PERICLES Environment Extraction Project

PERICLES Environment Extraction Project and tools. Website. 12/11/2014.
The PERICLES project is trying to keep digital content accessible when the digital environment continues to change. The website discusses environment information, what it is, why it is important, and how to collect it.

Digital objects are created and exist in environments and the information about it can be important to their current and long term use and re-use of the content. This information, which needs to be collected at creation and throughout the object's life cycle time, is very relevant for preserving the data long-term. Most metadata standards describe the object but ignore the environment. Some examples of environmental information include dependencies (what you need in order to use the object), environment reconstruction, resource status, validation, monitoring and extraction techniques.

The PERICLES Extraction Tool (PET), as discussed in an article in D-Lib Magazine by Fabio Corubolo, has been created to extract environmental information from where objects are created and modified. It analyses the use of the data within the environment that may not be available later.

Sheer curation (as in lightweight or transparent) depends on data capture being embedded within the data creators’ working practices so that it is automatic and invisible to them..

Digital Preservation Matters.

Digital Preservation Challenges with an ETD Collection: A Case Study at Texas Tech University

Digital Preservation Challenges with an ETD Collection — A Case Study at Texas Tech University. Joy M. Perrina, Heidi M. Winkler, Le Yanga. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. January, 2015.
The potential risk of loss seems distant and theoretical until it actually happens. The "potential impact of that loss increases exponentially" for a university when the loss is part of the research output. This excellent article looks at a case study of the challenges one university library encountered with its electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).  Many institutions have been changing from publishing paper theses and dissertations to accepting electronic copies. One of the challenges that has not received as much attention is that of preserving these electronic documents for the long term.  The electronic documents require more hands-on curation.

Texas Tech University encountered difficulties with preserving their ETD collection. They hope the lessons learned from these data losses will help other organizations looking to preserve ETDs and other types of digital files and collections. Some of the losses were:

1. Loss of metadata edits. Corrupted database and corrupted IT backups required a rebuild of the database, but the entered metadata was lost.
2. Loss of administrative metadata-embargo periods. The ETD-db files imported into DSpace did not include the embargoed files. Plans were not documented and personnel changed before the problem was discovered. Some items were found accidentally on a personal drive years later.
3. Loss of scanned files. The scanning server was also the location to store files after scanning. Human error beyond the backup window resulted in the deletion of over a thousand scanned ETDs, which were eventually recovered.
4. Failure of policies: loss of embargo statuses changes. The embargo statement recorded in the ETD management system did not match what was published in DSpace.

The library started on real digital preservation for the ETD collection. Funds were set aside to increase the storage of the archive space and provide a second copy of the archived files. A digital resources unit was created to handle the digital files which finally brought the entire digital workflow, from scanning to preservation, under one supervisor. The library joined DPN in hopes that it would yield a level of preservation far beyond what the university would be able to accomplish alone. The clean-up of the problems has been difficult and will take years to accomplish. Lessons learned:

1. Systems designed for managing or publishing documents are not preservation solutions
2. System backups are not reliable enough to act as a preservation copy. Institutions must make digital preservation plans beyond backups
3. Organizations with valuable digital assets should invest in their items to store them outside of a display system only. 
4. Multiple copies of digital items must reside on different servers in order to guarantee that files will not be accidentally deleted or lost through technical difficulties. 
5. All metadata, including administrative data, should be preserved outside of the display system. The metadata is a crucial part of the digital item.
6. Digital items are collections of files and metadata.
7. Maintaining written procedures and documentation for all aspects of digital collections is vital.
8. The success of digital preservation will require collaboration between curators and the IT people who maintain the software and hardware, and consistent terminology (e.g. archived).

 "Even though this case study has primarily been a description of local issues, the grander lessons gleaned from these crises are not specific to this institution. Librarians are learning and re-learning every day that digital collections cannot be managed in the same fashion as their physical counterparts. These digital collections require more active care over the course of their lifecycles and may require assistance from those outside the traditional library sphere...."

Digital Preservation Matters.

Tabula

Tabula. Website. march 27, 2015.
Tabula is a tool for working with text based data tables inside PDF files. There's no easy way to copy-and-paste rows of data out of PDF files. This tool allows you to extract that data into a Excel spreadsheets, csv, or JSON using a simple interface. Tabula works on Mac, Windows and Linux.

Digital Preservation Matters.

