Transcript Digital Sustainability overview

Digital continuity and Digital Sustainability:
current problems, ongoing trends and [Archives
New Zealand’s] solutions
Presentation for Christchurch Recordkeeping Forum
Mick Crouch
Business Analyst
Digital Sustainability
“Preservation can be thought of as
communication with the future. Information
that is understood today is transmitted to an
unknown system in the future where it will
be interpreted and displayed.”
Toward a Theory of Digital Preservation
Reagan Moore, San Diego Supercomputer Center
A Brief History of Digital Continuity
1960s
Early digital archive programmes
1990s
Research (InterPARES I, Pittsburgh, Monash, etc.)
Post-custodialism and paradigm shifts
Awareness raising: “The lost decades”, “digital amnesia”
2000s
Digital recordkeeping programmes
Collaborative, intensified research (ErpaNet, PLANETS,
InterPARES II & III, DELOS)
Standards (OAIS, PREMIS, ADRI etc)
Where Are We Now?
• Digital preservation =
community
• Many examples of digital
archives systems:
• Korea, Malaysia,
Switzerland, Netherlands,
France, Australia, etc
• Useful experiences to share
• Shift of focus to practice
Collaborative Research and Practice
• Archives, libraries, science /
research sectors, arts,
academics
• Preservation planning
services
• Methodologies, tools and
services
• Preservation action tools
• Testbeds and prototypes
• Aim for dissemination and
take-up
Interesting Trends
• Out of the box software
• E.g. Safety Deposit Box (Tessella Support Services
and The National Archives UK)
• Malaysia
• Switzerland
• Netherlands and others
• Further developments for each
implementation
• Open source add-ons
Obstacles
• Transfer a problematic concept
• Slow rates of transfer to established digital archives
• Most common transfers from last resort context
• Agencies keeping copies of records
• Mixed approaches to access
• Still an afterthought, with focus on preservation? (e.g. Swiss
handling of databases)
• Often access is through existing finding aids systems
• Agency access interface for direct transfers (e.g. France)
Shared Services for (Non-Archival) Information
What is Archives New Zealand doing?
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Digital Continuity Action Plan
Interim Digital Archive (IDA) development
Work on file formats
Digital Archaeology
Community of Practice / Practical Implementers Guild
Guidance – ERKSS Review, Web, TC/DRM
Research – datasets, web, legacy records, TC/DRM
Archives NZ - Interim Digital Archive
How the Interim Digital Archive Works
Refer
PRONOM
format registry,
TNA
Digital
Record
Analyse &
prepare
Assign
archival
metadata
Ingest
Identify
DROID
Identify &
validate
JHOVE
Normalise
XENA
Manage &
preserve in
repository
Ingest and Normalisation
The Digital Archaeology Project
Hands-on experience with records held at Archives NZ
What do we hold?
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297 floppy disks
113 CDs or DVDs
21 9-track tapes
16 data cartridges
2 ZIP disks
Practical Implementers Guild
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Archives New Zealand
National Library New Zealand
Statistics New Zealand
Victoria University
Te Papa
Research
• Datasets across the public sector – collaboration with
Statistics New Zealand
• Web Information Continuity Project
• TC / DRM
• Legacy records
Research findings
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Agencies hold information which is at risk and/ or
inaccessible
Retrieval of legacy information is expensive and takes a
long time
Twenty-eight public sector agencies hold digital records
over 25 years old; nearly a third of these offices hold more
than 100 gigabytes of digital records each
Digital Continuity Action Plan
Digital Continuity Action Plan: Key Messages
• There when you need it. Information will be maintained as long
as needed. Some is needed only for a few months, some forever.
• Authentic and reliable. Information is tamper-proof and free of
technological rights restrictions. It can be trusted to be authentic
and reliable.
• Trusted access. New Zealanders can be confident they can find
and use information that is publicly available, and that their
sensitive information will be protected from unauthorised access.
• Do nothing, lose everything. If no action is taken, public sector
digital information will be lost. We need a proactive approach to
maintain information for the future.
Digital Continuity Action Plan Consultation
• 206 public offices and 76 local authorities were asked to
provide feedback
• 63 written submissions were received from 55 different
organisations
• Local government now in scope
• The term ‘information’ replaces ‘records’ and ‘documents’
Next steps
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Consultation wrapped up Nov
2008
Reviewed by Strategic Advisory
Group Dec 2008
Rewritten into an Action Plan Feb
2009
Sent to Minister March 2009
Two weeks of further
consultation
The action plan goes to cabinet
through the Officials Committee
April 2009
Cabinet approves it as official
Government policy
Action point projects in July 2009
Don’t forget!
• It’s all about digital: The public records and archives of
today and tomorrow will be in digital formats. Archives New
Zealand is supporting digital continuity across the broader
public sector.
• Do nothing, lose everything: if we don’t actively
manage digital records and archives, we will have nothing in
the future.
• We need to work together: Archives New Zealand is
looking for partners to help trial new systems with real data
– are you interested?