LIBER's involvement in supporting digital preservation in member libraries

Digital curation and preservation represent new challenges for universities. LIBER has invested considerable effort to engage with the new agendas of digital preservation and digital curation. Through two successful phases of the LIFE project, LIBER is breaking new ground in identifying innovative models for costing digital curation and preservation. Through LIFE’s input into the US-UK Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, LIBER is aligned with major international work in the economics of digital preservation. In its emerging new strategy and structures, LIBER will continue to make substantial contributions in this area, mindful of the needs of European research libraries

Modelling long term digital preservation costs: a scientific data case study

In recent years there has been increasing UK Government pressure on publicly funded researchers to plan the preservation and ensure the accessibility of their data for the long term. A critical challenge in implementing a digital preservation strategy is the estimation of such a programme’s cost. This pa-per presents a case study based on the cost estimation of preserving scientific data produced in the ISIS facility based at The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory UK. The model for cost estimation for long term digital preservation is presented along with an outline of the development and validation activities undertaken as part of this project. The framework and methodology from this research provide an insight into the task of costing long term digital preservation processes, and can potentially be adapted to deliver benefits to other organisa-tions

Digital preservation in the Tertiary education sector : management implications

This paper assesses the future of long-term curation and preservation of digital assets with particular reference to Further Education (FE) in the UK. Reviews current requirements of digital preservation and the efforts underway to support them. Drawing on other recent work and the author's experience in a recent development project it subsequently comments on these efforts in the context of FE. Argues that the long-term curation and preservation of digital assets produced by further education colleges should not be the responsibility of those colleges

Awareness of quality assurance procedures in digital preservation

Awareness and implementation of appropriate quality assurance procedures at each stage in the process of digital preservation is vital for achieving the goals of long-term access and integrity of electronic information, and maximising the return on the high levels of investment being made in digital preservation. This paper outlines the four stages of quality assurance within the digitisation process suggested in the UK by the JISC QA Focus, and identifies issues to be considered at each stage

Keeping Research Data Safe 2: Final Report

The first Keeping Research Data Safe study funded by JISC made a major contribution to understanding of long-term preservation costs for research data by developing a cost model and indentifying cost variables for preserving research data in UK universities (Beagrie et al, 2008). However it was completed over a very constrained timescale of four months with little opportunity to follow up other major issues or sources of preservation cost information it identified. It noted that digital preservation costs are notoriously difficult to address in part because of the absence of good case studies and longitudinal information for digital preservation costs or cost variables. In January 2009 JISC issued an ITT for a study on the identification of long-lived digital datasets for the purposes of cost analysis. The aim of this work was to provide a larger body of material and evidence against which existing and future data preservation cost modelling exercises could be tested and validated. The proposal for the KRDS2 study was submitted in response by a consortium consisting of 4 partners involved in the original Keeping Research Data Safe study (Universities of Cambridge and Southampton, Charles Beagrie Ltd, and OCLC Research) and 4 new partners with significant data collections and interests in preservation costs (Archaeology Data Service, University of London Computer Centre, University of Oxford, and the UK Data Archive). A range of supplementary materials in support of this main report have been made available on the KRDS2 project website at http://www.beagrie.com/jisc.php. That website will be maintained and continuously updated with future work as a resource for KRDS users

A model for digital preservation repository risk relationships

The paper introduces the Preserved Object and Repository Risk Ontology (PORRO), a model that relates preservation functionality with associated risks and opportunities for their mitigation. Building on work undertaken in a range of EU and UK funded research projects (including the Digital Curation Centre , DigitalPreservationEurope and DELOS ), this ontology illustrates relationships between fundamental digital library goals and their parameters; associated rights and responsibilities; practical activities and resources involved in their accomplishment; and risks facing digital libraries and their collections. Its purpose is to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of risk causality and to illustrate opportunities for mitigation and avoidance. The ontology reflects evidence accumulated from a series of institutional audits and evaluations, including a specific subset of digital libraries in the DELOS project which led to the definition of a digital library preservation risk profile. Its applicability is intended to be widespread, and its coverage expected to evolve to reflect developments within the community. Attendees will gain an understanding of the model and learn how they can utilize this online resource to inform their own risk management activities

LIFE3: A predictive costing tool for digital collections

Predicting the costs of long-term digital preservation is a crucial yet complex task for even the largest repositories and institutions. For smaller projects and individual researchers faced with preservation requirements, the problem is even more overwhelming, as they lack the accumulated experience of the former. Yet being able to estimate future preservation costs is vital to answering a range of important questions for each. The LIFE (Life Cycle Information for E-Literature) project, which has just completed its third phase, helps institutions and researchers address these concerns, reducing the financial and preservation risks, and allowing decision makers to assess a range of options in order to achieve effective preservation while operating within financial restraints. The project is a collaboration between University College London (UCL), The British Library and the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow. Funding has been supplied in the UK by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Research Information Network (RIN)

Digital curation: The emergence of a new discipline

In the mid 1990s UK digital preservation activity concentrated on ensuring the survival of digita

'Digital Decay'

The fate of 35mm as an acquisition and exhibition medium is intimately connected with questions of future-proofing, archiving, preservation, and access, which are currently at the foreground of recent debates around screen heritage in the UK. In this article, I explore the threat of digital projection to the viability of the 35mm release print, the impact of this on film stock production, and how this will affect film preservation. Whilst these issues are universal, this article is oriented toward a UK perspective

Preservation through access: the AHDS performing arts collections in ECLAP and Europeana

This poster provides an overview of the ongoing rescue of valuable digital collections that had been taken down and consequently lost to general access. The University of Glasgow was home to the Arts and Humanities Data Service Performing Arts (AHDS Performing Arts) [1], one of the five arts and humanities data centres that constitute the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS). Since 1996 AHDS supported the creation, curation, preservation and reuse of digital materials for the UK Arts and Humanities research and teaching community. AHDS Performing Arts, based in Glasgow, supported research, learning and teaching in music, dance, theatre, radio, film, television, and performance for thirteen years. Working with the AHDS Executive, relevant performing arts collections have been ingested, documented, preserved, and where possible made available via the AHDS Cross Search Catalogue and Website to researchers, practitioners, and the general public. Furthermore strong relationships were developed with research and teaching community upon a scoping study investigating user needs [2]. In 2007 the co-funders of the AHDS - Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for the UK and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) - withdrew their funding. A detailed risk assessment report was produced in response to the withdrawal of core funding [3], but to no avail. When the AHDS funding stopped, online access to these cultural resources eventually became discontinued [4]. In 2010, the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow joined the EU-funded ECLAP project to ensure that at least part of these resources could be accessible for the long term by scholars and practitioners in the performing arts arena, and by the general public. Below we briefly describe the ECLAP project, the AHDS Performing Arts collections progressively available through it and some thoughts on providing preservation through access for this type of digital cultural resources