National Institutes of Health: Plan for Increasing Access to Scientific Publications and Digital Scientific Data from NIH Funded Scientific Research

National Institutes of Health: Plan for Increasing Access to Scientific Publications and Digital Scientific Data from NIH Funded Scientific Research. February 2015.

This document describes NIH’s plans to build upon and enhance its longstanding efforts to increase access to scholarly publications and digital data resulting from NIH-funded research. Sections relevant to digital preservation and long term management:

NIH intends to make public access to digital scientific data the standard for all NIH funded research. Following adoption of the final plan, NIH will:

• Explore steps to require data sharing.
• Ensure that all NIH-funded researchers prepare data management plans and that the plans are evaluated during peer review.
• Develop additional data management policies to increase public access to designated types of biomedical research data.
• Encourage the use of established public repositories and community-based standards.
• Develop approaches to ensure the discoverability of data sets resulting from NIH-funded research to make them findable, accessible, and citable.
• Promote interoperability and openness of digital scientific data generated or managed by NIH.
• Explore the development of a data commons. NIH will explore the development of a commons, a shared space for basic and clinical research output including data, software, and narrative, that follows the FAIR principles of Find, Access, Interoperate and Reuse.

Preservation
Preservation is one of the Public Access Policy’s primary objectives. It wants to ensure that publications and metadata are stored in an archival solution that:

• provides for long-term preservation and access to the content without charge; 
• uses standards, widely available and, to the extent possible, nonproprietary archival formats for text and associated content (e.g., images, video, supporting data); 
• provides access for persons with disabilities

The content in the NIH database is actively curated  using XML records which is future proof, in that XML is technology independent and can be easily and reliably migrated as technology evolves. 

The first principle behind the plan for increasing access to digital scientific data is: The sharing and preservation of data advances science by broadening the value of research data across disciplines and to society at large, protecting the integrity of science by facilitating the validation of results, and increasing the return on investment of scientific research.

Data Management Plans
Data management planning should be an integral part of research planning.  NIH wants to ensure that all extramural researchers receiving Federal grants and contracts for scientific research and intramural researchers develop data management plans describing how they will provide for long-term preservation of, and access to, scientific data in digital formats resulting from federally funded research, or explaining why long-term preservation and access cannot be justified. In order to preserve the balance between the relative benefits of long-term preservation and access and the associated cost and administrative burden, NIH will continue to expect researchers to consider the benefits of long-term preservation of data against the costs of maintaining and sharing the data.

NIH will assess whether the appropriate balance has been achieved in data management plans between the relative benefits of long-term preservation and access and the associated cost and administrative burden. It will also develop guidance with the scientific community to decide which data should be prioritized for long-term preservation and access. NIH will also explore and fund innovative tools and services that improve search, archiving, and disseminating of data, while ensuring long-term stewardship and usability.

Assessing Long-Term Preservation Needs
NIH will provide for the preservation of scientific data and outline options for developing and sustaining repositories for scientific data in digital formats.  The policies expect long-term preservation of data.
Long-term preservation and sustainability will be included in data management plans and will collaborate with other agencies on how best to develop and sustain repositories for digital scientific data.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Siegfried v 1.0 released (a file format identification tool)

Siegfried v 1.0 released (a file format identification tool). Richard Lehane. Open Preservation Foundation. 25th Mar 2015. Siegfried is a file format identification tool that is now available. The key features are:

• complete implementation of PRONOM (byte and container signatures)   
• reliable results
• fast matching without limiting the number of bytes scanned
• detailed information about the basis for format matches
• simple command line interface with a choice of outputs (YAML, JSON, CSV)
• a built-in server for integrating with workflows 
• options for debug mode, signature modification, and multiple identifiers.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Letter to the editor concerning digital preservation of government information

DttP letter to the editor re digital preservation of government information. James R. Jacobs.  ALA Connect. January 26, 2015.
Digital preservation is an incredibly important topic for government information professionals. This letter, in response to previous article, includes several important points for all libraries.

