Preservation for IRs

1
Preservation for IRs
2
Keep IR preservation in perspective

• You can't preserve an empty archive. Don't
  discourage deposits by making them more
  difficult.
• Self-archiving of peer reviewed papers is a
  parallel activity - journals are preserving the
  originals, e.g.
• At Koninklijke Bibliotheekhttp//www.rlg.org/en/p
  age.php?Page_ID17068Printable1Article_ID990
• LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe)
  http//www.dlib.org/dlib/june01/reich/06reich.html
  

3
Digital preservation a broad view

• Long-term preservation is an issue that confronts
  those who are responsible for repositories of
  digital materials
• This is a very current issue
• Contentious statements are made about
  preservation digital materials will not
  disappear overnight we are not facing a doomsday
  (or even a BBC Domesday) scenario

4
Digital repositories trustworthy

• The proliferation of experience, research, and
  infrastructure throughout the cultural heritage
  community has made trustworthy digital
  repositories conceptually realistic." (RLG-NARA
  2005)
• Trustworthiness needs organisational planning as
  well as technology
• E.g. Cornell tutorial on Digital Preservation
  Management
• http//www.library.cornell.edu/iris/tutorial/dp
  m/

5
Trusted repositories

• What is a trustworthy digital repository?
• Is an IR trustworthy?
• Does it need to be? Can preservation be supported
  as an external service?

6
Open Archival Information System

• OAIS is the standard reference model for digital
  preservation

7
IRs as an OAIS preservation model

• An IR model looks similar to the OAIS model
• The input interface can be adapted for formal
  preservation ingest
• An IR supports Data Management and Access
• The main differences are the Archival Storage and
  Preservation Planning functions

8
Archival Storage

• What activities might be involved in Archival
  Storage?
• E.g. storage media, media refreshing,
  reformatting, backups and disaster, recovery,
  environment, audit, security, preservation
  strategy, migration, technology preservation,
  emulation, records management, etc.

9
PRESERV Project

• Adapting EPrints to support preservation as an
  external service
• Automating file format identification at deposit
  using PRONOM software from the National Archives
• Delivering content via an OAI harvesting
  interface to a preservation service provider. In
  PRESERV the British Library is an exemplar
  service provider

10
PRESERV a preservation architecture
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PRONOM in OAI export from EPrints
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What do researchers want?

• Some anecdotal evidence
• Q What Would It Mean To Preserve Your Research?
• A1 "One would want to understand the context -
  the whys and motivation for the work - both
  personal and in terms of the calls for research
  proposals.
• A2 "Capture a copy of everything I have ever
  published in context, i.e. including a copy of
  the thing in which my article was published."

13
What IRs can do now

• Here are some things you can do to plan for
  preservation
• Find out what your users want
• Review range of file formats for deposited
  materials. Is it feasible to restrict to a
  specified subset?
• Educate, but dont frighten users
• Specify some initial requirements
• Think about business models and cost
• Watch for developments from PRESERV

14
Conclusions

• There is no silver bullet. Take small steps
• Preservation is not a show-stopper - you should
  not wait for all the problems to be solved
• Carry on filling your IR