1. Exploring the lifecycle
RDMRose: Research Data Management for LIS
Session 3 The Digital Curation Lifecycle
Session 3.1 Exploring the lifecycle
Exploring the lifecycle
Session 3.1
Nov-18
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2. Learning outcomes At the end of this session you will be able to:
Explain the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model
Reflect upon the relevance of lifecycle actions to your role and to the institution
Further develop ideas on how aspects of digital curation might be explained to students and researchers
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3. Session overview Background Target audience The lifecycle actions:
8 sequential actions
3 occasional actions
4 full lifecycle actions
Nov-18
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4. Digital Curation Centre
The DCC Curation Lifecycle Model is an authoritative generic model outlining what the umbrella term RDM consists of
It outlines the activities that are required to successfully curate research data throughout its entire lifecycle
It was developed by the DCC = Digital Curation Centre,
The DCC is the leading centre of expertise in digital information curation
You will explore the DCC and its extensive website in session 4.1
Nov-18
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5. Target audience of the model
The model is an idealised situation: curation is planned from the very beginning, and planned for throughout the lifecycle
You can start at any point and use the model to identify gaps and undertake appropriate actions
According to the DCC (2012c) this model is relevant to:
Data creators
Data archivists/curators
Data (re)users
Nov-18
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6. Background
The DCC Curation Lifecycle Model is based on the OAIS Reference Model
OAIS = Open Archival Information System (pictured)
OAIS is a model that defines a generic framework for building a digital archive
You can find out more about this influential model from the excellent introductions by Lavoie (2004) and Ball (2006)
Nov-18
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7. Background
The DCC Curation Lifecycle Model adds to the OAIS Reference Model
It includes activities that take place outside the archival system: the research lifecycle
In particular: the creation of data, the use and reuse of data
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8. DCC Curation Lifecycle Model
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9. Actions Three sets of actions:
Sequential Actions (8): key actions needed as data move through their lifecycle
Occasional Actions (3): only occur when special conditions are met, but they do not apply to all data
Full Lifecycle Actions (4): apply to all stages in the lifecycle
Nov-18
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10. Actions Sequential actions (3): Conceptualise Create or receive
Appraise and select
Ingest
Preservation action
Store
Access, use and reuse
Transform
Nov-18
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11. Actions Occasional actions (3): Dispose Re-appraise Migrate
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12. Actions Full Lifecycle Actions (4):
Description and representation information
Preservation planning
Community watch and participation
Curate and preserve
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13. Action 1 Conceptualise Sequential Action 1 Aim:
Designing research projects (and grant proposals) with digital curation in mind, curation-ready data
Rusbridge (2008): “Repeat after me: curation begins before creation!”
Nov-18
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14. Information entropy
See Michener et al. (1997, fig. 1) for a graphic representation of “the normal degradation in information content associated with data and metadata over time (‘information entropy’).”
Nov-18
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15. Key activities DCC’s key activities include planning for:
Data capture and storage in curation-friendly file formats (open standards)
Recording sufficient information at the time of data capture to assist with ongoing management of those data and with their use
Scrupulous identification of files
Data storage on appropriate media
Identification of a safe place for the data and ensuring that an archive will take them
Nov-18
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16. Action 2 Create or receive
Sequential Action 2
Aims:
Creating or receiving digital data that is curation-ready
DCC’s key activities:
Researcher: Create data that is curation ready, including administrative, descriptive, structural and technical metadata. Preservation metadata may also be added at the time of creation.
LIS professional: Receive data, in accordance with documented collecting policies, from data creators, other archives, repositories or data centres, and if required assign appropriate metadata
Nov-18
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17. Data quality Authentic: be what it purports to be.
Reliable: have trusted contents.
Have integrity: be complete and unaltered.
Usable: can be located, retrieved, presented and interpreted. (Based on Higgins, 2012, p. 20 and ISO )
Nov-18
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18. Metadata Descriptive: ensures identification, location and retrieval.
Technical: records the technical infrastructure used to create or access the data.
Administrative: for management of data such as acquisition, appraisal decisions, and IPR.
Use: manages access rights and usage.
Preservation: records preservation actions, such as checksums (Based on Higgins, 2012, p. 38.)
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19. Action 3 Appraise and select
Sequential Action 3
“the process of evaluating material in order to decide which to retain over the long term, which to retain for the meantime, and which to discard.” (Higgins, 2012, p. 28)
DCC’s key activities:
Evaluate data and select for long-term curation and preservation
Adhere to documented guidance, policies or legal requirements
Nov-18
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20. Why appraise and select?