1. Preservation of born-digital information is a very real and important topic that the government documents community needs to understand and address. In a single year, more government information is born-digital than all the printed government information accumulated by all Federal Deposit libraries in over 200 years.
2. Digitization of print information is not a preservation solution. Instead it creates new digital preservation challenges and is really just the first of many costly and technically challenging steps needed to ensure long-term access to content.
3. Access is not preservation; it does not guarantee preservation or long-term access. 
1. Access without preservation is temporary, at best. 
2. Preservation without access is an illusion.
4. Digital preservation is an essential activity of libraries. It cannot be dismissed as the responsibility of others. Digital preservation requires:
1. resources, 
2. a long-term commitment,
3. an understanding of the long-term value of information (even information that is not popular or used by many people), 
4. a commitment to the users of information.  
5. Relying solely on the government or others to preserve its information is risky. “Who is responsible for this preservation?” Libraries should take this responsibility. Libraries can take actions now to promote the preservation of digital information
6. Preserve Paper copies. The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is successfully preserving paper and micro-form documents. "We often hear that “digitizing” paper documents will “preserve” them, but we do not need to convert these documents to digital in order to preserve them". While digitization can provide better access, usability, and re-usability of many physical documents, it does not guarantee the preservation of the content. Worse, there are repeated calls for digitizing paper collections so that the paper collections can be discarded and destroyed. Such actions will endanger preservation of the content if they do not include adequate steps to ensure digital preservation of those newly created digital objects. 
7. Smart-Archive the Web. Although capturing web pages and preserving them is far from an adequate (or even accurate) form of digital preservation, it is a useful stop-gap until producers understand that depositing preservable digital objects with trusted repositories is the only way to guarantee preservation of their information. Libraries should use web archiving tools and services such as Archive-It.
8. Promote Digital Preservation. Libraries should be actively preserving digital government information. The time of 'passive digital preservation' or looking to others to take care of digital preservation is long past. We can work with others, not leave the work to them.
   
   
   Digital Preservation Matters.

Release of jpylyzer 1.14.1

Release of jpylyzer 1.14.1 version. National Library of the Netherlands / Open Preservation Foundation. 25 March 2015.
Release of a new version of jpylyze. The tool validates that a JP2 image really conforms to the format’s specifications. It also is a feature (technical characteristics) extractor for JP2 images. Changes include: Improved XML output and Recursive scanning of directory trees.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Sowing the seed: Incentives and Motivations for Sharing Research Data, a researcher's perspective

Sowing the seed: Incentives and Motivations for Sharing Research Data, a researcher's perspective. Knowledge Exchange. November 2014. PDF.
This study has gathered evidence, examples and opinions on incentives for research data sharing from the researchers’ point of view. Using this study will help provide recommendations on developing policies and best practices for data access, preservation, and re-use. A emerging theme today is to make it possible for all researchers to share data and to change the collective attitude towards sharing.

A DCC project, investigating researchers’ attitudes and approaches towards data deposit,
sharing, reuse, curation and preservation found that the data sharing requirements should be defined at the finer-grained level, such as the research group.When researchers talk about ‘data sharing’ there are different modes of data sharing, such as:

1. private management sharing, 
2. collaborative sharing, 
3. peer exchange, 
4. sharing for transparent governance, 
5. community sharing and 
6. public sharing.

Important motivations for researchers to share research data are:

1. When data sharing is an essential part of the research process; 
2. Direct career benefits (greater visibility and recognition of one’s work, reciprocal data)
3. As a normal part of their research circle or discipline;
4. Existing funder and publisher expectations, policies, infrastructure and data services

Some points on preservation of research information for research institution and research funders:

• Recognize and value data as part of research assessment and career advancement
• Set preservation standards for data formats, file formats, and documentation
• Develop clear policies on data sharing and preservation 
• Provide training and support for researchers and students to manage and share data so it becomes part of standard research practice.
• Make all data related to a published manuscript available

Actions of some organizations regarding data management and preservation:

• The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences requests its researchers to digitally preserve research data, ideally via deposit in recognised repositories, to make them openly accessible as much as possible; and to include a data section in every research plan stating how the data produced or collected during the project will be dealt with.
• The Alliance of German Science Organisations adopted principles for the handling of research data, supporting long-term preservation and open access to research data for the benefit of science.
• Research organizations receiving EPSRC funding will from May 2015 be expected to have appropriate policies, processes and infrastructure in place to preserve research data, to publish metadata for their research data holdings, and to provide access to research data securely for 10 years beyond the last data request.
• The European Commission has called  for coordinated actions to drive forward open access, long-term preservation and capacity building to promote open science for all EC and national research funding.
• The UK Economic and Social Research Council has mandated the archiving of research data from all funded research projects. This policy goes hand in hand with the funding of supporting data infrastructure and services. The UK Data Service provides the data infrastructure to curate,
• preserve and disseminate research data, and provides training and support to researchers.

Digital Preservation Matters.

I tried to use the Internet to do historical research. It was nearly impossible.

