This section provides an overview and introduction to DARs and how they can be used. Use this to find out what DARs are and why you might want one.

What is a Digital Asset Register?

A DAR is a tool for gathering information about digital content to support an understanding of the digital content held by an organization, and to facilitate efficient management of its preservation. It will capture information such as a brief description of digital content, where content is stored, its size, what formats are included, and who holds intellectual property rights. A DAR might take the form of a spreadsheet, a database, or another format that is useful for practitioners.

A DAR provides an overarching view of digital content that helps practitioners to identify gaps, overlap, related risks, and other information useful to making preservation decisions and managing content over time. The information held in a DAR can also be useful when making the case for digital preservation, as it allows the generation of key statistics about the content.

A DAR, as a high-level summary used for managing content, exists at one end of the spectrum of the information you will need to help manage digital content. At the other end of the spectrum, you may look to maintain item level metadata in what can be referred to as “File Manifests”. These capture detailed metadata about individual files that can include the file’s name, location, size, and format.

Why Build a Digital Asset Register?

Building a DAR can bring many benefits in relation to the management of digital content. By its nature, digital content is ephemeral. There is no easily identifiable “original” in the way there can be for physical, analogue records. Digital files contain binary information on storage media that is easy to replicate and requires software and hardware to be able to interpret it. To help manage this less tangible content, we need new ways to record information about what we have, where it is stored, and what we need to do to preserve it over time.

With these issues in mind, perhaps the primary benefit of a DAR is the ability to gain intellectual control of digital content held by your organization. Carrying out a survey to gather the information for your DAR will allow a unique opportunity to “get to know'' your digital content. You will get a better “big picture” understanding of the landscape of your digital content, whilst also gathering useful data on content types, file formats, intellectual property rights, risks, and more.

It also allows you to capture a view of your digital content in a “non-systems centric” way. This means bringing together information by intellectual grouping, e.g. by accession, collection, or series, rather than capturing simple information such as how many files are held in a particular storage area, repository, or digital asset management system.

Building a DAR can also facilitate better management of digital content by:

• Capturing important information in one place that might otherwise be scattered across accession records, paper documentation, catalogues, or not captured at all.

• Acting as a finding aid for content not yet fully processed.

• Providing information needed to plan and prioritize ingest and processing of digital content.

• Facilitating retention decisions and processes.

• Establishing clear responsibilities for the management and preservation of digital content.

Building a DAR also brings a range of potential advocacy benefits, allowing engagement with a wide range of colleagues and providing a reason to discuss the importance of digital content and how it is managed. Due to its lack of physical presence, digital content can sometimes be “invisible” to those not working with them directly. The information and statistics that can be generated from a DAR can help to convey their extent. Ultimately, the resulting DAR can also help frame the digital content as an organizational asset, and the information it contains can be used to make the case for additional resources for digital preservation. Additionally, it provides a concrete reason to request the time and resources required to complete a full survey to assess the extent of your digital content. Without a defined and practical end product like a DAR, it can be difficult to persuade decision makers of the importance of this process.

Finally, you may wish to build a DAR as it is a recognized good practice activity that is recommended by a number of accreditation and bench-marking processes. In the UK, a DAR is a useful tool to help support Archive Service Accreditation, providing information needed for the application, as well as being a demonstration of robust management practices. The development and use of a DAR is also mentioned in the DPC’s Rapid Assessment Model (DPC RAM), and building your own will aid in leveling-up your digital preservation capabilities. These requirements can also, in turn, feed into advocacy activities, showing the importance of a DAR and how its development and use will reflect well on the organization’s digital preservation activities.

This Toolkit aims to offer practical guidance on how to build, maintain, and use a Digital Asset Register (DAR). It starts by taking you through what a DAR is, why you may wish to build one, and who this toolkit is aimed at. Subsequent sections detail what makes a good DAR, a step-by-step guide to developing one, an example template, further details about information gathering, and using and updating your DAR.

This Toolkit is for anyone who would like to create a DAR to aid their digital preservation activities. It is targeted at practitioners who are working with digital resources and would like a method for gaining better intellectual control of their digital content. The Toolkit is primarily aimed at those developing a DAR for the first time, but it will also be useful for those wishing to review and enhance an existing one.

