A record can be defined as "information created, received, and maintained as evidence and as an asset by an organization or person, in pursuit of legal obligations or in the transaction of business". (ISO 15489-1:2016) 

The term ‘record’ is commonly used in government, business, and archival settings while other domains often make use of other terms. Note that a recently published British Standard BS 10025:2021 (Code of practice for the management of records) has been written in a way which enables the reader to use whichever terms work best for them and their organisation to describe what they produce, receive and accumulate – whether that is 'data', 'documents', 'information' or 'records' (or a combination of these and other related terms). 

To ensure that records can be properly understood once removed from an EDRMS it is necessary to capture not only the information communicated as their content (often recorded in binary formats), but also the context of the transactions that created them and their relationships with other records, as well as the structure used to present information to users.   

For the sake of consistency this document uses the term ‘record’ to refer to the combination of  content, contextual and structural information held within a record keeping system identified as needing to be preserved. 

A record typically comprises:

• record content, for example:

  • Minutes from a meeting recorded in a Microsoft Word document

  • A technical report published as a PDF

  • A presentation recorded as a digital video

• record context, for example:

  • Who created a record?

  • Which business process created the record?

  • How does the record relate to other records or information?

• record structure, for example:

  • Which software created the record?

  • In what format was the record created?

  • How was it presented to users?

Contextual and structural information about records are usually recorded as metadata although it can often be difficult to capture from systems lacking sophisticated export functionality. Record metadata, may include:

• Descriptive (e.g. title, description, creator, creation date)

• Rights (e.g permissions, intellectual property)

• Technical (e.g. format, filename, size)

• Administrative (e.g. retention period, disposition date, audit logs)

To be trusted, a record must have the following characteristics:

• Authenticity: The record is what it purports to be, was created or sent by who purports to have done so, and was created or sent when it purports to have been.

• Reliability: The contents of the record can be trusted as a full and accurate representation of the facts to which they attest. 

• Integrity: The record is complete and unaltered. Any authorised additions or annotations are explicitly indicated and traceable.

• Usability: The record can be located, retrieved and presented in a timely manner. It should be linked to any related records including groupings or aggregations of records.

In many cases, an organization must ensure these characteristics are maintained for as long as the record exists. This brings particular challenges where the lifespan of the record is longer than that of the system in which it was stored.

Some records can be disposed of after a few years have passed but others have much longer retention periods and some must be retained indefinitely as archives. How these records (and their characteristics) can be effectively captured and preserved for the long term is a challenge faced by many organisations.

Scope

The EDMRS Preservation Toolkit relates to the preservation of digital records that are held in record keeping systems such as Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS). 

For the purposes of this resource, record keeping systems are defined as the manual or automated applications, policies and processes implemented to capture, organize, and categorize records. Record keeping systems support the management, access, retrieval, use, and disposition of records. They include both EDRMS and document-centric collaboration platforms such as Sharepoint, Office365 and Google Drive. There are many other systems in use within organizations that store records, for example, systems used to store Financial or Human Resources records. This resource hasn’t been created with these systems in mind, but it is anticipated that some of the advice may be more broadly applicable.

The advice within this guide applies equally to current systems in use, legacy systems that are falling out of use, and systems that are being procured for the future. Whichever stage of this lifecycle your document or records management system is in, if it contains records that need to be maintained for the long term, there are preservation considerations that should be addressed.

A record keeping system tends to facilitate the storage and use of current records. Though many of the features of a record keeping system overlap with those you might expect to find in a digital preservation system, they typically don’t support all the functionality that you would expect to find within a digital archive (for example, active monitoring of checksums and the migration of files into new formats for preservation and/or access).

This resource discusses several different approaches to the challenges of preserving records from a record keeping system.

1. 1. Transfer records to a digital archive

   2. Emulate the system or application that holds the records

   3. Leave in current system and manage ‘in situ’

   4. Migrate records to a new record keeping system

Generic advice on how to approach the challenge of preserving records and make a decision on preservation approach is included within this toolkit but detailed instructions on how to carry out the preservation actions on a particular system are out of scope.

A presentation by James Doig from the National Archives of Australia at the DPC’s EDRMS Briefing Day in May 2021 gives a good introduction and overview to the topic of the preservation of record keeping systems, particularly with regard to government record keeping and the challenges we face (Members login to view recording).

Preservation Across the Digital Continuum: The National Archives of Australia’s Experience With EDRMS Preservation (transcript available here) - James Doig (National Archives of Australia) 

Audience

Many different organizations can be charged with the task of preserving records. The advice within this resource is intended to be broad enough to be applicable to any type or size of organization faced with this challenge whether they are a national archive, a business archive or a local record office and whether they are responsible for preserving records from a wide range of external sources or their own internal record keeping system/s.