I tried to use the Internet to do historical research. It was nearly impossible. Gareth Millward. Washington Post.  February 17, 2015. 
How do you organize so much information? So far, the Internet Archive has archived more than 430,000,000,000 web pages. It’s a rich and fantastic resource for historians of the near-past. Never before has humanity produced so much data about public and private lives – and never before have we been able to get at it in one place. In the past it was just a theoretical possibility, but now we have the computing power and a deep enough archive to try to use it.

But it’s a lot more difficult to understand than we thought. "The ways in which we attack this archive, then, are not the same as they would be for, say, the Library of Congress. There (and elsewhere), professional archivists have sorted and cataloged the material. We know roughly what the documents are talking about. We also know there are a finite number. And if the archive has chosen to keep them, they’re probably of interest to us. With the internet, we have everything. Nobody has – or can – read through it. And so what is “relevant” is completely in the eye of the beholder."

Historians must take new approaches to the data. No one can read everything, nor know what is even in the archive. Better sampling, specifically chosen for their historical importance, can give us a much better understanding. We need to ask better questions about how sites are constructed, what links exist between sites, and have more focused searches. And we need to know what questions to ask.

Digital Preservation Matters.

JHOVE Evaluation & Stabilisation Plan

JHOVE Evaluation & Stabilisation Plan. Open Preservation Foundation. March 2015.
JHOVE is an extensible software framework for performing format identification, validation, and characterization of digital objects. In February the JHOVE format validation tool was transferred to Open Preservation Foundation stewardship. Their initial review of JHOVE has been completed and the Evaluation & Stabilisation Plan is now available on the site. 

The main objective of our work to date has been to establish a firm foundation for future changes based on agile software development best practises. A further technical evaluation will be published in April that will also outline options for possible future development and maintenance tasks.

Digital Preservation Matters.

“An alarmingly casual indifference to accuracy and authenticity.” What we know about digital surrogates

“An alarmingly casual indifference to accuracy and authenticity.” What we know about digital surrogates. James A Jacobs. Free Government Information. March 1, 2015.
Post examines several articles concerning the reliability and accuracy of digital text extracted from printed books in five digital libraries: the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, the HathiTrust, Google Books, and the Digital Public Library of America.

In a study by Paul Conway of page images in the HathiTrust, he found 25%  of the 1000 volumes examined by Conway contained at least one page image whose content was “unreadable.” Only 64.9% of the volumes examined were considered accurate and complete enough to be considered “reliably intelligible surrogates.”  HathiTrust only attests to the integrity of the transferred file, and not to the completeness of the original digitization effort. 

The “uncorrected, often unreadable, raw OCR text” that most mass-digitization projects produce today, will be inadequate for future, more sophisticated uses. Libraries that are concerned about their future and their role in the information ecosystem should look to the future needs of users when evaluating digitization projects. Libraries have a special obligation to preserve the historic collections in their charge in an accurate form. 

Cites articles:

•  Kichuk, Diana. “Loose, Falling Characters and Sentences: The Persistence of the OCR Problem in Digital Repository E-Books.” 
• Conway, Paul. “Preserving Imperfection: Assessing the Incidence of Digital Imaging Error in HathiTrust,” 2013.
• Jacobs, James A., and James R. Jacobs. “The Digital-Surrogate Seal of Approval: A Consumer-Oriented Standard.” D-Lib Magazine 19, no. 3/4 (March 2013).
  
  
  Digital Preservation Matters.

New policy recommendations on open access to research data

New policy recommendations on open access to research data. Angus Whyte. DCC News. 19 January, 2015.
Some of the recommendations of the RECODE case studies concerning open access to research data:

• Develop policies for open access to research data
• Ensure appropriate funding for open access to research data 
• Develop policies and initiatives for researchers for open access to high quality data
• Identify key stakeholders and relevant networks 
• Foster a sustainable ecosystem for open access to research data
• Plan for the long-term, sustainable curation and preservation of open access data
• Develop comprehensive and collaborative technical and infrastructure solutions that afford open access to and long-term preservation of high-quality research data
• Develop technical and scientific quality standards for research data
• Address legal and ethical issues arising from open access to research data
• Support the transition to open research data through curriculum-development and training 

Two things needed with open access to research data:

1. coherent open data ecosystem
2. attention to research practice, processes and data collections
   
    
   Digital Preservation Matters.

