Sustainable models for digital preservation

Adam Farquhar The British Library

Sustainability Models for Digital Preservation,

Brussels, 29-30 Nov, 2007

2

Outline of presentation

Motivation for workshop Brief introduction to Planets Typical preservation scenarios Planets outputs What might the market look like Types of models – you will do better!

3

Motivation: Project and funding cycle

Gather requirements

Transition toproduct or

service

Learn fromexperience

Scope activity

Developpilot

demonstrate

Strategy

Tech. change

Org. needs

Consum

er needsSustainedProducts

ToolsServices

4

Motivation: Do better!

Need is generic All successful funded projects have it

Track record is mixed Many projects end with a report filed on a shelf

Project participants have limited experience Rarely have connections with VC or other investment resources Rarely have skills in market and revenue development!

Goal of workshop: Bring together a broader range of experience Expand thinking beyond the obvious models Identify success criteria Narrow thinking to likely candidates Identify what works for Planets

5

Plantes overview

A 4-year research and technology development project co-funded by the European Union to address core digital preservation challenges

Started June 2006 with €15m budget Coordinated by the British Library Involves 16 partners including national libraries and

archives, leading technology companies and research universities

Builds on strong digital archiving and preservation programmes

Focuses on the needs of libraries and archives But underlying technology is domain neutral

6

Aims and objectives

Increase Europe’s ability to ensure long-term access to its cultural and scientific heritage Improve decision-making about long term preservation Ensure long-term access to valued digital content Control the costs of preservation actions through increased automation,

scaleable infrastructure Ensure wide adoption across the user community and establish market place for

preservation services and tools Basic assumptions:

Digital material has real long-term value Technology change makes digital material increasingly difficult to access New digital preservation technology can reduce costs and unlock access to older

digital material Build practical solutions

Integrate existing expertise, designs and tools Deliver tools and services that can be used in an operational environment

7

Planets partners

The British Library National Library, Netherlands Austrian National Library State and University Library,

Denmark Royal Library, Denmark

National Archives, UK Swiss Federal Archives National Archives, Netherlands

8

Planets partners

Tessella Plc IBM Netherlands Microsoft Research Austrian Research

Centers GmbH

Hatii at University of Glasgow

University of Freiburg Technical University of

Vienna University of Cologne

9

Losing digital information hurts everyone

An NHS doctor needs a 1987 clinical study found on Google Scholar

• She tries to open the ‘dvi’ file, but can’t A father shows his children the computer game he wrote in

school• He wrote the game in PDP assembler• He stored the program on paper tape

A small business owner wants to market the energy saving device it developed in 1985

• She carefully stored all of the files• Now she doesn’t have the applications to read the

documents, spread-sheets, and CAD drawings• The CAD company is long out of business

10

Losing digital information costs opportunity

A university research lab has provided its data, technical reports, software on-line since 1984 and on the web since 1990. The professor retires and closes the lab in 2004

• A university IP officer wants to defend a patent challenge• A biographer wants review the unpublished work• A former student wants to revive a line of research• The digital files

– Some are damaged– Some rely on applications that are out-of-use– Some rely on hardware that is unavailable– Some rely on an environment that no longer exists– Some rely on information that no-one recorded

11

Losing digital information costs money

An oil company collected extensive data for a reservoir and want to exploit it in 2007 All documents and data are

held in v1.3 of an integrated management product

They now use v9.0 and can’t read or access it

An oilfield services company collects dipmeter data in the 1970s Stored on 7-Track tapes Recorded in optimised formats Difficult and expensive to

repeat measurement data

12

How big is the problem?

Who is touched by digital preservation problems? Individual consumers Small and medium sized enterprises Large corporations University libraries, faculties, institutes Publishers Libraries Local, regional, national governments

… every person or organisation that keeps digital material for more than 15 years!

13

What’s in it for a National Library?

“Planets will provide the technology component of our digital preservation solution”

Richard Boulderstone, BL Director, 15/06/07 Planets will enable us to

Profile our digital collections against our policies Identify and diagnose problems in our digital collections Compare different treatment plans Select and implement treatment for a wide range of problems Verify that the treatment was successful Know how solutions work through empirical evidence and encourage vendors and service providers to provide

these capabilities to us

14

Planets architecture

PreservationPlanningServices

CharacterisationServices

PreservationAction

Services

Test Bed:evaluation and

validationservices

Interoperability Framework

Digital Content

Org.Context

ExternalContext

Technical Environment

15

Planets architecture: key components

Preservation planning tools and services for formulating and selecting preservation plans take into account multiple factors

Preservation characterisation tools and services for automatic analysis of digital objects’ technical and

intellectual characteristics supporting registry of characterisation information

Preservation action methodology for describing preservation action tools supporting registry migration and emulation tools

Testbed hardware and software environment for evaluation tools and services assessment of individual tools as well as execution of preservation plans

Interoperability framework service-oriented architecture decouples tools from original implementation environment

16

Key outputs

Intellectual property Software tools Service definitions Deployed services Data

Tools, services, formats, properties, policies

Experience Case studies, policy and

collection profiles Training programme

Preservation planning Preservation characterisation Preservation actions Quality assurance Benchmarking Adaptors for key repositories Not the repository

17

Some considerations

Organisational structure Open source Grant funded Commercial partnership Commercial license Start-up

Organisational type Hosted service provider Consultancy System integrator Software vendor Repository vendor Storage vendor

Reach National International

For-profit Not-for-profit

Revenue source Government agency Enterprise SME Consumer

18

Conclusion

We need your help To think outside of the box To learn what leads to success To separate the wheat from the chaff To learn what the next steps are To improve the way that funded projects transition to

a sustainable model