Investing in value: a perspective on digital preservation

No abstract available

Digital Preservation as an Albatross

‘Digital Preservation’ as a concept is an albatross. The complex and somewhat arcane nature of the practice has kept it from being embraced by those that perhaps need it most. Changes in terminology, misunderstandings of meanings and a lack of direct business planning have brought about a state of affairs that has the digital preservation community fighting the problem of technological obsolescence without sustained support from organisations that supposedly need it most. Organisations care about ensuring their continued existence and profitability. Investment is only undertaken after reflection on business cases. In creating a business case most people focus primarily on cost, but there must be a counter-veiling focus on value. There is no point in making an investment unless it has worth to the investor. A good business case will display a strong understanding of the value of information objects that organisations create. Information professionals must ensure that their desire to ensure longevity of information is tied coherently and explicitly to that of the organisation’s future and detail why the digital materials are of value to it. Exploring value in this way allows engagement with senior management as it wraps the need for action in the terminology of their strategic vision and allows for a strong and successful business case to be made

I stand, they don't deliver: or why the highwayman approach to funding digital preservation doesn't work

No abstract available

The world is all grown digital.... How shall a man persuade management what to do in such times?

Understanding and communicating the cost and value of digital curation activities has now been recognised by a number of projects and initiatives as a very important factor in ensuring the longterm survival of digital assets. A number of projects have developed costing models for digital preservation but there remains a major problem with information assets (digital or otherwise) in that their value is difficult to express in terms that are readily understood by all the stakeholders, especially those who might fund their preservation. This paper introduces a range of issues concerning information value and business models for sustained funding of digital preservation, with particular reference to the espida Project recently completed at the University of Glasgow. This project has developed a model of information value that builds on the Balanced Scorecard approach to business performance developed by Kaplan and Norton. This model casts information curation as an investment where current and ongoing expenditure is incurred in order to produce future returns, benefiting a range of stakeholders. In this formulation, value is seen as multifaceted and, from the point of view of the individual or organisation funding the curation, explicitly related to the funder’s strategic goals. It also recognises that benefits may only accrue over the long term and that there is a risk that information that is preserved may fail to deliver any return. Examples discussed in the paper concern the establishment of an institutional repository and the establishment of an e-thesis service for an educational institution. It concludes that a deconstruction of benefits of this kind can be more quickly and fully understood even by stakeholders not necessarily expert in the curation field. This facilitates the production of a well-constructed case that clearly articulates information value and the benefit that accrues from its curation, which in turn allows senior management or other funders to make funding decisions based on understandable information: the basic premise of good practice in management. This is a commonly understood idea and one that the espida methodology helps fulfil

espida Process

Embedded in the work of espida is a process that ensures projects align themselves with the strategic aims of the funders they wish to receive resources from. It details the relationship the funder and fundee have and how outcomes of the work feedback into the organisational objectives

"No Going Back?" The final report of the Effective Records Management Project

The overall objective of the Effective Records Management project was the provision of ‘protocols and tools for the effective management of information in the digital order, with particular attention to information held in a document-based form’ . The project developed a demonstrator system which addressed the full range of issues involved in the management of a ‘testbed’ of digital records in the form of documents, from their creation through distribution and use to their final disposal or permanent retention. The testbed selected was the records of a subset of the university’s committees and was used to develop ideas and to assess how well they worked in practice. This project report indicates that the ERM project provides an investment in the future, opportunities for better information use or re-use, identification of legal risks and identification of good practice whether you be an administrator, a computing scientist, an archivist, a librarian or an information services manager

"No Going Back?" The final report of the Effective Records Management Project

The overall objective of the Effective Records Management project was the provision of ‘protocols and tools for the effective management of information in the digital order, with particular attention to information held in a document-based form’ . The project developed a demonstrator system which addressed the full range of issues involved in the management of a ‘testbed’ of digital records in the form of documents, from their creation through distribution and use to their final disposal or permanent retention. The testbed selected was the records of a subset of the university’s committees and was used to develop ideas and to assess how well they worked in practice. This project report indicates that the ERM project provides an investment in the future, opportunities for better information use or re-use, identification of legal risks and identification of good practice whether you be an administrator, a computing scientist, an archivist, a librarian or an information services manager

Employee Attributions of the Why of HR Practices: Their Effects on Employee Attitudes and Behaviors, and Customer Satisfaction

The construct of Human Resource (HR) Attributions is introduced. We argue that the attributions that employees make about the reasons why management adopts the HR practices that it does have consequences for their attitudes and behaviors, and ultimately, unit performance. Drawing on the strategic HR literature, we propose a typology of five HR-Attribution dimensions. Utilizing data collected from a service firm, we show that employees make varying attributions for the same HR practices, and that these attributions are differentially associated with commitment and satisfaction. In turn, we show that these attitudes become shared within units and that they are related to unit-level organizational citizenship behaviors and customer satisfaction. Findings and implications are discussed