Towards a Digital Preservation Coalition
version 2.0 Neil Beagrie 8/1/01
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a briefing for individuals and
institutions attending a summit to discuss digital preservation and the
formation of a UK Digital Preservation Coalition. The aim of the Coalition
is envisaged as developing a UK digital preservation agenda within an
international context.
Venue and Arrangements
The summit is being hosted by JISC and the British Library and facilitated
by JISC Digital Preservation Focus and the NPO. It will be held in London
at the British Library (Euston Road) on Tuesday 16 January starting with
lunch between 1:30 - 2PM and concluding by 4 PM. Please report to the
main enquiry desk to collect your visitor pass ask for Josie Johnson
(National Preservation Office) in the BL. NPO staff will escort you to
the meeting venue (meeting room K). The meeting is being chaired by Lynne
Brindley Chief Executive of the British Library and Reg Carr chair of
the JISC Committee for Electronic Information. A range of individuals
has been invited to the summit as representatives of key strategic organisations
and potential members of the Coalition and/or individuals from allied
sectors with relevant expertise and interest in its development. Numbers
have been restricted to facilitate discussion at the summit but it is
recognised that further consultation and discussion with other individuals
and organisations should follow on from the meeting.
1 Introduction
Electronic resources form an increasingly large part of our cultural
and intellectual heritage. In addition to electronic publications, the
Web, and e-commerce, there is an array of new UK initiatives and legislation,
from Modernising Government to the Freedom of Information Act, which
is putting an onus on public organisations to provide access to, manage
and archive their information in electronic form. In the research arena,
there are also significant developments particularly in the sciences
towards very large primary research data sets in electronic form e.g.
in genomics or earth sciences.
There are significant challenges associated with ensuring access and
preservation of these materials into the future. Electronic resources
regardless of whether they are created initially through digitisation
or are "born" digital are threatened by technological obsolescence and
physical deterioration. With content from international publishers, increasing
globalisation and sharing of resources, and the involvement of a range
of libraries, archives, services, and cultural heritage organisations,
our ability to preserve access to these electronic resources into the
future depends on the collaboration and engagement of a wide range of
stakeholders.
National institutions and services, and individual local institutions
increasingly need to raise awareness of digital preservation, and develop
capacity, skills and expertise to administer or manage for the long-term
intellectual and cultural assets they have developed in digital form.
These institutions have recognised the value of collaboration in addressing
digital preservation. Establishment of a Digital Preservation Coalition
was the principal recommendation of the Warwick II digital preservation
workshop held in March 1999, which had representation from a wide range
of sectors, institutions, and practitioners in digital preservation.
The Warwick II workshop also made a number of recommendations for work
to be taken forward by the proposed Coalition. These recommendations
are provided as an appendix to this paper together with other recommendations
for future work from the JISC/NPO digital preservation research studies.
There are a number of reasons why institutions at Warwick wished to
establish a Coalition. First, attendees recognised they needed a collaborative
effort to get digital preservation on the agenda of key decision-makers
and funders in terms that they will find persuasive and understand. Secondly,
projects and initiatives are proliferating and the institutions themselves
felt there would be significant value in developing the umbrella organisation
to help coordinate and keep a watching brief and monitoring role on their
behalf. Thirdly, despite sectoral differences it was felt that most of
the technical and some organisational issues remain the same for all
organisations. There are therefore significant synergies and mutual self-interest
in collaboration. At the same time the efforts of individual institutions
and sectors can be leveraged and co-ordinated through collaboration to
achieve wider national benefits. Finally, it was felt that the Digital
Preservation Coalition could tap additional skills and funding and help
address and contribute to development of national strategies, infrastructure
and skills in digital preservation.
Concrete action towards the establishment of the Coalition is now in
progress. In June 2000 JISC established a post within the DNER and appointed
Neil Beagrie to provide a focal point for digital preservation activities
within JISC and the higher and further education communities, and to
help establish and support the Coalition proposed at Warwick. Although
the exact remit, shape and programme for the Coalition will be resolved
in consultation with proposed members, a draft outline of the Coalition
and its remit and work is rehearsed here for further discussion at the
summit.