There is no one-size-fits-all formula for building a DAR. How you build it will depend on your own context and will need to take account of the types of content to be preserved, what it will be used for, and the wider organizational context. This Toolkit seeks to guide you through a process which will help you to understand what you need from your DAR and how to build and maintain a register that will meet those requirements.

This toolkit was developed by the Digital Preservation Coalition, with support and funding from The National Archives (UK). Much of the guidance included here was gathered from experienced digital preservation practitioners during a series of focus groups held in November 2023. Many thanks to all who participated in the focus groups, for all of the excellent information and advice provided, and to The National Archives (UK) for their continued generous support for the development of digital preservation good practice.

Accompanying the toolkit are two practical resources to help you build a digital asset register: a Word template for planning the development of your register, and an Excel template for an actual register. The register template also includes a dashboard that will provide summary statistics and graphs about the content described in it. Download these, and a PDF copy of the toolkit using the following links:

• Digital Asset Register Toolkit (PDF Version)
• Digital Asset Register Planning Template (.DOCX)
• Template for a Digital Asset Register (.XSLX)

	Introduction An overview and introduction to DARs and how they can be used. Use this to find out what DARs are and why you might want one.
	What Makes a Good Digital Asset Register? Information on what makes a good (and bad) DAR. Use this to understand key elements of good practice for creating your DAR.
	Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Digital Asset Register A step by step guide to designing, developing, using, and maintaining you DAR. Use this to plan out how you will build and manage your DAR.
	Template for Building a Digital Asset Register A detailed guide to a recommended structure for your DAR, including general tips and advice on format and storage. A list of optional additional headings that might be included is also available. Use this to help establish the structure and format of your DAR.
	More on Information Gathering Guidance on the information gathering methods you might use to gather the data for your DAR. This also includes a list example interview questions.  Use this to find out how to gather the necessary information to populate your DAR.
	Useful Resources A list of additional resources that can help with planning, building, and maintaining your DAR. Use this as a reference point for further reading on the subject.

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

Rapid Assessment Model (DPC RAM)

DPC's Rapid Assessment Model (version 3) (PDF) - This document includes introductory information about the history and structure of the model, details of how it should be used, and the model itself. The document also includes a RAM worksheet that can be printed out and used to carry out a RAM assessment.

DPC RAM assessment spreadsheet (XLSX) - This assessment spreadsheet can be used to record the results of an assessment using DPC RAM. As well as recording your assessment (current and target levels as well as additional context), it also provides visualizations of your results and a new tab which can be used to visualize results over time.

Forward plan template

DPC RAM Forward plan template (DOCX) - This template can be used to create a forward plan based on gaps identified by a RAM assessment. The template can be adapted and edited to suit individual needs.

Translations

Translations of DPC RAM and our other resources are carried out by volunteers within the community. Translations of the current version of DPC RAM will be added to this page as they are made available.

• 简体中文 / Chinese (Simplified)

• 繁體中文 / Chinese (Traditional)

• Français/ French

  • DPC RAM Tableur avec visuels v03 (XLSX)

• 日本語 / Japanese

• Türkçe / Turkish

• Brasileira / Brazilian Portuguese

  • DPC RAM Planilha de avaliação (XLSX)
  • DPC RAM Modelo plano de desenvolvimento (DOCX)

• Española / Spanish

• Nederlandse / Dutch

Translations of previous versions of DPC RAM are available. 

See our acknowledgements page for further details on our translators and information on how to contribute.

Changes from Version 2 to Version 3

This version of the Model shows key changes in Version 3 which have been highlighted in yellow.

Translations

Translations of DPC RAM and our other resources are carried out by volunteers within the community. Translations of the current version of DPC RAM will be added to this page as they are made available.

Translations of previous versions of DPC RAM are also available. 

See our acknowledgements page for further details on our translators and information on how to contribute.

Watch Introductory Video 

This video gives a 10 minute introduction to DPC RAM and includes information on what it is, why we created it and how to use it.

DPC Members are able to access summary information about RAM assessments received from the membership as a whole. 

