resources
preservation toolkits
Stewardship of Digital Assets
A two-day workshop on sustaining digital collections
In 2007 and 2008, the Northeast Document Conservation Center, in conjunction with PALINET, SOLINET, Amigos Library Services, and the OCLC Western Service Center, and with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, developed a two-day workshop focusing on sustaining digital collections. A faculty of digital experts taught an interactive, hands-on workshop at four locations across the country. Through lectures, case studies, and small-group sessions, participants learned about the long-term needs of the digital information that exists in their institution and how to plan for the preservation of their digital assets. The following topics were covered:
- Assessing an Institution’s Digital Preservation Needs
- Tools for Determining Long-Term Needs
- Setting Priorities
- Developing an Institutional Digital Preservation Plan
- Assessing Risks to Digital Media
- Standards and Best Practices
- Tools for Preserving Digital Objects
- Digital Preservation Policy Development
This toolkit gathers important information on the issues relevant to digital preservation that were covered in the workshop. This information will introduce users to the broad spectrum of considerations, assist them in developing an understanding of where the institution stands in the process, and help develop a written plan for digital preservation. NEDCC is grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for funding this pilot series of workshops.
Where to Start
Begin by examining your institution’s current digital status. This questionnaire is a distillation of some of the most important information collected in the comprehensive pre-workshop questionnaire. Responses to these initial questions will provide a good foundation for planning.
Next, fill out the NEDCC Digital Preservation Policy Template. This worksheet will help lay the groundwork for a digital preservation policy. The primary aims of this policy are:
- To provide guidance and authorization on the preservation of digital materials;
- To ensure the authenticity, reliability and long-term accessibility of these materials;
- To explain how digital preservation can serve the major needs of an institution;
- To state principles and rules on specific aspects which then lay the basis of implementation.
The template is intended to lead the user through the steps in writing a skeleton preservation policy. Each section will describe the topic and give an example of what that section should contain. The resources listed below will provide useful information and examples of existing policies to assist in completing the template. Once each section is filled in, the text can be fleshed out to create the preservation policy.
If possible, attend a Stewardship of Digital Assets workshop. If you are interested in bringing this program to your region, contact Donia Conn, at NEDCC.
When you have begun planning and are ready for more formal assistance in program planning, contact NEDCC to schedule a digital preservation readiness assessment. For Information about these surveys, click here.
If you know of any useful links that are not listed below, please send them to Donia Conn at NEDCC.
Collaborative Models
Alabama Digital Preservation Network. http://adpn.org/
Association of Southeastern Research Libraries – LOCKSS/ETD Initiative. http://www.aserl.org/projects/lockss-etd-overview.html
Digital Preservation Coalition, United Kingdom. http://www.dpconline.org
MetaArchive. http://www.metaarchive.org/
Preserving Access to Digital Information, National Library of Australia. http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/index.html
State Digital Resources compiled by the Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/statememory/
** Not all of these sites focus on preservation, but could be useful for collaboration and design.
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/about/avantgarde
Online Digital Preservation Policies
Arts and Humanities Data Service (UK).
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/documents/colls-policy-preservation-v1.pdf
Columbia University Library. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/services/preservation/dlpolicy.html
Cornell University Library.
