Transcript Assuring long term access to your digital collections

Assuring long term access to
your digital collections: Risk
Assessment and its role
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LIZ BISHOFF, DIRECTOR
BCR, DIGITAL & PRESERVATION
SERVICES
University of Alberta-Ex Libris
Symposium
March 4-5, 2010
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Policy environment
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 ‘Perhaps digital preservation is the wrong label. Maybe we
should be using preserving for long term access. Maybe we
can gain more traction with the public if we use different
terminology.’

Dame Lynn Brindley, CEO British Library, September 29, 2008
 ‘Too often an organization undertakes responsibility for
digital stewardship without first ensuring that the
necessary policies and controls are in place or that the
institution itself views digital preservation as a core
mandate.’

Kenney & Buckley, Developing Digital Preservation Programs: Cornell
Survey of Digital Readiness, Digi-News,2005
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Goal of long term access: digital preservation
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 Digital preservation:
 Managed
activities necessary for ensuring both
the long-term maintenance of a byte stream and
continued accessibility of its contents. (TDR, p.3)
 Aims to ensure that future users will be able to
discover, retrieve, render, manipulate, interpret
and use digital information in face of constantly
changing technology
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Backup vs. digital preservation
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‘Disaster recovery strategies and backup systems are
not sufficient to ensure survival and access to
authentic digital resources over time. A backup is
short-term data recovery solution following loss or
corruption and is fundamentally different to an
electronic preservation archive.’
• JISC. Digital Preservation: Continued Access to authentic digital
assets. (November, 2006)
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ALCTS PARS digital preservation definitions
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 Short definition:
Digital preservation combines policies, strategies
and actions that ensure access to digital content
over time.
 Medium definition:
Digital preservation combines policies, strategies,
and actions that ensure access to content that is
born digital or converted to digital form regardless
of the challenges of file corruption, media failure
and technological change. The goal of digital
preservation is the most accurate rendering
possible of authenticated content over time.
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ALCTS long definition
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 Digital preservation combines policies, strategies and
actions to ensure the most accurate rendering of
authenticated content over time, regardless of the
challenges of file corruption, media failure and
technological change. Digital preservation applies to
content that is born digital or converted to digital form.
 Digital preservation policies document an organization's
commitment to preserve digital content for future use;
specify file formats to be preserved and the level of
preservation to be provided; and ensure compliance with
standards and best practices for responsible stewardship of
digital information.
 Digital preservation strategies and actions address content
creation, integrity and maintenance.
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ALCTS long definition (cont.)
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 Content creation includes:
 Clear and complete technical specifications
 Production of reliable master files
 Sufficient descriptive, administrative and structural metadata to ensure future
access
 Detailed quality control of processes
 Use of persistent identifiers
 Content integrity includes:
 Documentation of all policies, strategies and procedures
 Recorded provenance and change history for all objects
 Verification mechanisms
 Attention to security requirements
 Routine audits
 Content maintenance includes:
 A robust computing and networking infrastructure
 Storage and synchronization of files at multiple sites
 Continuous monitoring and management of files
 Programs for refreshing, migration and emulation
 Creation and testing of disaster prevention and recovery plans
 Periodic review and updating of policies and procedures
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Open Archival Information System (OAIS)
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 Conceptual framework for an archival system dedicated to
preserving and maintaining access to digital information
over the long term
 Defines 6 functions of a digital archive
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
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
Ingest
Archival storage
Data management
Administration
Access
Preservation planning
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Open Archival Information System
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Preservation Planning
P
R
O
D
U
C
E
R
Data
Management
Descriptive
Info.
SIP
Ingest
Archival
Storage
queries
result sets
Access
orders
DIP
AIP
C
O
N
S
U
M
E
R
Administration
MANAGEMENT
SIP = Submission Information Package
AIP = Archival Information Package
DIP = Dissemination Information Package
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Adapted from OAIS Tutorial presented at the Library of Congress, 2003-06-13
How do you decide
what to preserve?
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A risk…
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 Varies by specific application & situation/context
 Described both qualitatively and quantitatively
 Risk is considered an indicator of both
 Threat, vulnerability, impact, uncertainty
 Chance that specific individuals are willing to undertake some
desired goal
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Digital preservation risks
 Can be technical
 Can be physical
 Can be organizational
 Can be socio-cultural
 Can be legal
 Can be financial
 Can be political
 Can be contractual
 Can be force majeur
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Risk and digital collections
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Risk impact on digital collections
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 Considered in terms of:
Impact on repository staff or public well-being
 Impact of damage to or loss of digital assets
 Impact of statutory or regulatory breach
 Damage to organizations reputation
 Damage to financial viability
 Deterioration of product or service quality
 Environmental damage
 Loss of ability to ensure digital object authenticity and
understandability is ultimate expression of impact

