Brian Lavoie Research Scientist OCLC The Economics of Sustaining Digital Information NDIIPP Partners Meeting Washington, DC July 22, 2010

Sustainable resources

“Sustainability” Technical SocialEconomic Secure digital collections as part of enduring scholarly & cultural record … … Sustainable digital preservation

Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access Task Force: Support: NSF, Mellon, Library of Congress, JISC, CLIR, NARA Membership: cross-domain, cross-discipline Frame digital preservation as sustainable economic activity Understand problem space Interim Report (December 2008) Provide recommendations & guidelines Final Report (February 2010) BRTF

Task Force Final Report (February 2010) Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet

Key message “… sustainable economics for digital preservation is not just about finding more funds. It is about building an economic activity firmly rooted in a compelling value proposition, clear incentives to act, and well-defined preservation roles and responsibilities.”

Digital preservation contexts Commercially- Owned Cultural Content Collectively- Produced Web Content Research Data Scholarly Discourse

Sustainability principles & actions Dynamics: Preservation is a series of decisions Anticipate and make contingency plans for economic risks Secure mechanisms to transfer preservation responsibilities Benefits: Manage “demand-side” of preservation Aggregate dispersed demand across space & time Use option strategies where future value is highly uncertain Selection: Scarce resources = prioritization Prioritize on basis of projected future use Revisit decisions: “de-selection” as important as selection

Sustainability principles & actions (continued) Incentives: Strengthen, align, create Impose and enforce preservation mandates where appropriate Create private incentives to preserve in the public interest Diffuse “right to preserve” to encourage third-party archiving Organization: Coordinate preservation interests Governance: responsibilities, outcomes, strategies, accountability Formalize/document governance in policy, SLAs, MOUs Resources: Gather sufficient resources & use efficiently Ensure resource flows are flexible in face of disruptions Leverage economies of scale & scope to reduce costs

Priorities for near-term action Organizational Create “preservation-capable” organizations and relationships Technical Invest in building digital preservation capacity Public policy Create policy environment that facilitates & encourages digital preservation Education and public outreach Encourage “culture of preservation”

More information … Task Force reports & resources: Questions/comments: