Policy Principles - Continuous Improvement

This section focuses on procedures for the assessment of current digital preservation capabilities, the definition of goals and the monitoring of progress.

Policy statements may include commitments to certification, or to supporting FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data, etc.

British Geological Survey

The NGDC is a CoreTrustSeal certified trusted digital repository (as of January 2018). Work is currently underway to renew the three-year certification in 2021.

NGDC have used the Digital Preservation Capability Maturity Model© Assessment before initiating formal digital preservation activities. Other benchmarking schemes such as the DPC Rapid Assessment Model (RAM) and the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation are also used and repeated at regular intervals to measure progress.

British Geological Survey Digital Preservation Policy (2020)

The Postal Museum

The Postal Museum acknowledges that there is much work to be done to establish and embed Business-As-Usual (BAU) digital preservation practices, and is yet to transition from ad hoc, reactive, digital preservation efforts. This requires significant prioritisation, organisational change and workforce planning while mitigating risks and managing expectations. The Postal Museum commits to undertaking annual digital preservation capability maturity assessments to work towards developing trustworthy processes and systems, to inform forward planning.

The Postal Museum Digital Preservation Policy (2022)

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Policy Principles - IT Capability

This section includes principles around ensuring that Information Technology capabilities are sufficient for supporting digital preservation activities. Aspects covered in the examples below include investment in infrastructure, use of open source software and maintaining an appropriate level of IT security.

Bodleian Libraries

Bodleian Libraries will invest in and support the technical infrastructure required to carry out preservation of its digital content.

Bodleian Libraries recognises that digital content requires management beyond the lifespan of the technical infrastructure and systems currently used to manage it. Systems used for managing digital content are chosen and/or developed using appropriate and tested exit strategies for digital files, metadata and persistent identifiers.

Bodleian Libraries will continue to document, monitor and refresh its technical workflows and processes over time.

Bodleian Libraries Digital Preservation Policy (2022)

University of St Andrews

The University will procure, develop, maintain and review the technical infrastructure required to carry out preservation of its digital content, including appropriate storage, to ensure future accessibility, usability and integrity of archived records and other digital content.

University of St Andrews Digital Preservation Policy (2021)

University of Cambridge

The Libraries are committed to using open-source tools, systems, and standards to ensure the longevity of digital collection materials. The Libraries also recognise that it is important to contribute to the open-source communities whose outputs they use, as well as to share openly about how they are managing their collections.

Cambridge University Libraries Digital Preservation Policy (2021)

Wellcome Collection

We invest in the continued development and ongoing maintenance of the infrastructure required to preserve digital collections, taking an agile and iterative approach which recognizes that the underlying technologies on which preservation is dependent are themselves constantly evolving.

Wellcome Collection Digital Preservation Policy 2019–2021 (2019)

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Policy Principles - Legal and Ethical

This section is about the management of legal social and cultural rights and responsibilities, compliance with relevant regulation and adherence to codes of ethics related to acquiring, preserving and providing access to digital content. 

British Geological Survey

As per UKRI/NERC data policy, BGS aims to make all data openly available insofar as possible. There are safeguards in place for sensitive and commercially restricted data, including agreed embargo periods and access restrictions.

British Geological Survey Digital Preservation Policy (2020)

The Postal Museum

Ownership, provenance, and intellectual property rights will be ascertained and documented at the point of acquisition.

Access conditions, copyright and/or rights are adhered to when managing, preserving, and providing access to digital content. Appropriate practices are established to manage personal and sensitive data, and compliance with data privacy regulations.

Access to records will be subject to the 20-year rule.

Copying for preservation or access will be carried out in line with relevant copyright legislation.

The Postal Museum Digital Preservation Policy (2022)

University of St Andrews

Access conditions, copyright and other rights will be adhered to when managing, preserving and providing access to digital content. Appropriate practices are established to manage personal and sensitive data, in compliance with data protection laws.

University of St Andrews Digital Preservation Policy (2021)

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Policy Principles - Policy and Strategy

This section covers the policies, strategies and procedures that are in place to govern the operation and management of the digital archive. Topics that may be addressed as policy principles include documentation and related issues around accountability and transparency.

University of Warwick

Transparency – promote concept of authenticity of digital content by helping make processes transparent so it is clear what actions have been taken to change or alter the digital content during their lifecycles.

 

Accountability – promote the development and management of accurate preservation management documentation to ensure archival processes can be understood and interpreted alongside the content that is being preserved.

