Madsen Digital Preservation Policy & Strategy

Athenaeum2lChristine Madsen & Megan Hurst@mccarthymadsen @MHzUXwww.athenaeum21.com

December 7 2016 | NISO & NFAIS Virtual Conference

Digital Preservation Policy & Strategy: Where Do I Start?

www.athenaeum21.com © Athenaeum21

Athenaeum21: Who We Are

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Megan Hurst, MLIS, MFA Co-Founder, Chief Experience Officer & Head of US Operations@MHzUX

Christine Madsen, MLIS, DPhil Co-Founder, Chief Innovation Officer & Head of UK Operations@mccarthymadsen

Expertise

• Web & SaaS Product Development & Management

• Agile Software Development

• Optimization for Multi-Channel Publishing (web, mobile, audio, video, print)

• Assessment of Digital Services

• User Experience Research & Design

Work Experience MIDIOR Consulting, Harvard, EBSCO, Athenaeum21

Expertise • Information Management Systems

• Data Management Strategy

• Data Preservation

• Process Design & Management

• Information Conversion (Physical to Digital)

Work ExperienceUCSD, Harvard, Oxford, Bodleian, Athenaeum21

http://www.atheaneum21.com


Our Philosophy

High-quality data and information is fundamental to human agency, citizenship, scholarship, research, enterprise, and government.

Human use and access to data and information determines its value.

Data and information are valuable assets, and should be managed as such.

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Contents

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Digital Preservation Policy & Strategy

1. Why

2. What

3. How



Why Digital Preservation?

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LOTS of

Data

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1.Increasing quantity

2.Increasing variety

3.Increasing pressure to preserve



How do you make these decisions?

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Rules vs. Framework

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NOT about giving you the rules to decide what to

keep vs. what to toss

ABOUT providing a framework for understanding what decisions

to make




The answers about what “to keep” and what “to toss” differ for each institution

However,

The PRINCIPLES of how to make these decisions are the same.

First Principles




“we just need a digital repository”

Or

“we should take an emulation approach rather than a migration approach”

Common Traps




Saving time and money

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• Think about your strategy and policies• Start with a basic plan• What do you want to do? • What is the mission of your organization?• What are its goals?




“a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim”

So, in order to create a strategy, you need to know what your aim is

Strategy First




Basic Premise




Strategy




Policy




A Policy Should Provide:

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• The people on the ground with the answers to ‘should I keep this? Or toss it?’

• A cost-effective way for people to make decisions.

• The CONFIDENCE to make decisions on their own without having to check with a bunch of people.

• Some clarity for end-users about why you are making certain decisions




• Break the work into bite-sized pieces

• Stay focused on defining the problem BEFORE deciding on a solution

Why the separation

?




Taxonomy of Topics (From LoC Review - 2013)

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Access and UseAccessioning and IngestAuditBibliographyCollaborationContent ScopeGlossary/TerminologyMandatesMetadata or DocumentationPolicy/Strategy ReviewPreservation Model/ Strategy

Preservation PlanningRights and Restriction ManagementRoles and ResponsibilitiesSecurity ManagementSelection/AppraisalStaff Training/EducationStorage, Duplication, and BackupSustainability Planning

http://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2013/08/analysis-of-current-digital-preservation-policies-archives-libraries-and-museums/






• tackles too much at once

• conflates three different things

• makes the task overwhelming • has the wrong people making the

decisions at the wrong level

The Problem



Solution: Break the task into three parts


• Collaboration• Content Scope

• Mandates• Policy/Strategy Review• Sustainability Planning

1Strategy




• Access and Use• Metadata or Documentation• Preservation Model/ Strategy• Preservation Planning• Rights and Restriction

Management• Selection/Appraisal• Staff Training/Education

2Policy




• Accessioning and Ingest• Audit• Roles and Responsibilities• Security Management• Storage, Duplication, and

Backup

3Operations




Strategy = senior leadershipPolicy = managers - the people who have contact with your user baseOperations = techies - the people on the ground

People




Strategy = revise every 10 years Policy = every 3-5 years Operations = review annually and revise as needed

Shelf Life




3 Essential Things

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• Technology -- most people focus here and people want a shiny solution, even if it is expensive. But the technology should be the end-point, not the beginning.

• Organizational support -- people have to believe this is critical to the mission and goals of an organization and that is why a strategy that makes that connection explicitly is important.

• Resources -- and those resources need to be both human and financial




Human & Financial Resources

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• You need a team of committed people at all three of these levels → strategy, policy, and operations

• You need a budget• And advocacy at all levels




3 part approachto digital preservation

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Strategy

Policy

Digital Preservation

Operations

Tech-nologyPeople



A Good Strategic ApproachCan Make things MORE Preservable(in addition to reinforcing organisational mission & strategy)


“if we start collecting digital research data to preserve, do we also need to start preserving the software that was used to create and manipulate the dataset?”

Common Questions




“What are the significant properties of any given object?”

And how do they fit with what we are trying to achieve?

Are the methods new?

Or are just the research outputs important?

Better Question




• Is yours an organization that collects the raw materials of research?

• Do you have as part of your mission to preserve the process of scholarship (archives, manuscripts, etc.) or do you only collect the outputs?

• If the latter, why would you start now?

Better Question




Engaging with Researchers

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• Engage in a conversation about the significant properties of their digital outputs

• And help them understand how separating the data from the interface can have a significant impact on the preservability of their research data.



Content Interface


• What is important or unique?• Is it really the software? • Can it be designed in such a way

to separate them easily?

• Software becomes out of date in 12-24 months

• Data should last!

Software vs Data




• Wherever possible - separate the data from the interface

• And use your strategy / policy / operations documents to frame these conversation on a daily basis.

StrategyPolicy

Operations




Thank You!

Athenaeum2lwww.athenaeum21.com

Christine Madsen (UK) [email protected]

@mccarthymadsen

Megan Hurst (US)[email protected]

@MHzUX



http://www.athenaeum21.com

http://www.athenaeum21.com

mailto:[email protected]




Madsen Digital Preservation Policy & Strategy

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