RSP Preservation Day

27 May 2010

The day focused on the higher level workings of digital preservation, engaging the right stakeholders, creating a high level preservation policy and getting preservation on the agenda at University level. It also showcased a number of toolkits and audit checklists to help organisations with preservation.

Clive Billenness, British Library

PLANETS Project – Preservation and Long Term Access through Networked Services

Project finished in May 2010, now known as ‘Open Planets Foundation’

Digital Preservation is specific to your own organisation – there’s no perfect fit.

PLANETS has been encouraging people to develop preservation tools and services and get them into the market more quickly.

Preservation Tools:

TRAC - Trusted Repositories Audit & Certification
Allows you to audit your repository using a checklist

NESTOR - Network of Expertise in Long-Term Storage of Digital Resources
A catalogue of criteria for trusted digital repositories for long-term preservation

DRAMBORA – Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment
V:\ILS\aCollectionsAndLibraryServices\Systems\InstRepository\14 Preservation\DRAMBORA
An audit toolkit

PLATO – Planets Preservation Planning Tool

Preservation:
Identify who is responsible for the Business Risk Register in your organisation and get preservation listed in the register but define the business risk first.

Sarah Jones, Digital Curation Centre
Creating a Policy Framework for Digital Curation

Migration is a typical preservation action – converting formats into other formats.
e.g. word to PDF to text file to ensure they are more robust

ERIS Nine part policy framework (Slides 24 to 29)

RSP and DCC both offer consultancy services on preservation.

Pointers:
•    Document changes to your systems, create a timeline of implementations, upgrades etc.
•    Regularly audit (annually) your repository to ensure you are up to date with the type of content it holds,
     for  instance, which file formats you use
•    Make sure there is someone in your team who is aware of the file formats you use and that they can alert
     you to formats that are at risk of becoming obsolete
•   When ingesting content store an original copy, a preservation copy and an access copy


The day didn't provide any really practical solutions however delegates did feed back to RSP that more advice on the practical elements of preservation was needed by the repository community, here's hoping that RSP will listen!