University of Warwick IG04: Digital Preservation Policy (undated)

 

 

University of St Andrews

All digital preservation processes will be transparent and auditable.

The University will ensure that adequate resourcing is provided to support the long-term sustainability of digital preservation activities, including documenting approaches and solutions and ensuring that this documentation is kept up to date.

University of St Andrews Digital Preservation Policy (2021)

The Postal Museum

Policies, guidelines, procedures, standards, processes, and workflows developed to support acquisition and preservation activities for digital content are documented and made available to all collections staff.

The Postal Museum Digital Preservation Policy (2022)

University of Cambridge

This principle will be followed by:

  • Documenting existing and new workflows, including:
  • Flow of materials through systems and processes.
  • File types, formats, and standards used.
  • Conditions under which materials are created or acquired.
  • Conditions under which materials can be accessed, used, and re-used.

Cambridge University Libraries Digital Preservation Policy (2021)

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Policy Principles - Organizational Viability

This section includes principles around ensuring that digital preservation functions and activites are appropriately resourced, staffed and supported.

Topics that might be mentioned in your policy principles include statements relation to resourcing, staff training and advocacy activites. For example:

University of the Arts London

The long-term preservation requirements of digital materials are understood by UAL. UAL has invested in the technical infrastructure required to carry out preservation of its digital collections and has committed to a digital preservation system for an initial period of 5 years, which it is committed to reviewing. Digital preservation activities will be planned and implemented in ways that best manage current UAL resources and can be sustained into the future.

University of the Arts London Archives, Museum & Special Collections Digital Preservation Policy (2019)

British Geological Survey

The support of BGS senior management is required to maintain staffing, develop skills levels and secure long-term funding in order to carry out preservation activities.

British Geological Survey Digital Preservation Policy (2020)

University of St Andrews

The University will ensure that adequate resourcing is provided to support the long-term sustainability of digital preservation activities, including documenting approaches and solutions and ensuring that this documentation is kept up to date.

The University will actively raise awareness of digital preservation issues and highlight inconsistencies in approaches across the University and will provide training, where appropriate.

University of St Andrews Digital Preservation Policy (2021)

 Bodleian Libraries 

Bodleian Libraries aims to enact a well-balanced and robust funding model for digital preservation. 

Bodleian Libraries will ensure that it has dedicated staff with relevant skills to support preservation of its digital content. Staff responsible for managing and preserving digital content will be provided with professional development opportunities to ensure they can fulfil the requirements of their job roles.

Bodleian Libraries Digital Preservation Policy (2022)

National Archives of Australia

The Archives will ensure that its digital preservation activities are carried out by sufficient staff with the appropriate skills. The Archives may use a combination of in-house staff, contractors, and consultants to achieve its objectives. The Archives will provide training opportunities to allow staff to develop, maintain or enhance their digital preservation expertise. These opportunities may include participation on courses, self-directed learning, attendance at national and international seminars, workshops and conferences, study visits, internships, and working exchanges with other institutions and professional bodies.

National Archives of Australia Digital Preservation Policy (2020)

Wellcome Collection

Dispersing responsibilities for digital preservation across several Wellcome teams offers peer learning and development opportunities, whilst simultaneously reducing the organizational risks associated with reliance on dedicated digital specialists.

Wellcome Collection Digital Preservation Policy 2019-2021 (2019)

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Level Up - Discovery and Access

Introduction

The reason for preserving digital content is so that it can be accessed, but decisions need to be made around who can access it, how and when? The answers to these questions are rarely straightforward, particularly where many different types of content with different rights and restrictions are involved.

This is a really important section of RAM for us as access has always been the driver for any of the digital preservation activities at the University. Our collections have been the focus of all of our digital preservation activities to date and this work is really seen as an extension of our core role to support teaching, learning and research (which inevitably brings a need for access).” - Elisabeth Thurlow, University of the Arts London


Tips
RAMLightbulbBackground

  • Facilitating access to content is challenging if you don’t have the right information about licensing, permissions and confidentiality. You may need to put a substantial amount of effort into enhancing metadata and documentation about collections before you can consider access.

  • Make your access platform user-led. Find out what people are searching for, what terms they are using, and which searches are producing no results. Ask users how they want to be able to search.

  • Make web accessibility a part of every conversation about online access to digital collections - it should not be an afterthought.

