Investing in Curation: A shared path to sustainability. 4C Project. October 20, 2014.
Digital curation involves managing, preserving and adding
value to digital assets over their entire lifecycle. The active management of
digital assets maximises their reuse potential, mitigates the risk of obsolescence
and reduces the likelihood that their long-term value will diminish. However,
this requires effort so there are costs associated with this activity. As the
range of organisations responsible for managing and providing access to digital
assets over time continues to increase, the cost of digital curation has become
a significant concern for a wider range of stakeholders.
Establishing how much investment an organisation should
make in its curation activities is a difficult question. If a shared path can
be agreed that allows the costs and benefits of digital curation to be
collectively assessed, shared and understood, a wider range of stakeholders
will be able to make more efficient investments throughout the lifecycle of the
digital assets in their care. With a shared vision, it will be easier to assign
roles and responsibilities to maximise the return on the investment of digital
curation and to clarify questions about the supply and demand of curation
services. This will foster a healthier and more effective marketplace for
services and solutions and will provide a more robust foundation for tackling
future grand challenges.
Situating the Roadmap:
The six messages in the roadmap have been carefully considered to effect
a step change in attitudes over the next five years. It starts with a focus on
the costs of digital curation—but the end point and the goal is to bring about
a change in the way that all organisations think about and sustainably manage
their digital assets.