The challenge of preserving records is a global one. The issues and solutions are broadly the same across geographic borders but it should be noted that different record keeping practices (and in some cases terminology) may be in place. 

This resource is aimed at:

• Those involved in managing records

• Those involved in preserving records

• Those involved in developing relevant policies and procedures

• Those managing and overseeing relevant projects and services

• Those involved in supporting relevant systems and software

• Those involved in procuring relevant systems and software or developing business requirements

The toolkit assumes some knowledge of basic digital preservation concepts. The Digital Preservation Handbook provides a good introduction to digital preservation and a helpful glossary of terms.

This toolkit provides advice and guidance on the preservation of records held within an Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) or other record keeping system. As there are numerous different technologies in use and ways of working, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to this challenge. This guide is therefore not intended to be prescriptive, but instead provides general information and guidance on the areas that should be considered in order to define an effective approach to this challenge.  This toolkit will: flag up some of the key challenges that you may face signpost some of the things you should consider provide you with the questions that you need to ask within your own organisation map-out a process for moving forward provide examples of how others have tackled the challenge The toolkit is illustrated with case studies, demonstrating real-life applications of the guidance and principles, and signposts other useful sources of information to help inform your work. Please contact us if you have a relevant case study you would be happy to share.

The EDRMS Preservation Toolkit was created by the DPC EDRMS Preservation Task Force who came together in 2020-2021 to share their knowledge and experience on this topic. Further information on the task force and how this resource was created can be found here.

The EDRMS Preservation Task Force was established by the DPC as a result of a digital preservation project with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and our thanks go to them for supporting this work.

Computational access is a term that is mentioned with increasing frequency by those in the digital preservation community. Many practitioners are aware it might be helpful to them (and indeed to their users) but do not have an understanding of what exactly it entails, how it is best applied and perhaps most importantly, where to start. This guide has been created to provide an introduction to this topic and to help the community move forward in applying computational access techniques.

This guide was created collaboratively in 2022 by Leontien Talboom of University College London alongside the DPC and a panel of community experts. Further information about the creation of this guide can be found here.

Our thanks go to the Software Sustainability Institute who funded elements of this work.

Previous versions of DPC Rapid Assessment Model are available below:

Version 1

Version 1 (2019) - The DPC Rapid Assessment Model - the full model and worksheet

The first version of DPC RAM was officially launched in September 2019 in the Lightning Talks session of the iPRES conference in Amsterdam and with the following blog post: Introducing the DPC RAM

Version 1 translations:

• Français - Grille d'évaluation rapide (French)
• 日本語 - デジタル保存連合 ラピッド・アセスメントモデル (Japanese)
• Português - Modelo de avaliação rápida (Portuguese)

 Version 2

Version 2 (2021) - The DPC Rapid Assessment Model - the full model and worksheet

Version 2 of RAM was released in March 2021. A summary of some of the changes that were made can be found in the following blog post: DPC RAM (version 2) - what has changed and why?

Version 2 translations:

• 简体中文 - 数字保存联盟快速评估模型（Simplified Chinese)

• 繁體中文 - 數位保存聯盟快速評估模型 (Traditional Chinese)

• Nederlands - Het Rapid Assessment Model (Dutch)

• Espanol - Modelo de Evaluación Rápida (Spanish) /  DPC RAM hoja de trabajo

• Français  - Grille d'évaluation rapide (French)

• Italiano - Il modello di valutazione rapida (Italian)

• Portuguesa - Modelo de Avaliação Rápida (Portuguese)

• 日本 - デジタル保存連合 ラピッド・アセスメントモデル (Japanese) 

• Türkçe - Sayısal Koruma Koalisyonu Hızlı Değerlendirme Modeli ve Analiz Cetveli  (Turkish)

The following tools provide detailed guidance on advancing or refreshing digital preservation capabilities within an organisation. Please note that elements of some of these resources are available to members only, so please log in to access them.

	DPC Rapid Assessment Model Use this to benchmark your digital preservation maturity and inform planning and prioritisation of future preservation activities
	Digital Preservation Policy Toolkit Use this to help develop a new or revised digital preservation policy
	Digital Preservation Business Case Toolkit Use this to discover additional resources to enhance your procurement experience
	Digital Preservation Procurement Toolkit Use this to help deliver a successful procurement of third party digital preservation services or infrastructure
	EDRMS Preservation Toolkit Use this to get guidance on the areas that should be considered in order to define an effective approach to this challenge.
	Computational Access: A beginner's guide  Use this to gain an understanding of computational access techniques and approaches and to find out how to get started
	Digital Preservation Documentation: a guide Use this for advice on how to create and manage high quality documentation.
	Digital Asset Register Toolkit Use this for practical guidance on how to build, maintain, and use a Digital Asset Register (DAR)
	Community Archives Digital Preservation Toolkit Use this if you are a Community Group with digital content or collections you would like to preserve for long term use and access.
	Carbon Footprint Toolkit Use this for support on understanding, measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of digital preservation activities.

