Digital Preservation across the technologies, strategies, open standards & interoperability aspects including the legal issues Pratik Shrivastava Scientist ‘F’ National Informatics Centre New Delhi

Preservation Issues Technological Issues Organisational Issues Legal Issue

Technological Issues

Digital Media Digital Material are vulnerable to loss and destruction because they are stored on fragile magnetic and optical media It can fail due to heat, humidity and contaminant or faulty reading device

Solution Store in a stable and controlled environment Regular refreshment cycle Making Preservation Copies Appropriate Handling Procedure Transferring to ‘ standard ’ storage media

Change of Technology Frequent investment to overcome rapid obsolescence Digital Material is machine dependent it needs appropriate hardware and associated software for access.

Change of Technology - Solution Should use standard media and file formats Providing detailed documentation to determine context and management.

Authenticity and Context Established procedures for retaining qualities of integrity, authenticity and reliability. Data integrity mechanism MD5 signatures at the time of ingest Audit trails for all action Overlaps with legal and organisational issues.

Scale Computer Storage is increasing while its cost is decreasing Scalable architecture still a challenge in repositories to handle quantity of data generated from the web etc. Technical, managerial challenges in accessioning, managing and providing access

Stretegies Three approaches Technology Preservation Strategy Preserve original software (and possible hardware) used to create digital material Technology Emulation Strategy Program future powerful computer system to emulate older obsolete operating system and platform.

Strategies Information Migration Strategy Digital information is re-encoded in new format before old format becomes obsolete.

Research for Strategies Potential drawbacks to the current three strategies should be studied as research topic. New strategies to be worked out and tested. This should be a continuous process keeping in view that the technology will continue to evolve

Organisational Issues

Costs Should be integral part of organisation expenses. Digital Life Cycle should determine the cost.

Organisational Issues Relates to integration of management of digital material into their organisation structure Need to go beyond the confines of organisations and even countries to take the benefit of technology, find cost effective solution and address copyright issues Employing and developing staff of adequate skill in the wake of technological changes. Limited by overall resource available within the organisation.

Approach for a Cost Model Experience within the institution. Collaboration with others confronting the same chanllenges Development of shared tools and services Develop suitable cost models as a research project to drive down costs.

Organisational Structure Need to redefine responsibilities Need to redefine roles It may cross boundaries to draw full range of skill and expertise required for digital preservation. Many activities converge Acquistion and preservation decision should be made at the same time.

Roles Who should be responsible for long term digital preservation ? In house Contractual agreement

Selection Enormous quantities of information produced digitally requires selection Which version(s) to be preserved. Level of redundancy (multiple copies in different repositories) May need collaboration between oranisations. Potential cost of duplication

Legal Issues

IPR and Preservation IPR issues in digital preservation are more complex than for traditional media. Attention to be given to not only content but to associated software. All three strategies refreshing, emulating and migrating can infringe IPR unless exemptions exists or permissions obtained from right holders. It may involve manipulation, changing presentation and functionality.

IPR and Electronic Material Traditional Material have legal and organisational frameworks for preservation. This is not true for electronic material. Necessary permissions must be obtained from copyright holder

Legal Deposit The position of legal deposit of electronic publication is different from print publication. A national digital library may be set up to promote voluntary deposit unless legal deposit act comes up.

Retention Period Digital Material may have different retention period requirement. Public Records Act will apply to government records including electronic record. Preservation policy (long term/Short Term) influenced by Retention Period

Access and Security Controlled Access and infringement of copyright. Technology to control access can prevent preservation actions.

Business Model and Licensing Dissemination of electronic material also impact IPR and preservation. Subscriber of e-journal are concerned with archiving and perpetual access to back issues.

Stakeholder, Contracts Archiving organisation may obtain permissions from the authors, publisher for preservation through Contract, license and grant condition

Investment by Repository Holders invest resources to generate revised documentation and metadata and new forms of the material. Additional IPR on new investment to be addressed Withdrawal fees to compensate for these investment may be built in to deposit agreement

Web Archiving Web Archive preserves web expressions of individuals, organisations, group, press etc. Whole Domain – Sweedish Cultural Heritage Cubbed Selective PANDORA project of Australia Thematic LoC ’ Minerva Project Deposit Mixed