  • Ensure it is clear to users of the content what they can and can’t do with it. There are great examples of clear infographics that explain Creative Commons licencing for users from Te Papa (https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1289772 - click on download image) and University of the Arts London (https://digitalcollections.arts.ac.uk/object/?code=calm:TE/1/2/1/iii - click on ‘creative commons’).

  • Find ways of demonstrating the value and impact of increased access - gather case studies and examples of how digital content is being used.

  • Consider using online content for online exhibitions or online collaborations. Increased availability of content may enable other types of access that you had not previously considered.


Helpful resourcesRAMSignpostBackground


Case studiesRAMCaseBackground

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Level Up - Metadata Management

Introduction

This section of DPC RAM focuses on the metadata that is needed to preserve and provide access to digital content. It includes technical metadata on file formats and dependencies that will aid preservation decisions, metadata that demonstrates the authenticity of the content, and metadata that helps users to find and understand the content.

When we decided to adopt the PREMIS metadata standard this was a really good step for the organization as it allowed us not only to gather the appropriate metadata but to continue to develop metadata over time in a structured way.” - Nicola Steele, Grosvenor Estates


TipsRam with a lightbulb above head

  • Creating a digital asset register can be a really helpful step for gaining greater intellectual control of your digital holdings. It may be that digital content is stored in multiple different places or that you have a backlog of content that hasn’t yet been processed. Completing a digital asset register will allow you to gain better understanding and control over the size and scale of your holdings.

  • Ensure your digital asset register works for you. Does it include all the information you need? Is it complete or is there patchy coverage? 

  • Don’t underestimate the importance of metadata about copyright, licencing and accessibility. It is hard to do anything with digital content if this information isn’t clear and easy to understand - both for staff and for users.

  • Ensure that you have clear guidelines on creating and updating metadata and that this information is accessible to those who need to use it.

  • Communicate with developers or third parties who provide systems for storing and surfacing metadata - ensure you pass on feedback and requirements in order to make sure systems are developing in a direction useful for you.

  • Enhancing and improving metadata is time consuming and it can be a challenge to get any additional funding for it. However, it is very much worth the effort. Investing time in this opens up opportunities to do more exciting things with digital content in the future.

  • Do not see metadata enhancement as an isolated exercise - find ways to use the improved metadata (for example facilitating better reporting, better preservation planning, better access and discovery) to demonstrate that it was time well spent.

  • Consider recording any physical locations in the local language(s) and be aware of any relevant Indigenous terminologies or community-specific language.

  • Noting where material has restrictions on access at all levels of metadata will help mitigate the risk of inappropriate disclosure.


Helpful resources
RAMSignpostBackground


Case studiesRAMCaseBackground

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Level Up - Content Preservation

Introduction

Content preservation is perhaps one of the more challenging sections of DPC RAM and one that many institutions make progress on only once other elements of digital preservation are more established. It focuses on the need to be able to enable digital content to be rendered and understood for the long term.

My top tip for this section of RAM is to communicate your needs to management - whether this be for more training, for more time or more resource. If there is something that is stopping you from moving forward, don’t let it get forgotten. Make sure you are vocal and visible.” - Nicola Steele, Grosvenor Estates


Tips
RAMLightbulbBackground

  • Avoid the trap of performing digital preservation actions pre-emptively. Only change digital content when there is a clear risk or access need.

  • Use tools such as DROID to gain an understanding of what you have and to start to consider the preservation risks and actions that may need to be taken. DROID not only helps identify the file format of your files but can also highlight files that are password protected.

  • Supplement information gathered with file format identification tools with a more in-depth understanding of particular file formats such as that provided by the Library of Congress’s Recommended Format Statement.

  • Think carefully about whether file format validation is a necessary step in your workflow. A number of validation tools are available for different content types to check whether a  file conforms to a particular file format specification. These tools are used widely in digital preservation, but do not assume they are always a useful step in your preservation workflow without establishing why you need them and how you might act on the results.They may provide valuable information you could use to improve a content creation or migration workflow but in many cases may just create additional metadata that you may never act on. On this topic, this blog post from Paul Wheatley is well worth reading: A valediction for validation?

  • Remember that the preservation actions that you carry out need to be chosen with an eye on user needs. Current and future users and use cases for the digital content should help inform your decisions with regard to preservation approach.

  • Communicate your needs (and the needs of the content you are preserving) to senior management. Some of the actions within this section of RAM can be quite time consuming and may require additional resource, knowledge or skills. Having a clear picture of what you are trying to achieve and why will help with making the case for this work.