Digital content expands.
Backup and mirroring increases costs.
Discovery gets harder.
Managing and preserving is expensive. (Based on Whyte and Wilson, 2010.)
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21. Significance
Appraisal = “determination of significance” (Harvey, 2010, p. 132)
What data do you need/want to keep?
Which datasets or digital resources do you want to keep?
Which characteristics or elements of these datasets or resources do you want to keep? (Designated community, representation information.)
How long do you need/want to keep the data?
E.g. in terms of user requirements (as evidence for verifying conclusions) or risks of not keeping the data.
Nov-18
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22. Criteria General appraisal criteria (Whyte & Wilson, 2010)
Relevance to mission of the repository
Scientific or historical value (inferring anticipated future use)
Uniqueness (the only or most complete source? At risk of loss if not accepted?)
Potential for redistribution (depending on reliability, integrity and usability of the data; legal issues may limit this)
Non-replicability (not feasible or impossible)
Economic case (costs vs potential future benefits, available funding)
Full documentation (to facilitate discovery, access, reuse etc.)
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23. Occasional actions Occasional Actions related to appraise and select:
Reappraise
Dispose
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24. Action 4 Ingest Sequential Action 4 DCC’s key activities:
Transfer data to an archive, repository, data centre or other custodian
Adhere to documented guidance, policies or legal requirements
The term “Ingest” was introduced by the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model
Nov-18
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25. Key activities for ingest
Preparing the data for placing in long-term storage could involve (identified by the CAIRO project):
Assigning a persistent identifier
Checking that the data does not contain malware
Extracting, creating and assigning description and representation information
Creating fixity values
Confirming technical details such as file formats
Combining the data and their associated metadata into an Archival Information Package
Migrating data to a different file format (DCC, n.d. a)
Nov-18
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26. Action 5 Preservation Action
Sequential Action 5
Aims:
To ensure that data remains authentic, reliable and usable while maintaining its integrity (data quality).
DCC’s key activities:
Undertaking actions to ensure long-term preservation and retention of the authoritative nature of data.
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27. Preservation actions and methods
DCC’s specific actions:
Data cleaning (detecting and correcting/removing corrupt or inaccurate data)
Validation
Assigning preservation metadata
Assigning representation information
Ensuring acceptable data structures or file formats (open standards)
Preservation methods (Lord & Macdonald, 2003):
Migration
Emulation
Also:
Formal descriptions (UVC)
Digital archaeology
Computer museums
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28. Significant properties (Higgins, 2012, p. 34)
Preservation actions are undertaken to ensure data retains its significant properties.
These could be a choice of:
Look and feel: does the migration need to retain formatting which gives it a specific appearance or is it sufficient to maintain the contents?
Structure: are there relationships between constituent parts which need to be retained?
Functionality: does certain functionality such as hyperlinks to other material, or embedded comments need to be retained?
Interoperability: does the data need to retain interoperability with other datasets?
Nov-18
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29. Action 6 Store Sequential Action 6 DCC’s key activities:
Storing the data in a secure manner adhering to relevant standards
This includes the storage facilities themselves, including refreshment of storage media to avoid hardware obsolescence or bit-rot
And the administration of the data storage service with appropriate policies
Nov-18
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30. Specific activities (Harvey, 2010)
Develop, maintain, and apply policies relating to secure data storage
Ensure that sufficient description and representation information is stored with data
Use a reliable storage medium, preferably on more than one carrier and with geographically distributed backup systems
Monitor events that might trigger other preservation actions (e.g., file format migration, file corruption)
Regularly check to ensure the integrity of the stored data and their description and representation information
Ensure system and physical security
Maintain and replace the technical infrastructure as necessary
Develop, and administer as necessary, data recovery procedures
Nov-18
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31. Action 7 Access, use and reuse
Sequential Action 7
Aims:
Data can be located, and used and reused by legitimate users
DCC’s key activities:
Ensuring that data is accessible to both designated users and reusers, on a day-to-day basis, usually (but not necessarily) in the form of publicly available published information
Applying robust access controls and authentication procedures where applicable
Nov-18
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32. Specific actions
Ensuring data is able to be discovered (located) by applying standards that ensure appropriate metadata are present so data can be located
Ensuring that the required legal permissions are available for data to be used and reused, and that legal restrictions on the use and reuse of data are adhered to (funding bodies, legislation about confidentiality and privacy, IPR)
Providing tools that allow collaboration in the use and reuse of data (e.g. annotation)
Ensuring data is accessible only by authorised users, by applying access controls and authentication procedures.
