1. Digital Preservation MetaArchive Cooperative, Digital Preservation Policy Planning Workshop Boston College, Boston, MA October 26, 2010

2. Session 3

3.  Libraries Leading the Way  Policy Building Costs & Benefits  Policy Preparation Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

4. The Goal: To familiarize policy developers with the assessment and development activities that may need to take place to bridge policy with reality. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

5.  First Steps  Get the green light from upper library administration to form an exploratory team ▪ Who would lead this charge at your institution? ▪ What does that process look like? ▪ How are such teams formed? ▪ Anticipate the politics? Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

6.  Establish an exploratory committee of:  Library Heads  Digital Librarians and Archivists  Content/Collection Specialists  Metadata Specialists  Technologists…  …to research and define:  Policy Building Costs & Benefits  Policy Preparation Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

7.  Define the costs of not preserving your institution’s digital assets  Operational Costs?  Scholarly & Scientific Research?  Institutional Reputation?  Define the potential benefits of building an institutional policy  Integrated Workflows and Cost Reductions  On-going Scholarly Access and Use (re-use)  Digital Expertise and Leadership in the Field Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

8.  Define the costs of building a policy  Dedicating staff hours  Building inter-departmental cooperation  New administrative, departmental, and library staff training and procedures  New technology & infrastructure investments  Exploring legal obligations (IP, Partner Institutions, etc.)  Other? Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

9.  Preparing to build a Digital Preservation Policy for your institution requires a thorough assessment of where you are and where you should be – let’s take a look! Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

10.  We’ll get to these later:  Policy Statement  Summary Statement  Let’s start with:  Scope & Selection Criteria Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

11.  Defining digital assets at your institution  Digitized (Ex: scanned newspapers)  Born-digital (Ex: websites)  Electronic records (Ex: spreadsheets, databases, emails)  Digital Research Data (Ex: raw sensor data)  Where do your digital assets reside?  At the departmental & unit level? Outside your institution?  Who are the major producers and consumers?  Researchers? Scholars? External parties?  Can they be deposited for preservation?  To what extent? Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

12.  Digital Assets Survey  Points for Feedback ▪ What additional questions might you ask? ▪ What questions seem extraneous or problematic? ▪ What form should this take for your institution? Paper survey? Electronic? ▪ How would results be gathered? ▪ How would you follow-up with respondents? Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

13.  Summarize the resource groups (e.g., units, departments, or external parties).  Who are the departments and individuals you might need to coordinate with to facilitate a successful survey distribution to all the potential resource groups that might exist across your institution. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

14.  Outlines the way decisions are made regarding what will be preserved.  Based on survey feedback and follow-up interviews with resource groups, can begin to grasp the range of digital assets, their preservation needs, and how they should be prioritized for selection. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

15.  Summarize the lifecycle management practices of the institution.  Perform a technical assessment of your Library’s existing approaches and capacity for creating, and maintaining digital assets.  Factor in a organizational structure, staffing and skill sets.  Address issues of quality control Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

16.  Technical Assessment  Library IT and Campus IT - Relationships  Hardware & Software Policies and Purchasing  Storage & Storage Management Environment(s)  Existing Back-Up Measures or Archiving Practices  Inventory and File Management  Quality Measures and Replacement Cycles Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

17.  Organizational Structure/Staffing  Identify duties required to support digital preservation  Identify staff with adequate skills and expertise to fulfill those duties  Review staffing plans, position descriptions, develop a matrix of duties and staff skills and expertise  Implement professional development training Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

18.  Quality Control  Identifying acceptable files & formats  Defining preservation levels and migration policies  Building a Preservation Plan  Enforcing risk assessment and technical evaluation schedules Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

19.  Provide an overview of methodologies and philosophies undergirding preservation activity  Communicate position toward trustworthy preservation by identifying steps taken to ensure use of standards (OAIS), transparency (willingness to engage in audit and review - TRAC) and accountability (making documentation available). Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

