Digital Preservation: Setting the Course for a Decade of Change Neil Beagrie British Library Bibliotheque royale de Belgique November 2007

Focus of this lecture Trends: past (paper)→ current (hybrid) → future (more paper + much more digital) Licensed e-journals e-science / e-research e-special collections and personal archives European Initiatives Conclusions

Trends

Predicted Growth of Serials Publications (after EPS for e-legal deposit) All serials (print + e-) Dual form e-only serials

Computer Processing Power and Storage

Growth of Scientific Data and Data Curation In next 5 years e-Science will produce more data than has been collected in the whole of human history Data growth – Protein Data Bank ( /2005)

e-Journals and preservation

Archiving E- Publications 2006 ARL/CLIR study E-Journal Archiving Metes and Bounds: A Survey of the Landscape available from 2003/4 JISC e-journal archiving study by Maggie Jones available from:

Issues Identified Few journals are solely in digital form at this stage but parallel print/ e- access can only be regarded either as interim or partial equivalents Perpetual access and archiving concerns What guarantees do libraries have when they licence access to digital material they don’t own (and it is served from outside national boundaries)? Concerns about continued access following termination of a licence are a major inhibiting factor for libraries wishing to move to e- only access

Emerging Services Publishers negotiating dark archives for their back files (eg Elsevier) E-legal deposit laws in several countries and national libraries establishing e-journal archiving programs (eg BL, KB, DB); Third-party and consortial services (eg Portico, LOCKSS,OCLC digital archive); Research Funders creating open-access archives of funded research articles (eg NIH, Wellcome Trust)

Principles? I suggest we need to identify some core principles and aims for funders/publishers/customers: Support diversity of solutions/services - why? State of knowledge and different approaches adopted: risks in single preservation or business model approach Diversity of content included in different services: risks from gaps in content coverage Support multi-node and multi-national instances –why? not just backup/recovery – long-term geographical/political/cultural risks need to be addressed Scholarly communication is international and intellectual capital/content/publishing of e-journals is international Support professional “trusted” preservation repositories and services

e-Research and preservation (UK Science and Innovation Investment Framework 2004 – 2014)

Information Infrastructure 2.23 The growing UK research base must have ready and efficient access to information of all kinds – such as experimental data sets, journals, theses, conference proceedings and patents… It is clear that the research community needs access to information mechanisms which: systematically collect, preserve and make available digital information;… The Government [via DTI] will therefore work with interested funders and stakeholders to consider the national e-infrastructure (hardware, networks, communications technology) necessary to deliver an effective system.

Preservation & Curation WG There will be dramatic growth in digital research data and publications over the next decade Requirement to transform information provision so that UK researchers can benefit from the new research opportunities it will create There are major challenges in the preservation and curation of digital information Where disciplinary data centres and services exist they represent approx % of total research expenditure Outlined preservation components of infrastructure

Libraries, e-research, and preservation Some issues to consider: Different staffing/support structures for publications/data Disciplinary differences in e-research “80:20 rule” and implications for cataloguing or digital preservation

Digital Special Collections and preservation

British Library – Personal Archives Relevant (digital) special collections in BL: –Literary papers and correspondence –History of science –Web-archiving (blogs) –Oral history “Digital Lives” research theme –Synergies between different projects and collecting areas: inter-action with digital preservation or access research

Literary letters New York Times Essay 4 September 2005

Web-archiving - blogs

POLITICS: web-archiving

Digital Lives Research Project Partners: British Library, UCL(SLAIS), Bristol (IT and Law). Funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council from Sept 07- March 09 Website and blog

Digital Lives: Preservation Challenges Digital memory over a human lifetime and beyond for individuals Challenges- –Software and hardware obsolescence –Media life and data loss –Ephemeral data eg web-pages, –Dispersal – multiple /storage/publishing systems –More pro-active preservation strategies needed Libraries need to engage in research for future digital special collections

European Initiatives Libraries: e-depot (KB); Kopal (DB and partners); DOM (British Library) Archives: PRONOM and Digital Archive (TNA); Swiss National Archives; Dutch National Archive EU FP7 – PLANETS; CASPAR; Digital Preservation Europe; Alliance Permanent Access to Records of Science. Europe leading the world –currently ahead of US and emerging economies? – but see iPRES 2008…

Conclusions

Evolution or Revolution? Evolution –Print/Digital inter-dependencies – collective print storage and digitisation –Ongoing care of existing collections - lifecycle approaches to collection care and digital preservation Revolution –New digital preservation networks and services Professional networks eg Digital Preservation Coalition cross professional boundaries linking archives/libraries/data centres (national developments + international?) New types of service and organisations eg File Format Registries, LOCKSS, PORTICO –New (or more significance for) Digital Objects – e-journals, e- research, e-special collections –Acceleration of Scale and Automation for print and digital –Reaching “tipping points” in print/digital mix over next decade

Future of Preservation Digital will begin to dominate