Use this to help deliver a successful procurement of third party digital preservation services or infrastructure

This Toolkit does not aim to provide a guide to procurement itself, but instead to provide advice on how to get the best result possible out of a procurement process with a minimum of pain. It has been designed primarily for DPC Members who are procuring services, but it will also provide benefits to DPC Supporters by improving communication, clarity and efficiency throughout a procurement. Consultation with both DPC Members and DPC Supporters suggests that both parties have much to gain if the taxing process of procurement can be improved.

Version 2 of this Toolkit, launched May 2022, includes revisions and a new resource on Core requirements for a digital preservation system.

Please note that the Lessons Learned section is available to DPC members only, who should login to use it.

	Introduction A foreword and introduction to this Toolkit, with thoughts on future development Use this to find out more about the toolkit and how to apply it.
	Lessons learned in digital preservation procurement DPC Members only A detailed guide providing lessons learned on procurement based on DPC Members experiences. Use this to focus your procurement process on choosing the right solution, and avoiding common pitfalls.
	Common requirements structure for preservation system procurement A structure for describing preservation system requirements in a standardized manner. Use this to organize and communicate your requirements clearly. Avoid reinventing the wheel.
	Core requirements for a digital preservation system 10 high-level functional requirements for a digital preservation system Consider this as a starting point for developing your own requirements, or as a tool for communicating DP requirements to non-DP staff.
	Digital preservation requirements for procuring IT systems Requirements for procuring an IT system that may contain records for rentention beyond the life of the system Use this to prevent new IT systems from creating digital preservation problems of the future
	Advice from DPC Supporters Recordings and write-ups of our events with DPC Supporter organizations, including a top ten list of tips for success. Use these resources to get a feel for the different offerings, outlook and ways of working of key vendors - essential research.
	Further resources A list of additional guidance materials relating to procurement. Use this as a reference point for further reading on the subject.

The Core requirements for a digital preservation system were developed in conjunction with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

The Digital Preservation Policy Toolkit was collated by Paul Wheatley, and was the built on the wealth of knowledge offered by DPC Members and Supporters - many thanks to them for their generous contributions to this toolkit. 

Thanks to Tom Woolley for the illustrations.

Please note that the "Lessons Learned in digipres procurement section is made available for DPC Members only and is not CC-BY-NC.

This Toolkit provides information to assist in the construction of a digital preservation policy. It will help guide you from initial research and preparation phases, to drafting your policy, gathering feedback and, finally, polishing and communicating the finished policy. 

This Toolkit is for anyone who would like to create a policy focused on digital preservation. It is targeted at all those working with digital content who have chosen to, or are required to, create a policy to support digital preservation activities.

There is no one-size-fits-all formula for writing a digital preservation policy. How you write your policy will depend on your own context and will need to take account of the intended audience and purpose, the drivers within your organization and its digital preservation maturity. This Toolkit seeks to guide you through a process which will help you to understand this organizational context, and then communicate a policy that is fully relevant to it.

This Toolkit builds on the work of numerous members of the digital preservation community and brings together many good examples of digital preservation policy. Our thanks go to all those who make their preservation policies publicly available - we can all learn from seeing how others have tackled this challenge.

	Introduction An overview and introduction to preservation policies and this toolkit. Use this to find out more about the toolkit and how to apply it.
	What makes a good digital preservation policy? Experience pooled from within the DPC on what makes a good (and bad) policy. Use this to set off in the right direction for creating your new policy.
	Step-by-step-guide to building a preservation policy A step by step guide to the researching, drafting, establishing and sustaining a preservation policy. Use this to plan out how you will develop and establish your new policy.
	Template for building a preservation policy A detailed guide for building a preservation policy, with numerous references to existing policies. Use this to establish the structure of your policy and to guide the development of its content.
	Reviewing your policy Information to guide future work on keeping your policy current and relevant. Use this to find out how to keep your preservation policy up-to-date.
	University of Bristol Case Study An exemplar policy that was developed alongside this Toolkit, and a details of how it was created. Use this to learn from the experiences of another organisation.
	Further resources A list of additional guidance materials relating to preservation policies. Use this as a reference point for further reading on the subject.