Reaching Out and Moving Forward: Revising the Library of Congress’ Recommended Format Specifications

Reaching Out and Moving Forward: Revising the Library of Congress’ Recommended Format Specifications. Ted Westervelt, Butch Lazorchak. The Signal. Library of Congress. March 16, 2015.
The Library has created the Recommended Format Specifications, which is the result of years of work by experts from across the institution because it is essential to the mission of the institution. The  Library is committed to making the collection available to its patrons now and for generations to come and must be able to determine the physical and technical characteristics needed to fulfill this goal. The Specifications have hierarchies of characteristics, physical and digital, in order to provide guidance and determine the level of effort involved in managing and maintaining content. In order to continue manage the materials, the Specifications must be constantly reviewed and updated and materials and formats change. An example is exploring the potential value of the SIARD format developed by the Swiss Federal Archives as a means of preserving relational databases.
 

Digital Preservation Matters.

A Geospatial Approach to Library Resources

A Geospatial Approach to Library Resources. Justin B. Sorensen. D-Lib Magazine. March/April 2015.
The fire insurance maps are a valuable resource. Digital versions of the original printed maps have been created and have been converted into georeferenced raster datasets, using ArcGIS software, aligning each map to its appropriate geospatial location to maintain consistent digital overlays for all of the historic maps. This allows the information to be displayed, expressed and presented in completely new ways. GIS can be one of the many tools libraries will have available to assist them in sharing their resources with others.

Digital Preservation Matters.

When checksums don't match...

When checksums don't match...  Jenny Mitcham. Digital Archiving at the University of York. 2 February 2015.
Post about an example of files that had MD5 errors. Used various utilities to generate the check-sums for both MD5 and SHA1. One program showed a change, while another did not. However, when SHA1 was used, it showed that the files had different check-sums. Possibly an example of bit rot.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Forecasting the Future of Libraries 2015

Forecasting the Future of Libraries 2015. Miguel Figueroa. American Libraries. February 26, 2015. 
While it’s nearly impossible to accurately predict the future, we can identify trends that can be key in understanding what the future might bring. It is important for libraries to spot trends and integrate them into their programs and services in order to remain useful and relevant. An article “Trending Now,” lists 5 trends that are worth looking at:

1. Anonymity: it may help build community and is an increasingly important part of web interactions.
2. Collective impact: organizations are adopting common agendas to address issues in the community. Librarians could become highly valued partners in collective-impact responses
3. Fast casual: establishements incorporate customized services and products, and also inte­grate technology, with customer loyalty apps, online or mobile ordering, and mobile payments. Fast casual has advanced the growth of living-room-like flexible spaces (multiple and varied seating arrangements, easy-to-find power outlets) that accommodate social and business needs, and are tech­nologically savvy.
4. Resilience: Resilience includes preparation for and rapid recovery from physical, social, and economic di­sasters, including natural disasters, terrorist at­tacks, or economic collapse.
5. Robots: libraries have seen robots and robotics as a next wave for technology access and training, even lending robots to help users experience what might soon be a regular part of their futures. [They could also be places to learn more about technology.]

The trend library is designed to provide the library community with a centralized and regularly updated source for trends—including how they are developing; why they matter for libraries; and links to the reports, articles, and resources that can further explain their significance. As a collection, it will grow to include changes and trends across society, technology, education, the environment, politics, the economy, and demographics.  Makerspaces are playing an increasingly important role in libraries.

Another article “The Future, Today”addresses similar concepts:

• Digital downloads, ebooks, personal content, and live programming together with books, periodicals, microfilm, audio, and video in today’s libraries. The library of the future will  support and en­hance navigation and exchange of these new forms of information. Library services must be delivered in ways that are digitally based or conveniently located in public places to help users with their busy schedules
• Collections are being carefully consid­ered so as not to occupy too much square footage, leaving room for tech and social spaces, and a center for multiple activi­ties.  
• Library staff in the future will be organized on the floor to be more effec­tive ‘information guides’ to help patrons.
• There will be more flex­ible spaces for evolving services and forms of information offering.  
• Libraries are no longer single-purpose repositories of books dedicated to quiet study. They have become dynamic hubs in various ways for the community of users

Digital Preservation Matters.

