Preservation Strategies: What goes into a long term archive? Ronald Weaver National Snow and Ice Data Center Version 1.0 Review Date

Module Template: Subtitle; Version 1.0, Reviewed 9/15/11 A Long Term Archive Not all Data Intrinsic merit Communicate Early Future Benefits

Module Template: Subtitle; Version 1.0, Reviewed 9/15/11 Not all Data All Data do not automatically flow to the Long Term Archive (LTA)! LTAs have developed accession guidelines which promote a discussion between the provider and the LTA to determine the most appropriate archive strategy The LTAs cannot possibly handle all data ever collected – they simply do not have the capacity

Module Template: Subtitle; Version 1.0, Reviewed 9/15/11 Intrinsic Merit The value of Earth science data for future use is typically the first basis considered in the LTA accession process “value” has many attributes Uniqueness of measurements, in time, location, instrumentation, etc. Supports a timeseries of geophyscal parameter or measurement Existience of metadata, description of instrumentation, measurement procedures etc raises the value for LTA considerably Bottom line: intrinsic merit is fuzzy and needs to be evaluated through conversations between the provider, archiving center, and the wider scientific community Data types considered for LTA vary widely from field collected data, model results or higher level products (that are unique or computationally difficult to reconstruct)

Module Template: Subtitle; Version 1.0, Reviewed 9/15/11 Communicate Early Bottom line (repeated) intrinsic merit is fuzzy and needs to be evaluated through conversations between the provider, archiving center, and the wider scientific community Establishing the “value” of a given data set is best accomplished as early as possible. Identify your LTA center early in your project and open discussion with them about your data set.

Module Template: Subtitle; Version 1.0, Reviewed 9/15/11 Future Benefits The LTA responsibility is to NOT simply warehouse your data The LTA process must assure discovery and access to your data, sometimes decades in the future. In order to accomplish that, metadata, documentation, ancillary (supporting) data all become essential to the successful long term archival of your Earth science data.

Module Template: Subtitle; Version 1.0, Reviewed 9/15/11 References and Resources Several websites offer links to more general data management plan development. We suggest starting with the following: Digital Curation Centre Plans (Useful checklist for developing a data management plan) University of California Curation Center (Data Planning Checklist) Data Management and Publishing (MIT) Data Management and Publishing (Univ of Minnesota) Common internet search terms “data management plan” “earth science data management”

Module Template: Subtitle; Version 1.0, Reviewed 9/15/11 Other Relevant Modules List modules that are related