The art of effective persuasion - drafting a deposit agreement that covers born-digital material Simon Wilson, Acting University Archivist

Born-digital archives Material that was created digitally - whether it is documents, images, spreadsheets, databases, s, web pages, twitter etc etc Material that you wish to retain permanently Many of the processes we apply and decisions we make are not based on the format of the item(s) but there are also some fundamental differences effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 2

Deposit agreement Depositor & archive service - ensure common understanding -status of the accession (donation/deposit etc) -nature and extent of the deposit(s) -access restrictions, copyright, Data Protection, FOI etc -authority of the archive (to dispose/return material), give permission to publish, use for educational purposes etc -keeping in touch with changes of contact details Rarely says anything specific about file formats effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 3

A single agreement to cover paper, hybrid and born-digital archives?

What are the key differences with b-d material? In many cases born-digital material transferred is a copy – ask depositor not to give the same material to another archive (not an issue with paper archives) Not so easy to ‘return’ unwanted items – how do we convince depositors we’ve destroyed (our copy) effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 5

What are the key differences with b-d material? Often undertake to conduct preservation/conservation work – with b-d it could be time consuming and expensive to recover some media / file formats – keeping a file forever = frequent migration events – should we try to secure some financial contributions from depositors at the point of deposit? How do we make depositors aware of the need/cost element ? – with paper the case for preservation is often very visible effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 6

Depositor awareness Even depositors familiar with archives and archivists – with b-d material it becomes a new conversation Previously we asked about organisational structure but with born-digital material we need to ask about – computing history – software used (may highlight file formats to expect) – file-naming conventions they used (versioning etc) effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 7

So why have I called this the art of persuasion...?

The need to act quicker With paper material there is a natural process; records created, used and then after time placed to one side, eventually transferred to archives With b-d material we must change the pace of this cycle In-order to advise on records we need to know/understand what they are creating (as with paper records) – poking around their servers will be very intrusive (to some) but welcomed by others effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 9

Sensitive content Alongside the issue of acting quicker is the fact that we are talking about content much closer to the point of creation Higher likelihood of sensitive content – private address or a telephone no So much harder to be 100% sure – conduct a risk analysis for each collection effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 10

Digital Forensics Many of us pride ourselves in using the same hardware and software that police and lawyers use to ensure the safe collection of content without impacting on the metadata How do we have a conversation about our ability (in some cases) to un-delete files that they had deleted !! Our work and profession rely heavily on trust - we need to have the conversation - but it will scare many of our depositors effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 11

Social media We need to ask individuals and organisations about their social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc - archives not complete/representative without it Need to ask about identities and passwords effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 12

Avoiding an interrogation effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 13 You could put together a list of questions to ask - this can be intimidating for many depositors - likely that many aspects will not be relevant – - useful as a prompt for discussion Practice asking the questions with family and friends – can you justify the question and your actions ? – technically complicated but the explanation shouldn’t be! – emphasis on role as custodian and draw parallels with more traditional archival concepts

Practical next steps...?

Review and reflect effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 15 Look again at your existing processes and paperwork It is likely that only cosmetic changes are needed to accommodate many scenarios Experience is critical – the more conversations you have the easier they become and the more reassurance you can offer on the grounds that you have been there done that Real examples on SAT website – to be inspired by!!

Be inspired.... effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 16 Deposit agreements need to reflect the particular needs and circumstances of the institution I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to say this is what your agreement should say Over the next month I will collate a few examples from colleagues and place sample phraseology on the SAT pages on the ARA website

Contact details Simon Wilson Acting University Archivist Hull History Centre Tel effective persuasion | 19th Mar 2015 | 17