DPC

The DPC has published its response to the recent Intellectual Property Office consultation on exceptions to copyright law with a detailed discussion of how these proposals impact on digital preservation. 

In summary, the DPC warmly welcomes the proposal to permit multiple copies to be created for preservation purposes. It notes and welcomes the proposal to broaden the types of content that can qualify for this exception and welcomes the proposal that extends this exception to a wider range of institutions.

The DPC seeks a number of clarifications to ensure that perfectly reasonable preservation actions are not inadvertently inhibited. For example the Coalition want to ensure that institutions are not prevented from collaborative preservation and is concerned that attempting to restrict preservation copying to an institution’s permanent collection may interfere with perfectly laudable and reasonable rescue and appraisal efforts.

The original consultation is online here from the Intellectual Property Office.

See the full text of our response here. [PDF 430KB]

The DPC has published its response to the recent consultation from the Department for Culture Media and Sport on 'UK Online Publications'. 

The DPC has welcomed the progress which has been made by the Legal Deposit Advisory Panel on recommendations for collecting digital material and is eager that the momentum recently achieved is maintained so that continuing progress can be made. It warmly welcomes the proposal for regulation-based harvesting and calls for early implementation of this proposal, offering the assistance of the DPC in capacity building for staff and tools which this will necessitate. 

There is a range of opinions within the DPC's membership regarding the access provisions within the Proposals. The position of the DPC itself, however, remains clear that future access to the harvested materials at any level will be impossible without the safeguards that rigorous attention to preservation provides.

The original consultation document is online at: http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/consultations/6506.aspx

Click here to read the DPC's full response [pdf, 385kb].

National Heritage Science Strategy Consultation

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee inquiry on Science and Heritage called for the production of a new National Heritage Science Strategy, a task that is now being taken forward by the National Heritage Science Strategy Steering Group.  Work has progressed in four packages: at the time of writing 3 reports have been released for consultation and a fourth document - the strategy iteslf is in development.

The DPC has responded to this consultation observing that digital resources constitute a heritage which is worthy of preservation, and that developments in heritage science in relation to digital heritage will be better served where they are aligned with existing and forthcoming initiatives.

• Reports from the National Heritage Science Strategy [external]

• The role of science in the management of the UK's heritage: A response from the Digital Preservation Coalition [pdf]

• The use of science to enhance our understanding of the past: A response from the Digital Preservation Coalition [pdf]

• Understanding Capacity in the Heritage Science Sector: A response from the Digital Preservation Coalition [pdf]

DPC promotes long term access in Digital Britain.

Full DPC Response to Digital Britain: The Interim Report (March 2009)

Introduction

1. The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is a not-for profit membership organisation whose primary objective is to raise awareness of the importance of the preservation of digital material and the attendant strategic, cultural and technological issues. It acts as an enabling and agenda-setting body within the digital preservation world and works to meet this objective through a number of high level goals. Its vision is to make our digital memory accessible tomorrow.
2. The Digital Preservation Coalition welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Digital Britain Interim Report.  We seek opportunities to work more closely with the Digital Britain team in refining and delivering the digital strategy that their Interim Report delineates.
3. We support the broad conclusions of the Interim Report in identifying the essential architecture of the government’s digital strategy.  In particular we note the considerable contribution that production and re-use of digital content makes to the British economy. We are encouraged in our response by the Government’s previously stated view that the contribution of the creative industries to the UK economy must move from the margins to the mainstream of economic policy.
4. In summary, our response is to call for greater clarity and consideration of digital legacy, especially where this pertains to content.  This can be achieved through greater collaboration between the producers of content and those memory institutions – principally but not exclusively data services, archives, museums and libraries – charged with curating and preserving this generation’s digital legacy.
5. It is our contention that appropriate consideration of the long-term of digital content will deliver long-term competitive advantage into the UK economy.
6. We seek opportunities for knowledge transfer between those who already have skills in the long term curation and preservation of digital content (such as the DPC membership) and the creative industries producing new content.

Digital networks

1. We note and welcome attention paid to the development of a new generation of network infrastructure for the UK.  The extension and embedding of high capacity networks for home and business are as essential to the development of the economy.

2. The value of high quality digital content will increase as access to it becomes easier. The transformation of network capacity implies a concomitant growth in the consumption creation and re-use of digital content.  This presents an opportunity and challenge for the long-term.

3. The proliferation of new content suppliers means that the UK will need to be more sophisticated and more widely skilled in the curation and preservation of digital content if it is to have a lasting impact on the economy.  So, in parallel with the expansion of the network, the UK requires to build capacity for preservation and curation of digital content.

4. This can in part be achieved through refinement and planned investment in the skills and resources required to preserve digital content. We believe that this represents an opportunity for knowledge transfer from DPC members to the creators of digital content.

5. We note that paradigm shifts in broadcasting have historically been moments of unplanned loss of content.  We call for broadcasters to examine the risks to content in their planning for migration to new platforms.

Digital Content

6. We note and welcome the attention paid to issues surrounding digital content, especially the discussions about the creation of digital content.

7. We note, in the words of the Blue Ribbon Task force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access , that ‘access to data tomorrow requires decisions concerning preservation today’ (2008, 1).

8. Experience shows that preservation and curation of digital content is facilitated by early intervention.  Dependable access can to some extent be built in at the point of creation, while digital archaeology is expensive and impractical on the large scale.  In short digital legacy planning ought to become business as usual.

9. We believe that there is an opportunity for meaningful knowledge transfer between DPC members and the creators of content to enhance the durability of their content.