Log in to the DPC website to view this information.

The DPC’s Rapid Assessment Model (DPC RAM) is a digital preservation maturity modelling tool that has been designed to enable rapid benchmarking of an organization’s digital preservation capability and facilitate continuous improvement over time. 

The DPC RAM model and a spreadsheet for recording and visualizing results can be downloaded here.

Further resources relating to DPC RAM include an introductory video explaining what the model is and how to use it, a 'Level up' resource which provides tips for moving forward with each section of RAM, an FAQ and benchmarking information for DPC Members, and further resources and case studies showing how RAM has been used in the digital preservation community.

	Introduction An introduction to DPC RAM. Watch this short video to find out more about DPC RAM and how to use it.
	Download DPC RAM Download RAM and associated resources. Get a copy of DPC RAM, a worksheet to enter your results and a template to use to create a forward plan. Translations of DPC RAM will also be available here.
	Level up with RAM How to level up with DPC RAM. Find a range of useful tips, resources and case studies to help you make progress with each of the sections of DPC RAM.
	FAQ for DPC Members  DPC Member questions answered. Find out how the DPC uses DPC RAM with its Members, what support you can get from us and what we do with the information you share with us.
	Benchmarking Compare your RAM assessment with other DPC Members (DPC Members only). Use these statistics and reports to see how your RAM assessment compares with other DPC Members.
	Further resources and case studies A list of additional resources and case studies relating to DPC RAM. Use this to find out how others have used DPC RAM.

This model was originally developed in conjunction with the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Do contact us with comments and feedback to help us improve DPC RAM.

This section of the guide provides information to help you create documentation, from understanding how things are done at your own organization, to selecting the right tool and creating illustrations.

• Understanding your own organization

• Tips for writing documentation

• Tools and platforms

• Templates and style guides

• Illustrations and diagrams

• Testing documentation

Understanding your own organization

Organizations create and manage their documentation in a number of different ways using a range of tools and platforms. Organizations may have particular processes in place that relate to documentation - for example around testing, communication, and sign off. It is important to find an approach that works for your own context and for that reason, there is some exploratory ground work that you should do to ensure that you approach the task in the right way.

• What digital preservation documentation already exists? It is likely that there is already some documentation within your organization. Find out what is out there already: Where is it? Who owns it? Is it up to date? What format is it in? Where are the gaps? Talk to colleagues to help answer these questions - there may be existing documentation that you don’t know about. Make sure to explain what types of materials can be covered by the term “documentation”. Colleagues may have their own resources that they do not realize fall into this category (for example informal checklists or ‘cheat sheets’ that document processes). 

• What is the process for creating documentation within your organization or department? Who needs to be involved? Is sign off or approval of the documentation required or encouraged? Having a formal procedure to follow can help ensure consistency and quality.

• Which tools, platforms, and file formats are used for creating documentation within your organization? Speak to colleagues about what works and doesn’t work and also find out how it is done in other departments - there may be different practices across your organization that you can learn from. 

• Are there documentation style guides or templates in place within your organization? You may be able to make use of these or adapt them to suit your own purposes.

Tips for writing documentation

• Take a flexible approach - be prepared to adapt your documentation as you go along in order to find a style that works for you and your intended audience.

• Try to get the basic structure of your documentation right before you start to fill in too many details - you may find it helpful to do this collaboratively or get feedback from colleagues at an early stage.

• A helpful tip from Write The Docs is to try to ensure your documentation is ‘skimmable’ - documentation can be long (often by necessity), and users are unlikely to want to read it all in a linear fashion. Having clear headings, a consistent style and keywords appearing as early on in paragraphs and list items as possible, will help a user quickly locate the section they are interested in.

• Your documentation should be easy to understand and interpret - try to write in ‘plain language’ where possible. See for example this guidance from New South Wales government. Also consider the accessibility of your documentation. There is a helpful guidance on writing accessible and inclusive content from the Australian Government.

• Consider the level of detail of your documentation - if documenting a process, typically it should describe what to do and how to do it. In some cases though, it might also be helpful to briefly describe why a process is being run or why a particular decision has been made. Justification for procedures can be useful in getting staff on board as they can see the rationale and benefit of the effort required. 

