OCLC Online Computer Library Center Steering Around the Iceberg: Economic Sustainability for Digital Collections Brian Lavoie Research Scientist OCLC Economics of Digitization Symposium: May 18, 2004

Roadmap Economics of long-term digital stewardship Digital preservation Decision-makers, incentives, and economic sustainability Solutions?

Rising digital tide Equivalent of 5 exabytes of new information created in 2002 (Varian & Lyman) 92 percent stored on magnetic or optical media Mass migration: –Cultural artifacts (images, audio, video, text) –Electronic publishing (books, journals, databases) –Communication (listservs, blogs, chat rooms) Barriers to entry into digital information environments relatively low

Opportunities and challenges Digital technologies offer new opportunities to create, share, re-purpose, and link information … … but introduce new challenges in managing information Building digital collections requires substantial commitment of time, effort, and resources Economic sustainability: ability to marshal and put to effective use sufficient resources, on an ongoing basis, to support long-term stewardship of digital materials

Costs of long-term digital stewardship Not cheap! Complex technology environment between content and user Preservation: –Ensure access today, tomorrow, and for future generations –Maintain scholarly/cultural record in both their historical continuity and media diversity

Digital preservation Importance of digital preservation: –Digital storage media fragile –Rapid obsolescence as hardware/software environments evolve Need to preserve arises earlier and more frequently in digital information lifecycle: –Little scope to postpone digital preservation activities –Likely to be ongoing, pre-emptive process Preservation resource requirements are higher and more immediate –Total lifecycle costs resemble an iceberg

Obstacles to economic sustainability Preservation historically under-funded Digitization/digital collections supported by one- off grants, short-term funding, re-allocation of existing funds Most fundamental problem: ensure cooperation between key decision-makers associated with digital preservation, who collectively: –Determine whether preservation activities will go forward –Are responsible for committing resources to preservation

Key decision-making roles Rights Holder Beneficiary Archive Holds right to preserve Can grant/cede right to another entity Benefits from preservation … Directly: as end user Indirectly: on behalf of end-users Implements and manages preservation process

More about decision-makers … Decision-makers are roles, not distinct entities … –Single institution can fill one, two, or all three roles Multiple entities can share the same role Contributions to sustainability: –Beneficiary: need to preserve –Archive: willingness to preserve –Rights Holder: right to preserve Sustainable digital collections emerge from cooperative interaction between need, willingness, and right to preserve

Analog Digital Organization of decision-making roles Beneficiary Archive Rights Holder LIBRARY Beneficiary Archive Rights Holder REPOSITORY PUBLISHER LIBRARY

Splitting off the Rights Holder role … Right to preserve usually associated with ownership/custody Networked digital environments: –Content remains in custody of creator/publisher –Collecting institutions provide networked access Preservation activity must begin early in information lifecycle … –While content is outside custody of collecting institutions Incentive gap: –Rights Holder may not benefit from long-term preservation –Little incentive to commit resources to preservation

Splitting off the Archive role … Digital preservation activity likely to occur earlier and more frequently in information lifecycle –Resource requirements higher –Technical infrastructure expensive to build Very little core funding for digital preservation –Implies re-allocation of funds away from other activities/services Institutions may be unwilling to take on Archive role Incentive problem: –High costs of digital preservation exceed benefits

Remedies? Rights Holder has no incentive to preserve: –Legal Environment (legislation, directives, mandates) –Negotiation/Bargaining Beneficiary/Rights Holder unwilling to take on Archive role: –Collaboration, coordination, and centralization of digital preservation activities –Leverage common infrastructure, exploit economies of scale, and eliminate redundancies –Reduce costs and increase incentives to preserve

Steering around the iceberg … Sustainable digital collections require long- term commitment of time, effort, resources –Much of these costs bound up in securing the long- term accessibility of digital materials Economic sustainability requires cooperation between all key decision-making roles –Beneficiary, Archive, and Rights Holder In networked digital environments, one or more decision-making roles may become detached from collecting institutions –Creates potential for incentive gaps, which threaten economic sustainability

More information … Lavoie, B.F. (2003) The Incentives to Preserve Digital Materials: Roles, Scenarios, and Economic Decision- Making OCLC Research White Paper, available at: Lavoie, B.F. (2004) Of Mice and Memory … Economically Sustainable Preservation for the 21 st Century in Access in the Future Tense (Council on Library and Information Resources). Available at: