Long-Term Impact Analysis of E-ARK Dissemination

This report contains details of the metrics of the E-ARK Project’s Dissemination Activities during its 3-year life. It also gives details of the findings of an Impact Survey undertaken at the end of the project to assess the consequences for individuals and organisations of the dissemination activities of the project. The report demonstrates that all performance targets set by the project for itself been achieved and exceeded. Feedback gathered shows that the E-ARK conference, organised in December 2016, was well received by delegates originating from a wide range of geographical locations and types of organisation. It also shows that respondents to our survey consider that the project has had a positive effect on both them personally and also on the organisations they represent. Personal knowledge of the topic of Digital Archiving has been increased and awareness raised of the issues and challenges which organisations must now confront. Organisations have similarly had their corporate awareness raised, with E-ARK resources being used to assist in this process, and this has led to increased commitment of resources to Digital Archiving activities. Finally, the survey has shown that E-ARK has succeeded in raising general awareness of the European Commission’s commitment to research work in this area

General pilot model and use case definition

This report describes the concepts and elements of the General Model of E-ARK pilot site activities

An Initial Maturity Model for Information Governance

This report details the maturity model for information governance which will be used to assess the E-ARK Project use cases. The method that guides the application of this maturity model will then be detailed in deliverable 7.5, A Maturity Model consists of a number of entities, including “maturity levels” (often six) which are, from the lowest to the highest, (0) Non Existent, (1) Initial, (2) Basic, (3) Intermediate, (4) Advanced and (5) Optimizing. Each process can have its own Maturity Model, which expresses quantitatively the maturity level of an organization regarding a certain process. A Maturity Model provides also a way for organizations to see clearly what they must accomplish in order to pass to the next maturity level. The use of maturity models is wide spread and accepted, both in industry and academia. There are numerous maturity models, at least one for each of the most trending topics in such areas as Information Technology or Information Systems. Maturity Models are widely used and accepted because of their simplicity and effectiveness. They can easily help understanding the current level of maturity of a certain aspect in a meaningful way, so that stakeholders can clearly identify strengths and weaknesses requiring improvement, and thus prioritise what must be done in order to reach a higher level. This can be used to show the outcomes that will result from that effort, enabling stakeholders to decide if the outcomes justify the effort

The E-ARK Dissemination Strategy:Year 3

This Project Dissemination Strategy sets out the strategy for achieving the communications objectives for Project E-ARK. The over-riding principle behind this Plan is to raise awareness of and promote access to the archiving tools and knowledge base produced by the project to encourage adoption by both end-users and archiving systems manufacturer

The E-ARK Dissemination Strategy:Year 1

This Project Dissemination Strategy sets out the strategy for achieving the communications objectives for Project E-ARK. The over-riding principle behind this Plan is to raise awareness of and promote access to the archiving tools and knowledge base produced by the project to encourage adoption by both end-users and archiving systems manufacturer

E-ARK Final Report

Between 2014 and 2017 the E-ARK project brought together a consortium of five European national archives, five leading research institutions, three systems providers, two government institutions, and two membership organisations to work on the development and implementation of the tools, standards, and administrative processes required to support digital archiving. The project exceeded its objectives and achieved significant results in numerous areas. In particular, it met all ten milestones; produced all 31 deliverables (plus some extra) http://www.eark-project.com/resources/project-deliverables ; was assessed as excellent in the final year review; and was dubbed a “European Showcase Project” by the Project Officer, Alina Senn, together with the two external project reviewers Adrian Brown (Parliamentary Archives, UK), and Hannes Kulovits, (Austrian National Archives)[1]. Finally, robust measures were adopted to sustain the project outputs, which are now listed by category

Archival Information Package (AIP) Formats and Restrictions

Within the overall strategy of E-ARK the AIPs have a small but highly significant role. While SIPs have to be created by all archival systems to be used within individual solutions, and DIPs have to be deployed in all environments, the conversion between the three pan-European formats for information packages (SIP ==>AIP ==> DIP), has to be realized only once, leading to significant savings. The structure of the E-ARK AIP has therefore not to be derived from individual implementations of existing technology providers, but from the major abstract concepts currently existing. This report examines and describes these concepts and derives recommendations from them, which will be used as a guide line in the next step, the design of the pan-European AIP format and the conversion tools supporting it

Are you Ready? Assessing Whether Organisations are Prepared for Digital Preservation

In early 2009 the Planets project undertook a survey of national libraries, archives, and other content-holding organisations in Europe to better understand the organisations' digital preservation activities and needs, and to ensure that Planets' technology and services are designed to meet them. Over 200 responses were received including a cross-section of major libraries and archives especially in Europe. The results provide a snapshot of organisations' readiness to preserve digital collections for the future. The survey revealed a high level of awareness of the challenges of digital preservation within organisations. Findings indicated that approximately half of those organisations surveyed have taken measures to develop digital preservation policies and to budget for it, while a majority have incorporated digital preservation into their organisational planning. Organisations predict that within a decade they will need to store large quantities of data in a wide range of formats from a variety of sources; three quarters of them are looking to invest in a solution within the next two years. However, the findings also point to varying degrees of readiness. Organisations with a digital preservation policy are significantly further advanced in their work to preserve digital collections for the long-term than others

An Information Governance Maturity Model Assessment of the E-ARK Pilots

The E-ARK Project focuses on harmonizing currently fragmented solutions that support Archives services, especially in regard to Ingest, Archival Preservation and Dissemination of information. E-ARK solutions will be tested in a series of open pilots in various national contexts, using both existing and near-to-market tools, as well as services developed by partners. In this report, the initial assessment and evaluation of the pilots of the project is provided. Later, deliverable 7.6 will provide the final assessment and evaluation of the pilots, when the results of the project are already applied to these pilots. The purpose of this two stage assessments and evaluation is to show that the E-ARK resulting artefacts enhance the maturity level of the pilots and contribute to the archival practice improvement. The assessment presented here is based on the Information Governance Maturity Model described in deliverable 7.1. The maturity model was based on three main sources: (1) the Trustworthy Repository Assessment Criteria (TRAC) (2) the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) (3) the Producer-Archive Interface Methodology Abstract Standard (PAIMAS/ISO20652). Furthermore, the assessment took into consideration deliverable 2.1 of the E-ARK project, which details the general pilot model and the project pilots. This deliverable was analyzed in order to identify what should be assessed and measured in the pilots. This was done through the identification of capabilities