Transcript MetaA4SCHEV2008ATreh..

The Alabama Digital
Preservation Network (ADPNet)
Aaron Trehub
Director of Library Technology
Auburn University
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV)
Newport News, Virginia
March 14, 2008
Background
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ADPNet inspired by experience from NDIIPP
MetaArchive Project
IMLS grant: September 2006 through September
2008
Grant awarded to and administered by Alabama
Council on Higher Education/NAAL in Montgomery
Project director at Auburn University Libraries
Commitments from seven institutions across the
state
Objective
To create a low-cost, low-maintenance,
sustainable, geographically distributed
digital preservation network for
libraries, archives, and museums in
Alabama.
The seven participating institutions
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Alabama Dept. of Archives and History
Auburn University
Spring Hill College
Troy University
University of Alabama
University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of North Alabama
The network
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ADPNet is a Private LOCKSS Network (PLN)
Uses off-the-shelf equipment and software
LOCKSS servers (nodes) at all seven
participating institutions
Each institution maintains its LOCKSS server
Each institution contributes content for
harvesting and archiving by the network
Runs on sweat equity, with help from
LOCKSS staff
Why Alabama?
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Hurricanes
Tornadoes
Growing number of rich digital collections
Modest financial resources
Uneven technical support
Ideal test case for geographically distributed
digital preservation network
Why LOCKSS?
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Familiar with it (through MetaArchive)
Simple and robust
Cheap (except for membership in LOCKSS
Alliance—more on that later)
Good technical support
Know it works
Costs
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Servers: LOCKSS server and Web server (for
making content available to the network)
Staff time (less than we anticipated)
Communication (negligible)
Some travel—not much
The biggie: LOCKSS Alliance membership
fee (annual). Supports LOCKSS software
development and technical support
ADPNet Content
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ADPNet currently contains 11 collections
(“archival units”) from five institutions
Approximately 100 gigabytes harvested
Network capacity: one terabyte
Plenty of room for more collections
More collections on the way, including audio
and video files
ADPNet administration
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ADPNet is a single-state network
Folded into existing administrative
infrastructure: ACHE/NAAL
Not a service organization
No membership fees (but LOCKSS Alliance
membership mandatory)
In-kind contribution: bring up and run a
LOCKSS node in the network
Governance document in the works
ADPNet digital preservation awareness
survey
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Sent to academic and public libraries, archives,
schools, and state and municipal offices in Alabama
in February 2008
79 responses: public libraries largest single group of
respondents
Most important decision factors: reliability (91
percent), expertise and support (88 percent), cost
(86 percent), staffing (84 percent), and preservation
of mission-critical collections (84 percent)
Most people learn about new initiatives from
conferences and colleagues, so focus on those
Lessons learned
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Keep it simple
Keep it cheap
Don’t get fancy
Low maintenance
Low administrative overhead
Take advantage of existing structures and
relationships (easier to do with single-state
network)
Future plans
Add more content to the network
 Recruit more member institutions,
including public libraries and
museums
 Spread the word
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Contact
Aaron Trehub
Auburn University Libraries
[email protected]
http://adpn.org/