Tools and platforms for creating and providing access to documentation

There are many different tools and platforms that could be used to create and provide access to documentation and these all come with their own pros and cons. Establish what you have access to within your organization and consider what will best meet the needs of your audience. 

Some additional points to consider when deciding on a tool or methodology for creating and updating documentation:

• Who needs to be able to update documentation? One person or multiple people? If multiple people, how will this be managed?

• Is there a culture of printing documentation out in your organization? If so, can you use a platform that builds value into using the live (and therefore most up-to-date) version?

• How will you provide access to the documentation? Can you use a platform that displays all the available documentation in a logical and intuitive way, allowing a user to easily see all current versions of documentation and allowing for interlinking or cross-referencing between them?

• Do you need to make different elements of your documentation available for different audiences? Do you have a tool or platform that allows you to implement these access permissions?

• How frequently will your documentation need to be updated? If frequently, don’t put barriers in the way with the tools and platforms that are used (for example a process that requires documentation to be converted to pdf and uploaded somewhere after each update).

• Do previous versions of documentation need to be saved/retained? Either to be preserved as a record of what happened at a particular point in time, or to be able to roll back to a previous version where appropriate? If you have these needs, consider how the tools can support this. The section on updating and versioning documentation discusses this in a little more detail.

• How will you get your documentation out of the platform that it is created and/or hosted on? Plan for your documentation to outlive the platform or format it exists in. Your documentation may need to be preserved for the long term (see ‘Preserving Documentation’ section), and exit strategy should always be considered.

• Who owns the documentation? If you use a tool or platform (such as Google Drive) that assigns ownership of a document to a particular account holder, ensure a process is in place to retain access to this documentation should that individual leave the organization.  

As well as the tool or platform for creating and hosting documentation, you may also wish to employ a project management tool for helping to manage the process of maintaining the documentation. For example for tracking progress, keeping a record of issues or update requests and logging review dates. Focus group participants reported using a range of project management tools to aid the documentation process (for example Jira, Trello and asana).

Find out which tools some of our focus group participants use in our series of interviews. The table below provides an overview of some of the tools and platforms.

For further information about tools for documentation (and in particular, a really clear description of how to use tools such as GitHub and GitLab), take a look at this presentation from Nathan Tallman and Carly Dearborn. The whole presentation is worth watching, but if you are specifically interested in tools, watch from 16:12.

Templates and style guides

As discussed earlier in this guide, one of the characteristics of good documentation is consistency. Consistency of formatting, structure and language are all helpful in increasing usability, particularly with long documents or a large suite of documentation. Consistent use of a particular platform and/or file format is also helpful. A user will quickly become familiar with the style, format and conventions used and this will help them to retrieve the relevant information more efficiently. Some organizations use templates or style guides to help them to achieve this. A template can be useful, particularly in making sure that key navigational and structural elements (e.g. table of contents, page numbering) or information about document history (e.g. owner, creator, date of last update, date of review) are not forgotten.

Your organization may already have a template for documentation, either for your immediate department, a related department (e.g. IT), or a wider context. If your organization favors a particular project management approach or methodology, this may include templates and processes for documenting standard operating procedures. 

You may be interested in looking at the templates developed by the OSSArcFlow project. The Guide to Documenting Born-Digital Archival Workflows provides a template, including a legend for symbols and conventions used in the workflow diagrams that were created by project partners. 

Another useful tool is a style guide. This can be helpful in ensuring consistency in formatting and use of language. 

• Write the Docs has an extensive set of pages relevant to documentation style guides if you are interested in further reading on this topic. 

• The gov.uk style guide includes common sense advice on writing in clear and simple language (even when writing on quite specialist topics).

• The Australian Government also has a helpful style manual which includes (among other things) recommendations for grammar and punctuation and use of plain language.

Illustrations and diagrams

Documentation can be greatly enhanced with the addition of a screenshot or a clear and informative diagram. The presence of both images and text can be helpful where a variety of learning styles, preferences, and abilities are present within your target audience. Note, however, that a heavy reliance on graphical representations of workflows may not be appropriate for those with a visual impairment so do consider whether this information can be conveyed in an alternative way.