20.  Detail who is involved and at what level they are involved. Who is charged with preservation responsibility?  Preservation responsibility will undoubtedly be a joint endeavor (particularly between your Library, campus IT, and other external parties) and policy should reflect solidified agreements between all parties charged with responsibility. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

21.  Central Administration  Evaluators? Enforcers? Consultants?  Institutional Departments & Units  Producers? Evaluators? Curators? Consultants?  Librarians & Archivists  Preservation Services? Curators?  Designated Community  Consumers and Users?  External Partners  Producers? Consumers? Preservation Services? Evaluators?  Vendors  Preservation Services? Consultants? Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

22.  Describe policy/policies for ascribing metadata to preservation objects.  Metadata is increasingly becoming central to trustworthy preservation, and statements of policy should be able to articulate your Library’s position on responsibility for capturing some level of preservation metadata, and the role it will play in managing that metadata on behalf of the digital objects you collect. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

23.  Document policies around permissions and access of preserved content.  Consult with legal representatives for your institution  Research rights issues related to digital preservation  Limit your liability and develop a strategy for breach of copyright and removal of offending content Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

24.  Considerations:  The right to change or alter digital information is often limited by law to the creator  Digital program contracts must address the need to be able to work with and potentially modify digital objects to keep them accessible.  Agreements with depositors must specify and/or transfer rights to the program enabling appropriate and necessary preservation actions for the digital object.  Third party organizations should guarantee that relevant contracts, licenses, etc express rights, responsibilities and expectations of each party. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

25.  Establishing the options for access and use of your institutions’ digital assets will go a long way toward both defining what sorts of management and dissemination workflows might need to be developed, as well as how to communicate the terms of such access and use. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

26.  Define your institution’s relationship to other institutions, and whether it may partner to accomplish preservation.  Rights & Agreements ▪ Navigating the rights issues related to the digital objects that fall under your Library or institution’s preservation responsibility will go a long way toward articulating the terms under which partnerships can be pursued to further preservation development and activities. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

27.  Document expected costs and who shoulders the responsibility for those costs.  Policies should confidently communicate an acknowledgement of the types of preservation activities that are in need of on-going financial support and general strategies that the Library will pursue to ensure that these activities will be adequately supported. Policy statements should be under-girded by responsible financial planning, accounting, and management. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

28.  Financial Sustainability:  Sustainable Management & Financial Plans  Multi-Year Budget ▪ Factoring in financial cycles  Review Schedules (annual)  Seek diverse revenue streams to support preservation activities Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

29.  Acknowledge the challenges the institution/field faces in preserving digital collections.  Remember Trends in Digital Preservation  Perform Risk Assessment Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

30.  Trends in Digital Preservation  Centralized & Distributed Preservation  Full & Bit-level Preservation  Preservation Metadata  Open Source solutions  Focus on economies of scale and benefits  Roles & Responsibilities  Sustainability  Standards and auditing metrics  National mandates  Avoiding silos & pursuing interoperability Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

31.  Risk Assessment  Committing to analyze and report on risk, benefit, investment and expenditures  Identifying the real and potential threats to the digital preservation program, the digital collections, producers and consumers  Should include an inventory of file formats, technology infrastructure, legal mandates, staffing, etc. Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

32.  Give an overview of any outreach and education activities undertaken by the institution.  Champion your policies  Share your development  Develop workshops  Join coalitions and working groups  Know your sphere of influence  Be open to learning! Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

33.  Policy Statement  Summary Statement Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

34.  A simple statement that relates digital preservation to the institution’s mission and the communities it serves.  Review your institutions broader mission statements  Consider other legal, ethical, and policy mandates  Articulate the needs and the opportunities related to your institution’s resource groups Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

35.  A set of simple paragraphs that summarizes the overall intent of the institution.  Why does it preserve content (e.g., institutional, legal, consortial obligations)?  Who wrote this policy?  How often is this policy re-evaluated and by whom? Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010

36.  Date/Author  Related Documents  Definitions/Glossary Schultz, Donovan, Howard, Skinner, 2010