Developing Economic and Organizational Models to Support Preservation

Kevin GuthrieJISC-CNI Meeting, York

July 8, 2006

Outline

• Definition of the e-preservation problem

• Historical highlights of e-preservation efforts

• Introduction to Ithaka and its role

• General lessons learned about developing sustainability models

Digital Preservation Presents a New Problem

• Simply put, in the print world, you had to possess an item in order to read it, to access it, to use it.

• Possessing the object enabled the owner to care for it in whatever way it might want. Libraries tend to preserve, or at the very least, hold materials for the long-term

• A redundant system of preservation of the scholarly record evolved from this natural marriage between preservation and access.

• Digital materials do not follow this pattern – access and preservation are now separable.

Historical Highlights of E-Preservation Efforts

• May 1996 – The Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information (jointly sponsored by RLG and the Commission on Preservation and Access) issued its report. (http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub63.html)

• December 2000 - Library of Congress NDIIP (National Digital Information Infrastructure Program) launched. ~$175m with matching

• Fall 2001 - Mellon E-Journal Archiving Program. Two approaches tested. LOCKSS (Stanford) pursued a distributed replication strategy, while Harvard, Yale, Penn, Cornell, MIT and the NYPL pursued a centralized strategy working with publishers or disciplines.

• October 2005 – “Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly Journals” statement issued following meeting of 17 university and college librarians. (http://www.arl.org/osc/EjournalPreservation_Final.pdf)

The Challenge

• Structure a sustainable model that motivates collective action to achieve an important community goal

Ithaka’s Mission

• Ithaka’s overarching mission is to help the scholarly community take fullest advantage of advances in information technologies

• We pursue that mission by creating, nurturing and assisting innovative organizations and projects that use technology to facilitate change and save resources. We engage in three types of activities:

- Strategic Services- Research- Shared Services (IT, HR, Finance)

• Think of Ithaka as a not-for-profit venture capital incubator

Separate the project from the organization

• The project needs to be able to see challenges and opportunities with fresh eyes

• There must be a sense of entrepreneurial accountability

• There must be a fear of failure (“nothing focuses the mind like the sight of the gallows”)

Define the mission of the enterprise

• For not-for-profits, this is absolutely essential

• The mission (or a set of objectives off a broad mission) must be defined narrowly enough to help prioritize and guide difficult decisions

• Objectives must be defined (beyond financial) that enable some verifiable measures of delivery on mission

Hire a great leader

• Successful venture capitalists say they invest in people, not products or services

• The leader must be 100% committed and dedicated to the mission of the enterprise

• The leader must have a vested interest in the enterprise’s success

Establish a Governing or Advisory Board

• If an independent organization, an effective board is critical. If part of an existing organization, a strong advisory board vested with close to a governance role is necessary.

• Board members should have the perspectives of the various stakeholders in the enterprise.

• The board should have a diverse membership, and should not just include “practitioners”.

• Board members should not be regarded as “representatives” but should bring a diverse set of backgrounds, ideally including legal, strategic planning, and business experience.

Establish an effective governance process

• The board should meet a minimum of 3 to 4 times per year

• Background documents for board meetings should include financial statements, updates on progress and important strategic challenges

• The board of a start-up should never be expected to act as a rubber stamp for management’s proposals. The information provided to the board should enable them to engage in the issues and help guide early development of the enterprise.

• The goal is candid and thorough engagement. Not board “management”

Allow the leader the flexibility to adjust

• The board must allow, indeed encourage, the leader to adjust the strategy when necessary

• Changes in approach, within reason, are a natural part of the process and should not be regarded as a failure of leadership or execution.

• There is a period of research and investigation, sometimes incubation, that is required by most start-ups.

Provide sufficient capital

• Start-ups require capital and this is a challenge in the NFP sector

• There must be sufficient resources to hire excellent staff, and yet not so much to enable complacency

• The board must insist as soon as practicable on seeing a business plan for sustainability.

• This plan must demonstrate reasonably that there are stakeholders that will value the organization sufficiently to generate the resources to sustain it.

• This is a guide. The plan will have to be adjusted and updated regularly during initial years

Match Value to Support

• Considerable effort needs to be expended to determine who benefits from the work of the enterprise and how much. Listen.

• Those that benefit from the work of the organization should then be sought to provide support for it

• Revenue generation models must be tested, and the only way to reveal willingness to provide support is to ask for it

• This does not presuppose any particular model. It could be continued philanthropic or government support, open access (author or research supporter pays) subscription, advertising or other hybrid models

• A diverse set of revenue sources should be sought

Communicate the value you offer

• It is essential to develop effective ways to communicate the value you bring to the stakeholders that will support you.

• This is part of a continuing dialogue with those stakeholders about their evolving needs and the services and ability of your organization to address those needs.

• Determine ways to validate that you are delivering on your mission and communicate the progress being made.

Developing Economic and Organizational Models to Support Preservation

Kevin GuthrieJISC-CNI Meeting, York

July 8, 2006

An assertion about Venture Capital

“…a dollar of venture capital appears to be about three times more potent in stimulating patenting than a dollar of traditional corporate R&D.”

Kortman & Lerner, “Assessing the Contribution of Venture Capital to Innovation”, RAND Journal of

Economics