Screenshots are easy to create and incorporate into your documentation. They can really help with clarity - for example when describing how a tool should be configured it can be helpful to illustrate this with a screenshot of the relevant dialogue box. Note though that screenshots can become out of date quickly as the tools evolve, and excessive use can make documentation large and unwieldy. 

Diagrams can be particularly effective in helping to explain complex information, decisions or workflows. There are a number of tools available for creating effective diagrams and it can be helpful to look at examples from other organizations too.

Tools

The OSSArcFlow project provides some helpful advice on creating diagrams. The project team used LucidChart to create their workflow diagrams and also provided guidance on conventions to use to illustrate different elements within the workflow. See the OSSArcFlow Guide to Documenting Born-Digital Archival Workflows (page 38 to 41).

Several participants at the focus group meetings reported using Visio to document workflows - this is a useful tool that includes different conventions for different elements of the process. It was also noted that PowerPoint or Google Slides can be used to create simple and effective diagrams and this is sometimes a quick and easy way to get started.

There is further advice on creating diagrams within the Community Owned Workflows resource.

Whichever tool you choose to use to create diagrams, there are some problems and pitfalls to watch out for. Avoid overcrowded diagrams with illegible text. A balance needs to be struck between the amount of information included and the clarity and legibility of the end product. 

Examples

Here are some good sources of examples that you can look at for inspiration:

• OSSArcFlow project - a series of ‘as is’ workflows were created as part of this project and can be viewed here. These workflows were all created using similar tools and conventions.

• Community Owned Workflows (COW) - there are a range of workflow diagrams shared on the COW wiki pages - see for example the diagrams created for the Cloud-based preservation and access workflow for MXF and MPG video from the Wellcome Collection.

Testing documentation

Testing documentation is a great way of getting feedback from your target audience. Let your audience see the documentation that has been created. Ask them if it is clear and understandable. See if they can follow it or if they find any gaps. 

• One focus group member described how they tested their documentation with a colleague in the IT department. Though digital preservation wasn’t a part of their role, IT would need to step in and help if there was a system problem and digital preservation staff were unavailable. Having an IT colleague work through the documentation was really helpful in ensuring that it was clear and gave confidence to both parties that problems could be resolved in an emergency. 

• Another participant tested documentation in an informal way with other members of the Archives team. Doing this helped build up the confidence and awareness of other staff members about digital preservation activities. 

This section of the guide answers some of the key questions around documentation:

• What should be documented?

• Why should we document?

• Who is it for?

What should be documented?

There is no definitive list of the types of documentation that an organization needs in order to carry out its digital preservation activities, though if you are considering certification there may be a list of documentation that is required as evidence (see for example the CoreTrustSeal Trustworthy Digital Repositories Requirements 2023-2025 which includes details of suggested supporting evidence that could be submitted). 

The list below is not exhaustive, but provides a range of examples mentioned by participants of our focus groups. Some of these have been grouped under different parts of the digital preservation workflow.

• Acquisition transfer and ingest - for example, acquisition, transfer or deposit procedures, pre-ingest and ingest procedures, procedures to handle specific sorts of media carriers, normalization procedures, guidance on appraisal and selection of content.

• Bitstream preservation - for example, integrity checking procedures, procedures for copying or moving files, details of storage locations used.

• Content preservation - for example, technology/preservation watch review process, and detailed instructions on tools and processes for preservation actions.

• Metadata management - for example, guidance on metadata creation, documentation of metadata standards and controlled vocabularies in use.

• Discovery and access - for example, procedures for managing and providing access to digital content.

Documentation may additionally include staff roles and responsibilities around digital preservation, technical details on system integrations, systems architecture, asset registers for servers and storage, access procedures for digital preservation/computer forensics facilities, lists of hardware and software available in-house, exit strategy and service level agreements with third parties.

Why should we document? 

Some of the benefits (and risks) related to documentation are summarized below. Note also that in our interviews with selected focus group participants you can find about why documentation is important for them and their organizations (read their answers here). 