2 Draft Manifesto for the Digital Preservation Coalition
The aim of the Digital Preservation Coalition is to develop and pursue
a UK digital preservation agenda within an international context.
In order to achieve this aim, members of the Coalition agree to:
- Actively support the UK Digital Preservation Coalition and define
its shape as an independent and inclusive body.
- Commit to the development of a digital preservation strategy at the
national level, and in an international context, spelling out stakeholder
roles and responsibilities.
- Promote a concerted and co-ordinated effort to get digital preservation
on the agenda of key stakeholders and funders in terms that they will
understand and find persuasive.
- Act in concert to make arguments for appropriate and adequate funding
to secure the nation's investment in digital resources and ensure an
enduring global digital memory.
- Commit to working collaboratively and internationally to address
shared challenges in digital preservation.
- Commit to promoting and disseminating information and openly sharing
outcomes so that we can all learn as quickly as possible, from mistakes
as well as successes.
- Work collaboratively to identify shared needs and promote training
and current awareness in digital preservation.
- Orchestrate efforts to collaborate in research and development and
implementation strategies for archiving significant Web sites as a
record of our digital inheritance.
- Identify, support and commission future work, research studies and
projects to further the aims of the Coalition.
- Ensure that the Coalition liaises and develops links with allied
and related organisations within and outside the UK.
3. Next Steps and Programme of Work for the Coalition
Initial momentum for the Coalition would be best initiated by a small
group of key stakeholders and potential partners. The aim should be to
establish the Coalition as soon as practicable during 2001 with a manifesto,
constitution, and a timetable and programme of activities and responsibilities
to deliver its aims. Potential tasks for the Coalition have been identified
at Warwick and elsewhere (see appendix) but would need to be reviewed,
prioritised and supported. These tasks themselves may divide into new
activities and maintaining and developing previous or existing work.
The Coalition could be seen as operating on three levels: activities
undertaken individually by member institutions and sectors but accomplished
and co-ordinated in line with their commitment to the principles and
actions in the manifesto; a small core set of coalition activities of
common interest and benefit to all its members supported by resources
from its membership; and a series of collaborative projects which would
be taken forward with project funding drawn from a variety of sources.
Within these levels it's also worthwhile to recognise potentially different
scales of activity, operating both at the level of major national initiatives
(e.g. the BL digital library store, archiving significant web sites etc.)
but also at a more modest level. This could include for example: identifying
key forums where DPC papers might be presented; establishing Powerpoint
presentations for use by DPC members for varying needs, e,g, "scholarly" presentations,
popular presentations (putting some effort into the latter might be a
particularly worthwhile investment of effort); or encouraging joint papers,
etc.. All fairly modest in themselves but could have a tremendously beneficial
cumulative effect in terms of harnessing resources, and widening participation
and awareness.
This structure of individual institutional activities, core collaborative
activities, and collaborative projects, recognises that the interests
of different institutions and sectors will overlap but will not be identical.
Each will have a unique profile, peer groups (other national libraries,
national archives, etc) and interests. The Coalition must add value for
its members, be sufficiently flexible to accommodate this diversity,
maximising the potential benefits from this for its members, and minimising
potential risk. The proposed structure will maximise opportunities for
external funding of major collaborative projects whilst keeping core
activities supported by the membership to a sustainable and realistic
level.
The Preservation Management of Digital Materials Workbook (pre-publication
draft available at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/preservation/ [September
2007: disabled as the link is no longer active]) produced with research
funding from the Re:source and in kind funding and contributions from
JISC and a wide range of organisations involved in the advisory group
and case studies, provides a good example of current collaborative effort
and benefits. Future development and maintenance of the workbook and
programmes associated with it would be potential examples of core activities
for the Coalition in terms of training and awareness or maintaining and
developing existing work.