10. The effective exploitation of intellectual property happens over decades not years.  Consequently, we believe the report’s ambitions to provide greater clarity for intellectual property management needs to be positioned in a framework where the content remains fit for purpose over decades.

11. While the DPC has no particular view on the detail of the intellectual property issues in the report, it is keen to ensure that intellectual property laws do not act as a barrier to appropriate preservation activities.

12. Consideration must be given to the rights, responsibilities and legal protections of those engaged in the long term preservation of our digital heritage.

13. We note and welcome the discussion of new business models for digital content. This underlines the importance of effective exploitation of legacy content to create revenue streams. This is facilitated by more careful consideration of long-term access.

14. While we want businesses to thrive, we call for more effective planning to support preservation and access to digital resources from businesses that fail.

Universal Connectivity

15. We note and welcome the aspiration that everyone in the UK should be able to participate in the digital economy.  We note again the implication for content creation and distribution and what this means for ensuring a cultural legacy (see point 8-10).

Equipping everyone to benefit

16. We note and welcome the concern with digital skills articulated in the Interim Report.

17. We note that digital preservation is a relatively new discipline.  Better long-term planning and exploitation of digital content will best be achieved by investing in people, specifically by ensuring that the right parts of the workforce have access to appropriate training and career paths.

18. The UK has made a significant contribution in the development of digital preservation and curation. This contribution provides a competitive advantage for the creative industries and cultural heritage sector, and creates an opportunity for knowledge transfer between DPC members and content creators.

References
Blue Ribbon Task force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access (2008) Sustaining the Digital Investment: Issues and Challenges of Economically Sustainable Digital Preservation (Interim Report)

William Kilbride, Executive Director of the Digital Preservation Coalition
March 2009

PDF of Full DPC Response to Digital Britain: The Interim Report (March 2009) (70KB)

More information and the full Digital Britain: The Interim Report can be found at: http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx

The Digital Britain discussion site: http://www.digitalbritainforum.org.uk/

17 April 2009, The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Netherlands

1. Summary of issues relevant for DPC members 

• Training is popular but what sort of training will be most effective: what will drive down costs and support our work best?
• Considerations of scale: what is the right size solution to our digital preservation challenges? Do we want lots of small DP facilities or a small number of large ones?
• How do we collaborate without undermining institutions?
• There would appear to be a lot of policy development which is an important change from a decade ago: but how do we assess the value of these emerging policies and how do we know if they are being applied?
• There is still a policy gap. There are some high level aspirations in the UNESCO Charter and some very detailed guides, but a gap in between. What would be our
• golden rules for creating digital data?

A DPC led consortium of the ULCC and Portico, undertook a study on behalf of JISC to review the preservation of the JISC Phase 2 digitisation programme. The successful proposal is available here.

DPC successful proposal (PDF 362KB)

A project blog is available at http://digipressurvey.jiscinvolve.org/

Case Studies

• Freeze frame [PDF 642KB]
• Archival Sound Recordings [PDF 699KB]
• Cabinet Papers
• Wels Jourmals

June 2008

The Review Board for the ITT 'Mind the Gap' - follow up study reviewed responses to the ITT in mid-June. Whilst the Review Board found much to commend in the proposals it was decided not to award a contract at this time. The brief will be re-scoped to focus on actions for which the DPC or its members can take responsibility for and it will have a strong practical and achievable focus.

The 'Mind the Gap' report was published with 21 recommendations aimed at a range of stakeholders. To gauge which of these are the most important to the DPC community, members were asked to participate in a survey to consider the final 'Mind the Gap' recommendations. They voted on which recommendations would impact on their work and deliver the greatest benefit to the digital preservation community if achieved successfully.

By Hugh Campbell, PRONI

1. I attended the Imaging Science & Technology (IS&T) Archiving 2005 conference at the Washington Hilton. This is my report on the conference.

2. Washington is quite a long way away – home to hotel was about 20 hours with hotel to home about 18 hours. This needs to be borne in mind when planning travel to such a conference and return to work - the body needs time to recover.

3. The conference itself started on Tuesday, 26 April with a number of tutorials. I attended the Long-Term Archiving of Digital Images tutorial – see attached summary. The conference proper ran from Wednesday 27 April – Friday 29 April, kicking off at 0830 each morning (and finishing at 1700 on Wednesday and Thursday and 1500 on Friday). Wednesday featured a 40-minute keynote address and 15 20-minute sessions; Thursday featured a 40-minute keynote address, 10 20-minute sessions and approximately 20 90second poster previews followed by the opportunity to visit the poster presentations. Friday featured a 40-minute keynote address and 10 20-minute sessions. I felt that there were too many sessions, cramming too much into a short space of time.

A UK Needs Assessment was identified as a key priority in the DPC Business Plan for 2003-2006 in order to identify the volume and level of risk and assigning priorities for action. The first stage of this exercise was a DPC Members survey. This was carried out between August 2003 and March 2004, with a Workshop in November 2003 to discuss preliminary results and determine further action required. The survey form used is available below and the final report of the DPC Members survey and annexes, by Duncan Simpson, who was commissioned to undertake the survey on behalf of the DPC are also available. The report of the Workshop is also available below, and this Powerpoint slide presented by Duncan Simpson at the Workshop, indicates the proposed timeframe for the UK Needs Assessment, assuming funding for key initiatives.

Other deliverables from the survey are the map of DPC members, which provides details of each DPC member and their interest in digital preservation and (where appropriate) what material they have undertaken responsibility for. The table of DPC Member projects was also derived from the survey, and will be periodically updated. A related follow up task was Scenarios of Risks of Data Loss, real-life examples where data was either lost or at risk, provided by some DPC members and collated by Duncan Simpson. This is available below.