  • Adopt a suitable metadata standard (e.g. PREMIS) to enable key information about any preservation actions you take to be fully captured.


Helpful resourcesRAMSignpostBackground


Case studiesRAMCaseBackground

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Level Up - Bitstream Preservation

Introduction

This section describes perhaps one of the highest priority areas of the service level capabilities of RAM. As a minimum an organization carrying out digital preservation needs to ensure that they can maintain an authentic and accurate copy of the digital content that they are preserving and can demonstrate that this is the case.

Find someone who works for an organization that is similar to yours and ask what they are doing. There are some really wildly different approaches out there, so take the time to understand why they are doing what they are doing rather than just what they are doing.” - Hania Smerecka, Lloyds Banking Group


Tips

  • It is important to gain an understanding of the different risks you are trying to mitigate against with your bitstream preservation activities and storage architecture - you can then put appropriate steps in place to reduce the likelihood of problems occuring.

  • Do not be afraid to ask questions of third parties who provide your storage services, but do also bear in mind that your service provider may be using services from another third party provider. It could may take a little bit of effort to fully understand how your digital content is being stored.

  • If you outsource storage, you may have a lack of control over bitstream preservation and how it is carried out. Can you trust that the service provider will do it well? Remember that you can also take some steps to mitigate bitstream preservation risks yourself - you may be able to generate and retain your own checksums for your preserved content and run checks periodically.

  • Do not be afraid to ask for help if you are not a storage expert (many of us aren’t!) - find experts in your own organization and ask them questions.

  • Think carefully about which staff should have permissions to work with preserved content. If you have a digital preservation system there may be certain types of user role provided by default, but these may not meet all of your needs. Take care to map out the roles and permissions that your organization will need. Planning this at an early stage will save having to back pedal later on. Speaking to other organizations to find out how they do this (and most importantly why they chose to do it a certain way) is invaluable.

  • Document the different user access profiles and ensure these are reviewed periodically.

  • Take advantage of user groups and community discussion forums. There are likely to be others in the digital preservation community who are using similar services or solutions to you and it may be helpful to talk to them and compare notes.


Helpful resources

  • A risk driven approach to Bitstream Preservation - this Technology Watch Guidance Note from Paul Wheatley describes a risk based approach to storage for digital preservation. 

  • Which Checksum Algorithm should I use? - this Technology Watch Guidance Note by Matthew Addis doesn’t just answer the question in the title, it also includes a great overview of checksums and their use in digital preservation. 

  • NDSA Fixity Survey 2021 - a report on the second fixity survey carried out by the NDSA, it summarizes responses from 100+ practitioners on how they use fixity information to help manage their digital collections and provides a really useful set of information to benchmark your own practices against. 

  • Tool demos within the Digital Preservation Handbook - for example those that can be used to create and verify checksums - Checksum by Corz, Fixity Pro and CSV Validator (which is used alongside DROID)

  • Digital Preservation Storage Criteria - a list of criteria, or design attributes, for storage that supports the work of digital preservation. It may be possible to incorporate criteria into tender or contract documents to lead to a clearer understanding of your needs and a more suitable solution.

  • Toward environmentally sustainable preservation - an article by Keith L Pendergrass, Walker Sampson, Tessa Walsh, and Laura Alagna which includes helpful suggestions on how to minimize the environmental impact of digital preservation.

  • COPTR - a helpful reference for tools that can be used to support activities around storage and file fixity.

  • Digital Asset Registers – a section of the Novice to Know-How training, which gives advice on how to create a Digital Asset Register (DAR)


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Level Up - Acquisition, Transfer and Ingest

Introduction

This is one of the more challenging sections of DPC RAM. There are lots of activities that come under this section and the work involved may multiply where an organization is handling the acquisition and ingest of many different streams of content. 

It is key to engage with depositors as early as possible - proactively contact them with guidelines and advice. This can be a challenge, but it is something we should try our best to do as it makes everything so much easier from there onwards.” - Silvia Gallotti, London School of Economics and Political Science


Tips

  • Consider carrying out a RAM assessment for different types of content separately. For example, you may be well advanced in acquiring and ingesting digitized content but may not be so far forward with web archives. Remember that you can use RAM however you like to get the most value out of it.

  • Finding out how others tackle acquisition, transfer and ingest can be incredibly helpful. Some organizations have published parts of their procedures and workflows and these may be helpful to consult. See the links under helpful resources below.