Tools for Discovering and Archiving the Mobile Web

Tools for Discovering and Archiving the Mobile Web. Frank McCown, Monica Yarbrough and Keith Enlow. D-Lib Magazine. March/April 2015.
Many websites have been adapted for access by smartphones and tablets. This has required web archivists to change the way they archive this ephemeral web content. A tool has been created using Heretrix called MobileFinder which can be used to automatically detect mobile pages when given a seed URL. It can be used as a web service.
There are three primary techniques used by websites to deliver mobile pages, and the results of a test to determine which technique was used:

1. Using responsive web design  techniques to deliver the same content to both desktop and mobile devices: 68%
2. Dynamically serving different HTML and CSS to mobile devices using the same URL: 24%
3. Using different URLs to send out desktop or mobile pages: 8%

MobileFinder found in a test that 62% of randomly selected URLs had a mobile-specific root page. A web archiving tool needs to be aware of when these methods are being used so it doesn't miss finding mobile content.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Falling Though the Cracks: Digital Preservation and Institutional Failures

Falling Though the Cracks: Digital Preservation and Institutional Failures. Jerome McDonough. CNI.  December 2014. Video.
A video that explores whether libraries, archives and museums are designed in a way to really provide long-term access to cultural heritage materials. Why are we doing digital preservation, how to do it better, how do we do librarianship better.  Looks at OAIS and the complexities of preserving cultural materials. Need to train people to have broader perspectives across different fields, such as librarians, archivists, and curators.

Digital Preservation Matters.

Trustworthiness: Self-assessment of an Institutional Repository against ISO 16363-2012

Trustworthiness: Self-assessment of an Institutional Repository against ISO 16363-2012. Bernadette Houghton. D-Lib Magazine. March/April 2015.
Digital preservation is a relatively young field, but progress has been made for developing tools and standards to better support preservation efforts. There is increased interest in standards for the audit and certification of digital repositories because researchers want to know they can trust digital repositories. Digital preservation is a long-term issue. The Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification (TRAC) checklist has been widely used as the basis of the activities. It later became ISO 16363 (based on the OAIS model) which contains 105 criteria in 3 areas:

1. Organizational infrastructure (governance, structure and viability, staffing, accountability, policies, financial sustainability and legal issues)
2. Digital object management (acquisition and ingest of content, preservation planning and procedures, information management and access)
3. Infrastructure and security risk management (technical infrastructure and security issues)

 "Undertaking a self-assessment against ISO 16363 is not a trivial task, and is likely to be beyond the ability of smaller repositories to manage." An audit is an arms-length review of the repository, requiring evidence of compliance and testing to see that the repository is functioning as a Trusted Digital Repository.  Most repositories at this time are in an ad hoc, still-evolving situation. That is appropriate at this time, but a more mature approach should be taken in the future. The assessment process would rate features for: Full Compliance, Part Compliance, Not Compliant. The conclusions in the article include:

• Self-assessment is time-consuming and resource-heavy, but a beneficial exercise
• Self-assessment is needed before considering external certification. 
• Certification is expensive.
• Get senior management on board. Their support is essential.
• Consider doing an assessment first against NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation  
• Repository software may be OAIS-compliant, but it doesn't mean your repository is also
• Not all ISO 16363 criteria have the same importance. Assess each criteria accordingly
• ISO 16363 is based on a conceptual model and may not fit your exact situation
• Determine in advance how deep the assessment will go.
• Document the self-assessment from the start on a wiki and record your findings  

Digital Preservation Matters.

Storage is a Strategic Issue: Digital Preservation in the Cloud

Storage is a Strategic Issue: Digital Preservation in the Cloud. Gillian Oliver, Steve Knight. D-Lib Magazine. March/April 2015.
Many areas are mandating a 'cloud first' policy for information technology infrastructures. The article is a case study of the decision to outsource and its consequences. Some highlights:

1. data held in archives must be expected to be both preserved and accessible beyond the commercial lifespan of any current technology or service provider.
2. an approach to addressing serious risks (such as loss, destruction or corruption of data) that is based purely on financial reasons is not acceptable; it does not take into account the  preservation and custodial role of archives;
3. there must be an explicit provision made for pre-defined exit strategies as well as effective monitoring and audit procedures

Two main challenges

1. tensions between the information management and information technology perspectives. From the IT perspective the information managers were perceived as crossing boundaries into areas which were not of their concern.
2. funding model. This change was a consequence of moving from the purchase of equipment for storage for use in house, to the provision of storage as a service.

"If most organisations lose a document, so long as they get the document back they're pretty happy. But because of digital preservation being what it is, you don't want to lose or corrupt any of the bits, they have to be exactly the way they were before." 

Cultural heritage institutions should investigate using storage as a service offerings, and also look ahead to utilizing other cloud based services. When making such decisions, you must be aware of the short term consequences of cost saving (i.e. increased burden on operating budgets) as set against potential long term benefits.

Digital Preservation Matters.