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How do you measure your organization’s risk?
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 Commitment to preservation:
Mandate or mission statement of the repository
 Defines who the repository services are for
 Defines target users of the content
 Defines digital content to be collected
 Defines how long the content will be kept
 Defines type of services repository will offer
 Risk is that the mandate is not formalized
 How committed are you to your collections?
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Failure of sustainability
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 Risk: Failure of succession planning and
sustainability
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Has the organization implemented an organizational structure
that will support its continued commitment?
Is there a budget that supports continued commitment?
Is there a defined exit strategy or succession plan?
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File formats in your collections
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 Risk: Lack of knowledge of file formats in collection
Is there a comprehensive list of file formats in the digital
library’s care?
 Lacking an easily available list makes it difficult to plan
digital preservation activities
 Risk: Identify file formats that meet user expectations
 Have you identified the specific file formats you can
preserve based on your user needs?
 Repository needs to clarify the file formats required by
the user that it can support
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Organizational fitness
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 Risk: Sustainability of key members of staff
Repository staff—supported with soft money
 Loss of key personnel would put operation of repository
at risk
 How many staff can leave & the repository still operate?
 Risk: Sustainability of budget
 What funding sources support the repository? Is the
budget balanced? Do they following generally accepted
accounting practices?
 Is there an exit strategy?
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Staff skills
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 Risk: Staff skills maintained
 Can staff deal with emerging technologies, formats, and
concepts?
 Skills audit: Create an inventory of required skills, what skills
are needed and how will those be gained?
 Provide ongoing training: demonstrate through budget and
training plan.
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Legal and regulatory legitimacy
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 Risk: Maintain requisite contractual and legal rights
 Will you have materials that commit you due to regulatory
framework or legislative requirements?
 Are there societal, ethical, judicial or other governance
requirements?
 Are there standards or voluntary codes to comply with?
 Examples
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Clear policy framework
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 Risk: Need a clear policy framework
 Is there a tradition of developing policies, reviewing them at
regular intervals & enforcing them?
 Policy by ‘oral tradition’ is insufficient in digital preservation
 Cannot enforce policies that aren’t in writing
 Repository is inefficient if it is not transparent
 Transparency comes about by having policies written down
and being openly available
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Risk Assessment:
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PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE
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Risk assessment activities
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 Inventory your digital assets
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Categorize by format (TIFF, JPEG)
Number of files
Software/hardware/operating system to create
 Storage environment for digital resources
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Hardware, software, operating environment
Age, maintenance environment
 Metadata available to support these resources.
 Data is required for planning and decision making
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Assessing and managing the risk
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 Define the risk
 Conduct a risk benefit analysis
 Relevance to the mission
 Adherence to organizations policies
 Authenticity
 Integrity
 Physical condition
 Accuracy & completeness
 Etc.
 DRAMBORA lists 80 sample risks
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Typical technical risks
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 Requirement is to:
 Have a technical infrastructure adequate to provide continuing
maintenance and security of the digital objects
Preserve original files exactly as submitted with demonstrated
integrity, viability and authenticity
 Adequate hardware and software
 Trained staff
 Renewal strategies
 Suitable contractual arrangements

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Typical technical risks
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 Risk:
 Non-availability of core utilities—power, water, electricity
resulting in loss of digital library service.
 Risk:
 Natural disaster that disrupts digital library service
 Risk:
 Loss of core services due to loss of network, catalog, storage
device, etc.
 Risk:
 Security breach
 Loss of access to stored objects
 Physical capacity of stored objects is insufficient
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Planning and digital repositories?
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 Tools for planning
 Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment
(DRAMBORA), DCC http://www.repositoryaudit.eu
 Audit and certification
 Trustworthy Repository: Audit and Certification. OCLC/CRL,
February, 2007.
http://www.crl.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/pages/tra
c_0.pdf
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Thank you
Questions?
Liz Bishoff
[email protected]
303-751-6277
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