  • When documenting workflows (such as the ingest process) it is helpful to focus not just on how to do something, but also why. Letting people know why you are doing something a certain way will create a better understanding of the process and ensure people don’t take shortcuts. Equally useful is documenting why you are not doing certain things. This will help current and future users of the documentation understand the decision processes that have been made.

  • Creating a checklist to document and manage your ingest process might be a helpful step. This is particularly the case if it involves a series of manual steps that should be done in the right order, or if several people are involved in doing this work. Using a checklist helps to ensure that the task is done in the same way each time and that nothing is missed out. A simple ingest checklist may include use of write blockers, running virus checks, copying files to preservation storage, using checksums to verify that transfer has happened without error and other tasks as appropriate.

  • Documentation shouldn’t be a ‘write and forget’ process - documentation should be reviewed and checked regularly to ensure it remains accurate.

  • Remember that a robust ingest workflow for one set of content may not work for every collection you need to ingest. Different collections invariably bring different challenges and you need to be prepared to continue to develop and enhance your workflows accordingly.

  • Try to engage and communicate with donors, depositors and record creators as early as possible. You may be able to influence how the digital content is created, documented and managed before transfer and increase the chances of a successful ingest. Guidance you might be able to provide could include information about what types of records to transfer and what documentation and metadata is needed.

  • Keep metadata requirements simple - don’t let this be a barrier or bottleneck in your workflow. If you have an access system that can facilitate full text search, it may not be such  a problem if all metadata fields are not completed.


Helpful resources

  • Novice to Know-how course - this online course covers acquisition and ingest alongside other parts of the digital preservation workflow. If you don’t want to sign up for the Novice to Know-how course, you can download the course content here.

  • Digital preservation workflows - The National Archives UK have published a set of exemplar workflows for processing digital content. This includes workflows for ‘Select and transfer’ and ‘Ingest’,

  • Aus Preserves Ingest and Pre-ingest training modules - these training resources are available to download in full, including slide decks, participant handbooks and workbooks. The module on packaging digital content for transfer and ingest using Bagger may be of particular interest..

  • DPC Workflow webinars - look out for the DPC’s workflow webinar series where we provide a platform for the community to showcase their own workflows. These may cover any aspect of digital preservation but frequently touch on the ingest process. 2022 event recordings can be found here.

  • Community Owned Workflows (COW) - a forum for sharing your digital preservation workflows with others in the digipres community…and of course for viewing workflows that others have added. 

  • EDRMS Preservation Toolkit - advice and guidance on the preservation of records held within an Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) or other record keeping system

  • Community Owned digital Preservation Tool Registry (COPTR) - looking for a particular tool to try out to fulfill a particular task? This tool registry allows you to find out more about the tools others in the community are using to carry out common digital preservation tasks, for example at acquisition or ingest.

  • Tool demos within the Digital Preservation Handbook - for example DROID, Teracopy, Fixity Pro and other tools that may be a helpful addition to your ingest process.

  • Born Digital: Guidance for Donors, Dealers, and Archival Repositories - chapter 4 of this CLIR Publication covers the key stages in acquiring digital materials and is particularly helpful.

  • OSSArcFlow Guide to Documenting Born-Digital Archival Workflows - this guide is not just about documentation - it also helpfully describes 12 common steps in born digital workflows, including implementation recommendations and suggested open source tools that could be used.

  • Assessment and Appraisal Policy from the Archaeology Data Service - this is a helpful example of how one organization tackles the assessment and appraisal of digital content that is received from depositors. It includes details of the various checks that are carried out to ensure the content is suitable for ingest into the digital archive.

  • Digital preservation requirements for procuring IT systems- a helpful set of digital preservation principles and requirements that could be fed into system procurement of any IT system that may contain records for retention beyond the life of the system itself.

  • Tool Selection Factors – this resource from the Digital Archival transfer, iNgest, and packaging Group (DANNNG) provides structure around factors to consider when evaluating tools for digital archival and preservation workflows.

  • Disk Imaging Decision Factors – useful advice on “disk imaging and the decisions that factor into format selection, creation, handling, and retention” from the Digital Archival transfer, iNgest, and packaging Group – DANNNG).

  • Guide to archiving digital records for volunteer and community groups (2023) – produced by the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI), it includes advice to volunteer, grassroots, and community groups preparing materials for deposit in a trusted digital repository.


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