UCL LIBRARY SERVICES

Blue Ribbon Task Force on the economic sustainability of digital preservation

Dr Paul Ayris

Director of UCL Library Services and UCL Copyright Officer

e-mail: p.ayris@ucl.ac.uk

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Contents

1. Why is digital preservation important?

2. Implications – UK exemplars

3. Blue Ribbon Task Force

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Contents

1. Why is digital preservation important?

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Library Strategy2005-10

10 over-arching goals E-Strategy a priority for:

Teaching and Learning Research Student experience Partnership working

See http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/libstrat_may05.shtml

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VRE/VLE/ local web

Student/UCL Library systems

Social networking tools Google interface to Internet

Prescribed core readingsand textbooks

Local UCL holdings

Paper and e-

External content subscribed and free

Research collaborations; Primary data; Group

project work; Learning interface

Pay fees; book residences;pay fines; see course andexam marks; see loans

information

Core textbooks (STM); Digital readings (AHSS)

Books/Journals/AV/Digital Collections

and Archives

YouTube, FaceBook, Flickr Global resources - freeE-Journals, E-Books,

mass digitisation

Institutional portal?

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Key Strategic Questions

British Museum Reading Room is traditional modelLibrary pulls readers into library space

In a networked and global environment, library is just one content provider In UCL, STM researchers hardly ever set foot into a physical library space

Digital material is pushed to them electronically at their desktop Should the Library push stuff out to where the student is (e.g. Facebook)? Is an institutional portal helpful in providing a one-stop shop for the user to

navigate both local and remote content and services?Thanks to Lorcan Dempsey for this metaphor and discussion

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Implications

2. Implications – UK exemplars

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Digital Preservation – Key Questions for Higher Education

In the new information landscape, long-term digital preservation of assets is essential

It is irresponsible to steer users towards the use of digital resources and not to curate those materials digitally for the long-term

Several scenarios for long-term preservation of digital content: Big Science: UK Research Data Service Small Science: Institutional, third-party/commercial services

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UK Research Data Service UKRDS

RLUK (Research Libraries UK – formerly CURL) and RUGIT (Russell Group IT Directors) have issued an Invitation to Tender

£200,000 from HEFCE for a Feasibility Study into the development of a shared digital research data service for UK Higher Education Institutions

Locally, there is uncertainty about the costs involved in managing large data volumes and the availability of a suitably skilled workforce to manage the new challenges posed by data curation

Feasibility Study will address the need not just for storage capacity but for active management of the creation, selection, ingest, storage, retrieval and preservation of research data - the data lifecycle identified in the LIFE models See http://www.ukrds.ac.uk/

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Other options

What other options does a UK University Library have? National services which work for the academic community

E-Depot in The Hague is a national Dutch exemplarArchiving e-journal copy from commercial publishers

– Digital archiving policy at http://conference.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/2006/proceedings/oltmans_vanwijngaarden_final_web.pdf

Does it have a European role, if it embraces the RAND Corporation recommendations at its review?

– http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2007/RAND_TR510.pdf

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Other options

Commercial services Portico for e-journal content – over 7,000,000 preserved articles See http://www.portico.org/

Local digital curation services UCL Library Services has established such a service

Covers long-term digital curation (including preservation) of library content

E.g. output of library digitisation projects, e-prints in UCL repository

Looking at primary data produced by academic researchers

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Task Force

3. Blue Ribbon Task Force

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See http://blueribbontaskforce.sdsc.edu/

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Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access

BRTF-SDPA Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in partnership with the Library of Congress, the JISC (UK), the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA – US)

Created in late 2007 to run for 2 years

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Key Questions being addressed

How will we ensure the long-term preservation and access to our digital information, growing exponentially with each passing day?

How will we successfully migrate data as technology moves from one preservation medium to the next?

Who should determine which digital data should be saved, and what criteria will be used to make those decisions?

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Economic Sustainability

Economic sustainability What is the cost to preserve valuable data and who will

pay for it? Broadly speaking, economically-sustainable digital

preservation will require new models for channeling resources to preservation activities efficient organization that will make these efforts affordable recognition by key decision makers of the need to preserve, with

appropriate incentives to spur action

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Economic Sustainability in a Digital Preservation Context

The set of business, social, technological, and policy mechanisms: Encourage the gathering of important information assets into digital

preservation systems Support the indefinite persistence of digital preservation systems, thus

securing access to and use of information assets into the long-term future Economically-sustainable digital preservation requires:

Recognition of the benefits of preservation by key decision makers, as part of a process of selecting digital materials for long-term retention

Appropriate incentives to induce decision makers to act in public interest Mechanisms to secure an ongoing allocation of resources, both within and

across organizations, to digital preservation activities Efficient use of limited preservation resources Appropriate organization and governance of digital preservation activities

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Outputs

BRTF-SDPA Has taken Charlie as the starting point for the discussion Task Force needs to understand what Charlie will need…

Not just to be a student or researcherOur Reports should be ground-breaking in identifying roles,

responsibilities, mechanisms and models for economically-sustainable digital preservation

With the goal of making Charlie an empowered, global citizen, using digital resources and services which are sustainable

First Report due to be signed off at the July meeting of the Task Force

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Because… Charlie is not simply an individual… He is each one of us… Task Force has to meet Charlie’s

needs and to empower him/her to achieve and contribute to Society…

I hope, and believe, we are up to the challenge…

If you have been, thanks for listening…