Nov-18
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33. Action 8 Transform Sequential Action 8 DCC’s key activities: Methods:
Create new data from the original
Methods:
Creating a subset (by selection or query) to create newly derived results
for verification of results
as the basis of further research
Migration into a different format (migration changes data)
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34. Occasional action Occasional action: related to transform: Migrate
Nov-18
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35. Activity 3.1.1 Exploring the DCC curation lifecycle
Nov-18
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36. Activity 3.1.1 Exploring the DCC curation lifecycle
For the sequential actions in the DCC Lifecycle Model, discuss one or more of the following questions on your activity sheet:
What role could LIS professionals play in this Action and what skills would they need?
How could/should an institution support this action?
How would you explain this Action to undergraduates? postgraduates? researchers?
Nov-18
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37. Full lifecycle Actions: Curate and Preserve
DCC’s key activities:
Being aware of management and administrative actions planned to promote curation and preservation throughout the curation lifecycle
Undertaking management and administrative actions planned to promote curation and preservation throughout the curation lifecycle
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38. Full lifecycle Actions: Community Watch and Participation
DCC’s key activities:
Maintaining a watch on appropriate community activities
Participating in the development of shared standards, tools and suitable software
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39. Specific activities
DCC’s indicative activities for data curators include:
Keeping up-to-date with data curation activities and developments in related areas (session 4)
Sharing data and participating in other activities which form the basis of data reuse
Participating in the development of standards for data curation
Participating in the development of tools and toolkits for data curation
Nov-18
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40. Full lifecycle Actions: Preservation Planning
DCC’s key activities:
Planning for preservation throughout the curation lifecycle of digital material
Developing and applying plans for management and administration of all curation lifecycle actions
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41. Full lifecycle Actions: Description and representation information
DCC’s key activities:
Assigning administrative, descriptive, technical, structural and preservation metadata, using appropriate standards, required to ensure adequate description and control over the long term
Collecting and assigning representation information, which is required to understand and render both the digital material and the associated metadata
Nov-18
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42. Activity 3.1.2 How usable is the model?
Nov-18
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43. Activity 3.1.2 How usable is the model?
How is the model different from a library’s typical emphasis on collection development for access (as opposed to preservation)?
If you were a researcher, how would you interpret this model?
How usable is the DCC Lifecycle Model for you?
Write down your initial thoughts. Then discuss with a partner.
Nov-18
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44. Activity 3.1.3 Alternative lifecycle models
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45. Activity 3.1.3 Alternative lifecycle models
Look at the Review of Data Management Lifecycle Models by A. Ball at
The document gives an overview of 8 alternative models, including the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model
Of the UK Data Archive lifecycle model (number 7 in Ball’s review) there is also a visual representation available on
Examine the models. Which of these, if any, would you prefer to use when discussing RDM with a researcher, and why?
Nov-18
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46. Sources and References
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47. Sources Slides on the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model are based on:
DCC (n.d. a). Digital 101 materials. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. Retrieved from
DCC (n.d. b) DCC Charter and Statement of Principles. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. Retrieved from
DCC (n.d. c) Lifecycle Model FAQ. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. Rretrieved from
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48. References
Ball, A. (2006). Briefing Paper: the OAIS Reference Model. Retrieved from
Ball, A. (2012). Review of Data Management Lifecycle Models. Bath: University of Bath. Retrieved from
Donnelly, M. (2012). Data management plans and planning. In G. Pryor (Ed.). Managing Research Data (pp ). London: Facet.
Harvey, R. (2010) Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual. London: Facet.
Higgins, S. (2012) The lifecycle of data management. In G. Pryor (Ed.). Managing Research Data (pp ). London: Facet.
Nov-18
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49. References
Lavoie, B.F. (2004) The Open Archival Information System Reference Model: introductory guide. Dublin, Ohio; York: OCLC Online Computer Library Centre; Digital Preservation Coalition. Retrieved from
Lord, P. & Macdonald, A. (2003). Data Curation for e-Science in the UK: An Audit to Establish Requirements for Future Curation and Provision. Twickenham: The Digital Archiving Consultancy.
Michener, W.K., Brunt, J.W., Helly, J.J., Kirchner, T.B., & Stafford, S.G. (1997). Nongeospatial metadata for the ecological sciences. Ecological Applications, 7(1),
Rusbridge, C. (2008). Project data life course. Blogs. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre,
Whyte, A., & Wilson, A. (2010). How to Appraise & Select Research Data for Curation. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre,
Nov-18
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