This is version 2 of the Digital Preservation Policy Toolkit (released March 2023). The initial creation of this toolkit was a collaborative exercise involving a booksprint and many enthusiastic individuals. Thank you to all of those who were involved! Read more and find out about how the toolkit was created here.

Do contact us with comments and feedback to help us improve this toolkit.

This Toolkit provides information to assist in the construction of a business case for resourcing digital preservation activity.

The first version of the Business Case Toolkit was created in a 3 day workshop in 2013, that followed the format of a Book Sprint and was part of the SPRUCE Project. A second book sprint in 2022 created a brand new version of the Toolkit released in 2023.

	Introduction to the Business Case Toolkit An overview and introduction to business cases and this toolkit. Use this to find out more about the toolkit and how to apply it.
	What makes a good digital preservation business case? Experience pooled from within the DPC on what makes a good policy.  Use this to avoid obvious pitfalls and take advantage of approaches that have been successful for other DPC Members.
	Understand your digital preservation readiness Understanding the context and preparations that are needed before producing a business case. Use this to establish the best foundation for your business case.
	Step-by-step-guide to building a business case An outline of the main steps to follow in constructing your business case including research, drafting, validation and delivery. Use this to plan out how you will develop your proposal.
	Template for building a business case An exploration of the detail that makes up an evidenced and convincing business case. Use this to guide the development of the content of your proposal.
	Example benefits and risks for typical digital preservation business cases Motivations for 4 common business case targets. Use this to build a convincing and realistic proposal.
	Business case hints and tips A summary of hints and tips on writing business cases and selling your proposal to your organization. Use this to ensure you create a positive and convincing business case.
	Further resources on business cases A list of additional guidance materials relating to business cases. Use this as a reference point for further reading on the subject.

Thanks go out to the DPC Members, Supporters and Staff who contributed to version 2.0 of the Toolkit: Lydia Bennett, Iron Mountain - Neil Grindley - Jisc, Edith Halvarsson - Bodleian Libraries, Sharon McMeekin - Digital Preservation Coalition, Sarah Middleton - Digital Preservation Coalition, Michael Popham - Digital Preservation Coalition, Angela Puggioni - Digital Preservation Coalition, Sean Rippington - University of St Andrews Library, Paul Wheatley - Digital Preservation Coalition 

Thanks to Tom Woolley for the illustrations.

The DPC’s Rapid Assessment Model is a helpful tool for assessing an organization’s maturity with digital preservation. It allows you to consider both where you are currently and where you would like to be, and highlight gaps in your current digital preservation capacity. 

This resource is designed to help you work out how to address those gaps and move up the levels of RAM. For each of the 11 sections of RAM there are helpful tips, links to useful resources and case studies from others who have already tackled some of these challenges.

If there are resources that have been helpful for you that aren’t included here, do contact us and let us know. Similarly, if you would like to share your own case study about how you have tackled a specific area covered by DPC RAM we would love to hear from you. We have a number of topics we are particularly keen to hear about and are actively looking for community members to blog for us.

Select a section of DPC RAM to find tips, resources and case studies to help you move forward (DPC Members please login to the website to access this resource):

RAM Section	Tips	Resources	Case Studies
A - Organizational viability Governance, organizational structure, staffing and resourcing of digital preservation activities.
B - Policy and strategy Policies, strategies, and procedures which govern the operation and management of the digital archive.
C - Legal and ethical Management of legal rights and responsibilities, compliance with relevant regulation and adherence to ethical codes related to acquiring, preserving and providing access to digital content.
D - IT capability Information Technology capabilities for supporting digital preservation activities.
E - Continuous improvement Processes for the assessment of current digital preservation capabilities, the definition of goals and the monitoring of progress.
F - Community Engagement with and contribution to the wider digital preservation community.
G - Acquisition, transfer and ingest Processes to acquire or transfer content and ingest it into a digital archive.
H - Bitstream preservation Processes to ensure the storage and integrity of digital content to be preserved.
I - Content preservation Processes to preserve the meaning of the digital content and ensure its continued accessibility and usability over time.
J - Metadata management Processes to create and maintain sufficient metadata to support preservation, discovery and use of preserved digital content.
K - Discovery and access Processes to enable discovery of digital content and provide access for users.

This companion resource to DPC RAM was inspired by two ‘RAM Jam’ events hosted in 2021 and 2022 during which DPC Members shared experiences, knowledge and tips on how they had moved forward with different sections of RAM. Many of the tips and links shared, as well as the quotes included in this resource originated from these events.