Projects can also support the aims of the Coalition and its members
and can provide a mechanism for extending core activities. An example
of a project which can address an institution's need to maintain a corporate
record of its own website or web materials and at the same time provide
shared sectoral and national benefits is a feasibility study and pilot
project for archiving the UK web. As scholarly communication, government
and education move online, the need for further work and research in
this area becomes essential. A number of web archiving projects have
now been undertaken in other countries most notably the Pandora project
in Australia, and expertise exists within the UK and beyond to initiate
and sustain a similar project which could develop expertise, guidelines
and contribute a key component for a national archiving strategy.
4. Constitution and membership of the Coalition
It is envisaged the Coalition would be established by a core strategic
group of partners with support from JISC Digital Preservation Focus and
would evolve as a membership organisation. Commitment to the manifesto
and active participation to achieve its aims would be a key requirement
for membership of the Coalition. The levels of active participation required
for membership would need to be defined either in terms of commitment
to roles and responsibilities, and staff participation and/or funding
for collaborative activities. Partners involvement with and contribution
to the Coalition is likely to vary and a number of membership levels
could be defined for example board membership, associate membership,
and international or collaborative members. Potential members and allied
organisations include the BL, JISC, the other UK national libraries for
Scotland and Wales, Resource, PRO, CURL, research and digitisation funders,
publishers, services, NPO, and library consortia such as RLG. Although
focused on the UK, membership could include international organisations
with an interest in the UK or international partners co-operating with
the Coalition.
Discussions have already taken place between the JISC, BL and the National
Preservation Office (NPO) management committee on collaboration between
the proposed Coalition and the NPO. Further discussion on the relationship
will now take place following completion of the current NPO review and
as part of the preparations for the launch of the Coalition.
A range of options exists for the constitution of the Coalition including
establishing it as a separate entity or hosting it for legal and administrative
purposes within one of the member organisations. These options would
need to be explored by the founding group.
5 Organisation and management
It is suggested that the work of the Coalition should be managed by
a Digital Preservation Board nominated by its members and supported by
an Advisory Group consisting of individuals with expertise in digital
preservation drawn from the UK and overseas. In addition to the board
and advisory group the future work of the Coalition could be substantially
aided by the establishment of ad hoc working parties or task forces drawing
expertise from across its membership to address specific issues and actions.
The development and initial work of the Coalition following the summit
could be overseen by an advisory group whose membership could be drawn
from the former Digital Archiving Working Group, the Cedars board, and
additional members representing organisations potentially subscribing
and contributing to the work of the Coalition. The composition of the
board in the longer term would be determined by the constitution agreed
by its membership.
Core programmes and resources for the Coalition should ideally be agreed
on a three-year rolling cycle with delivery of corporate objectives being
achieved by staff secondment and contracts on a full-time or part-time
basis, and/or consultancy.
Appendices
Recommendations from the Warwick II Digital Preservation Workshop March
1999
- Establish National Digital Preservation Coalition
- Establish International Digital Preservation Forum
- Advise creators of good practice
- Establish capacity of problem
- expertise
- range of types
- volumes
- Undertake RLG type survey for UK
- Tackle absence of trained people
- Undertake accreditation function for digital archives
- Policy development
- Prepare EU funding bid
- Develop cost/benefit analysis model
- Address rights issues/access
- Promote awareness and training
- Promote information/exchange
- Investigate/recommend physical integrity of storage media
- Undertake Pandora type web preservation project for the UK
Recommendations for future work from the JISC/NPO Digital Preservation
Studies (summarised by M Feeny in Digital Culture,1999)
- Raise awareness among:
- Universities
- Organisation & centres
- Data creators
- Software industry
- Encourage communication & collaboration between organisations and
sectors
- Develop guidelines pertaining to standards & best practice
- Investigate strategies for funding a preservation centre or network
of preservation centres
- Develop criteria for approved data archives
- Develop a check-list to determine cost and complexity of preservation
- Conduct further research into:
- Preservation of dynamic data resources (eg websites)
- Data loss case histories
- Systematic collection of hardware and software documentation
- Develop a media quality index
- "Digital Archaeology/Data Recovery" technologies
- For legal deposit
- Develop co-ordinating body for allocation of digital publications
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