http://commondepository.library.cornell.edu/cul-dp-framework.pdf
Guildhall Library, Manuscripts, and London Metropolitan Archives. http://www.history.ac.uk/gh/digprespol.pdf
Johns Hopkins University Library. http://www.library.jhu.edu/collections/institutionalrepository/irpreservationpolicy.html
Library and Archives Canada.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/collection/003-200-e.html
National Library of Australia. http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/digpres.html
Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/digitalarchive/preservationpolicy.pdf
Public Record Office, The National Archives (UK). http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/rm_corp_pol.pdf/
State Library of Victoria (Australia). http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/about/information/policies/digitalpreservation.html
University of Illinois Library – Urbana/Champaign. https://www.ideals.uiuc.edu/handle/2142/2383
University of Minnesota. http://conservancy.umn.edu/pol-preservation.jsp
University of Texas Libraries. http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/policies_preservation
Wellcome Library (UK). http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/assets/wtx038065.pdf
Yale University Library. http://www.library.yale.edu/iac/DPC/final1.html
Useful Links for More Information
Standards and Guidelines
Guidelines for the Preservation of Digital Heritage, National Library of Australia. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001300/130071e.pdf
International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES). http://www.interpares.org/
Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS). http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/
Metadata Object Description System (MODS). http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/
Open Archival Information System (OAIS). http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0b1.pdf
Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies (PREMIS). http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/v2/premis-2-0.pdf
Trustworthy Repositories: Audit and Certification (TRAC). http://www.crl.edu/archiving-preservation
Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG). http://www.updig.org/
Self-Assessment Programs
Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment (DRAMBORA). http://www.repositoryaudit.eu/
Life Cycle Information for E-literature (LIFE). http://www.life.ac.uk/
** The LIFE Project has developed a methodology to model the digital life cycle and calculate the costs of preserving digital information for the next 5, 10 or 100 years.
Planning for Digital Preservation: A Self-Assessment Tool, Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC). http://nedcc.org/resources/digital/downloads/DigitalPreservationSelfAssessmentfinal.pdf
Policy Development
Digital Preservation for Museums, Canadian Heritage. http://www.pro.rcip-chin.gc.ca/index-eng.jsp?Ne=8109&N=8109
Digital Preservation Policies Study, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/preservation/jiscpolicy_p1finalreport.pdf
Digital Preservation Policy Tool, Electronic Resource Preservation and Access Network (ERPANET). http://www.erpanet.org/guidance/docs/ERPANETPolicyTool.pdf
Repository Infrastructures
CLOCKSS. http://www.clockss.org/clockss/Home
DSpace. http://www.dspace.org/
Fedora. http://fedoraproject.org/
JHOVE . http://hul.harvard.edu/jhove/
LOCKSS. http://www.lockss.org/lockss/Home
Tools and Services
CONTENTdm, OCLC. http://www.oclc.org/contentdm/default.htm
Digital Archive, OCLC. http://www.oclc.org/digitalarchive/default.htm
Digital Library Federation/OCLC Registry of Digital Masters. http://www.oclc.org/digitalregistry/default.htm
Portico. http://www.portico.org/digital-preservation/
Tools and Services from the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/partners/resources/tools/index.html
On-line Resources, Newsletters, Blogs, and Listservs
Resources:
Digital Curation Center (DCC). http://www.dcc.ac.uk/
Digital Preservation Europe (DPE). http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/
Library of Congress NDIIPP. http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/
Museum Computer Network. http://www.mcn.edu/
NEDCC Digital Preservation Readiness Webliography. http://nedcc.org/resources/leaflets/6Reformatting/08DigitalPreservationReadiness.php
Preservation and Long-Term Access through Networked Storage (PLANETS). http://www.planets-project.eu/
The Preservation of Web Resources Handbook (PoWR). http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/preservation/powrhandbookv1.pdf
Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI). http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/index.html
PRONOM. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom/
** PRONOM is an on-line information system about data file formats and their supporting software products.
Newsletters:
D-Lib Magazine. http://www.dlib.org/
Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter. http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/news/archive.html
What’s New in Digital Preservation, Digital Preservation Coalition and PADI. http://www.dpconline.org/members/minutes-28-june-2006.html
Blogs:
Digital Preservation Blog. http://digitalpreservation.wordpress.com/
Digital Preservation Strategies. http://digitalpreservationstrategies.blogspot.com/
Digitization 101. http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/
Digitization Blog. http://digitizationblog.interoperating.info/
The Ten Thousand Year Blog. http://davidmattison.ca/category/digital-preservation/
University of London Computer Centre’s Digital Archive Blog (da blog).
http://dablog.ulcc.ac.uk/
Listservs:
Digital Preservation. http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/digipres
Digital Preservation Announcement and Information List (JISC). http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=digital-preservation
PADI Forum. http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/forum/