally accepted standards for capture and metadata,

efficient management of digital objects and the principle of digitising once only and keeping the master copy in a central storage location.

Digitising Steering Committee charged with overall co-ordination, decision making and structure for the organisation’s digitising efforts.

Joint Information Systems Committee

Supporting Higher and Further Education

QuestionnaireQ8 How would you use the Handbook in your institution?

Can be used as an awareness raising tool. There are lots of issues to be aware of and that need to be discussed.

Ensure that proper procedures and guidelines are put in place.

A very useful primer particularly for our efforts to develop processes and policies for corporate records, ie internal [institution] records.