Consistency

Good documentation is important for ensuring that digital preservation processes are carried out consistently no matter who is doing it and at what point in time. It ensures that the workflows are repeatable and reproducible and that processes are standardized within an organization.

Training and knowledge management

Good documentation is important for supporting staff to carry out digital preservation procedures. Whether you have new staff who need to access documentation as part of their training, or whether you want to increase levels of confidence in digital preservation procedures for existing staff members, documentation is key to sharing this knowledge. 

To communicate with others

Good documentation is an important tool for a range of advocacy and knowledge sharing activities, both internal and external. There may be situations (beyond training staff) where it is helpful to share information about processes with others, for example: 

• to demonstrate to donors and depositors that good practice is being followed.

• to show users of the digital content how authenticity is maintained over time.

• to share knowledge and compare processes with other organizations (the OSSArcFlow project is a good example of this).

• to discuss digital preservation activities with internal stakeholders from different departments and help them understand their responsibilities in the overall process. 

Having thorough documentation of operations makes it easier to share and communicate workflows and processes.

To support continuous improvement

Good quality documentation enables the evaluation and analysis of processes and procedures, both by those working within the organization, and by third parties if appropriate. Documentation allows for the identification of gaps or operational bottlenecks and could lead to further improvements. Documentation opens up opportunities for processes to be more easily analyzed. Note that the OSSArcFlow project provides an excellent example of how this has worked in practice. It was noted that the process of creating the documentation itself was important in helping the project partners to recognize and articulate their pain points, and to then take steps toward addressing those issues.

To support certification or accreditation

Good documentation is an essential requirement for an organization applying for certification or accreditation. Depending on the scheme or standard that is being applied for, documentation will be required as evidence to demonstrate that digital preservation is being carried out to an appropriate standard.

For transparency and authenticity

Being able to prove the authenticity of preserved content is essential in digital preservation. Being open and transparent about what has happened to that preserved content is important. Good documentation supports this by ensuring the chain of custody and provenance is captured and a historic understanding of processes and working practices is available in the future. It will allow future custodians and users to understand the workflows, actions and decisions that were taken at different points in time, thus enabling them to assess the trustworthiness of the preserved information.

To support internal planning and management

Good documentation supports the effective management of digital preservation activities in many ways. It can be used to support requests for resourcing, to manage evolving needs and aid forward planning, to assign clear roles and responsibilities to staff, to better understand risks and mitigate them and to better understand the impact of organizational changes.

Finding the right balance…

Remember that it is important to find the right balance around documentation. Whilst noting the benefits of documentation, there are also potential risks around creating too much documentation or having inaccurate or out-of-date documentation. Documentation takes time and effort to create and maintain and that of course means less time spent on other activities. It is important to understand the commitment and ensure there is time set aside to keep documentation up to date and relevant. 

Ensure also that the presence of documentation doesn’t lead to a stagnation of processes and procedures. Though stability is a good thing, in a discipline like digital preservation it is important there is also space for new ideas and innovation. Don’t stick to doing the same out-dated process simply because that is what the documentation says you should do. There should be a process for reviewing and evolving practices where appropriate and of course to ensure that documentation is also updated accordingly.

Who is it for?

When creating any form of documentation it is important to consider who you are creating it for and why they might need to access it. There will be some variation depending on your organizational context. The table below defines some of the key audiences to consider. 

Points to note:

• Do not assume that you need to write your documentation to meet the needs of all of these audiences, but do carefully consider which you are serving, as this will impact decisions about the level of detail, format, language and platform you use when creating and providing access to the documentation.

• Remember to consider future audiences as well as those who will need to access the documentation now.

• Note that the level of digital preservation knowledge of your readers is likely to vary depending on the specific audiences you have in mind for the documentation. Ensure you adjust the content as appropriate. 

As a community, we know much about preserving records, but we may not automatically apply this knowledge to our own documentation. Consider which digital preservation documentation should be preserved for the long term. You may already have a retention schedule within your organization that covers procedural documents, but digital preservation documentation may need to be retained and managed for longer. If your digital preservation documentation describes processes and activities carried out on digital content, you may need to retain this as a permanent record of how content was processed and handled at a certain point in time.