On the Lam or in Collaboration. Increasing Competence in Long-Term Preservation

1. On the Lam or in Collaboration. Increasing Competence inLong-Term Preservation Preventing the Digital Dark Age Avoiding the Digital Black Hole Tuomas J. Alaterä IASSIST 2010

2. The Cure IASSIST 2010

3. National Digital Library • Online accessibility and long-term preservation of both digitized and born-digital cultural material & scientific information • Public user interface • Connects to various back end systems / catalogues (OAI-PMH) • In operation 2011 • Centralised long-term preservation solution • In operation 2016 (perhaps) • Currently requirement specifications ready for further development. NDL-LTPS IASSIST 2010

4. ==== Search Public Interface Long-Term Preservation Archive metadata Object request Object request metadata SIP DIP End users Back End Systems (of the LAMs) IASSIST 2010

5. Lam(b)s in the Field • Libraries • National Library • Archives • National Archives & National AV-Archive • Museums • National Museum • Many small LAM’s • One Data Archive LAM IASSIST 2010

6. What do we preserve? LAM • Libraries • Digitised and born digital books, journals… • Archives • Official records, documents, microfilms, movies, TV-programmes, recordings, databases… • Museums • Digital images, images of objects, maps… • One Data Archive • Research data (quantitative, qualitative) IASSIST 2010

7. How all this comes together? • Centralised Digital Archive that follows the OAIS model • An organisation needs to be compliant before it can join the Archive • The action rests a lot on best practises and collaboration among the LAMs, guided by the the Archive • Bits are blissfully ignorant – the can be preserved whether they are the ones and zeros of research data or digitised books, photographs, video feed… • What needs to be taken care of is preserving of content, providing means and tools to secure that what we preserve can also be understood in years to come • …so let’s put everything in • only a part of the task, but is the chosen container IASSIST 2010

8. Survey • Measuring “organisations’ readiness to make the transition into an electronic operating environment” • Focus: to find out what steps must be taken before centralised long-term preservation is a viable option for all libraries, archives and museums • Maturity measured on 4 levels: policies (strategies), processes, content (metadata), technical abilities • Scale 1-5 (1=not acknowledged … 5=standardised practise) • Archiving electronic (digital) research data takes place in electronic environments •  so we were expecting good results… And we got them! 4.25/5 IASSIST 2010

9. Results: Satisfaction! • Our short and long-term policies exist and we follow & review them • We have experienced people working at FSD • We are technically advanced • We have the DDI and international networks • Still everything is not perfect: • Refined policies required & the work done should be documented • Proper risk analysis should be made • Costs (and funding in general) need to be examined • APIs for data transfer need to be built IASSIST 2010

10. Benefits of collaboration for us • Archives +++, Libraries ++, Museums ++ • Meeting the other players on the field • Making research data more visible to everyone and bringing it to more familiar surroundings • Increasing possibilities of combining various data sources • New insightful research projects could build on this • Setting an example how to bring natural science, economics etc. data available • Cooperation has already begun. Social Science Data Archive could have a substantial role in the process because we already for years have operated digitally in OAISish way and respected the idea of life cycle! IASSIST 2010

11. Do the LAM(b)s have metadata? • Yes, lots of it… • …much of it very – I mean very – inconsistent • Lots of metadata is missing too • There are no uniform ways how the metadata are used. Not many common formats and absolutely no standard way of using them. •  need to create metadata requirements and recommendations. • Technical and administrative metadata first IASSIST 2010

12. Data archive and metadata? • DDI puts us in front line because of it’s refined structure • We are able to produce most of the required metadata from DDI or our operational database. • But we need to focus on technical metadata to meet the long-term preservation requirements IASSIST 2010

13. Background for ”readiness survey” • Following documents were used when designing the survey and interviews • Online Computer Library Center, Center of Research Libraries (OCLC CRL): Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist (TRAC) • Delaware Division of Libraries and the Delaware Digital Preservation Steering Committee: Digital Preservation Readiness Capability Maturity Model and Digital Preservation Readiness Balanced Scorecard • State University of New York, Center for Technology in Government: Government Digital Information Preservation • Digital Curation Centre (DCC)& Digital Preservation Europe (DPE): DRAMBORA, Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment • Consultative Commitee for Space Data Systems: Producer – Archive Interface Methodology Abstract Standard • University of London Computer Centre: The AIDA self-assessment Toolkit Mark II, Assessing Institutional Digital Assets IASSIST 2010

14. How to proceed? • Make a choice – commitment to centralised long-term preservation!! • Identify your collections/objects that must, should or could be preserved • Start with the metadata rehearsals… • Get educated • Wait for the paradise beginning in 2016! IASSIST 2010

15. More information? • Available in English in near future • Enterprise Architecture • Format Library/Standards portfolio (?) • General presentation materials • URL: http://www.kdk2011.fi/ IASSIST 2010

16. Questions? • Tuomas J. Alaterä • tuomas.alatera@uta.fi IASSIST 2010