1. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 Alliance Permanent Access to the Records of Science in Europe Network aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, director@alliancepermanentaccess.org APA

2. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Outline Motivation Threats –General –PARSE.Insight findings Techniques to counter the threats

3. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Motivation There are threats to digital preservation which must be countered if you want to preserve your digital holdings PARSE.Insight has identified a number threats which are very widely recognised – globally and across disciplines Some of these you may not be aware of – but you should be if you are to be prepared

4. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Threats Things change…… –Hardware –Software –Environment –Tacit knowledge Things become unfamiliar

5. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Indication of distribution of researchers’ responses in PARSE.Insight Researchers: 1/3 Europe 1/3 USA 1/3 rest of world Incomplete sample of respondees Overall: 44% Europe 33% USA 23% rest of world

6. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA What? Data spectrum (R)

7. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Threats to preservation 1.Users may be unable to understand or use the data e.g. the semantics, format or algorithms involved. 2.Lack of sustainable hardware, software or support of computer environment may make the information inaccessible. 3.Evidence may be lost because the origin and authenticity of the data may be uncertain. 4.Access and use restrictions (e.g. Digital Rights Management) may not be respected in the future. 5.Loss of ability to identify the location of data. 6.The current custodian of the data, whether an organisation or project, may cease to exist at some point in the future. 7.The ones we trust to look after the digital holdings may let us down.

8. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Threats to preservation (R) The ones we trust to look after the digital holdings may let us down The current custodian of the data may cease to exist Loss of ability to identify the location of data Access and use restrictions may not be respected in the future Evidence may be lost Lack of sustainable hardware/software Users may be unable to understand or use the data

9. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Threats to preservation (R) Users may be unable to understand or use the data e.g. the semantics, format or algorithms involved.

10. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA ThreatRequirement for solution Users may be unable to understand or use the data e.g. the semantics, format, processes or algorithms involved Ability to create and maintain adequate Representation Information Non-maintainability of essential hardware, software or support environment may make the information inaccessible Ability to share information about the availability of hardware and software and their replacements/substitutes The chain of evidence may be lost and there may be lack of certainty of provenance or authenticity Ability to bring together evidence from diverse sources about the Authenticity of a digital object Access and use restrictions may make it difficult to reuse data, or alternatively may not be respected in future Ability to deal with Digital Rights correctly in a changing and evolving environment Loss of ability to identify the location of data An ID resolver which is really persistent The current custodian of the data, whether an organisation or project, may cease to exist at some point in the future Brokering of organisations to hold data and the ability to package together the information needed to transfer information between organisations ready for long term preservation The ones we trust to look after the digital holdings may let us down Certification process so that one can have confidence about whom to trust to preserve data holdings over the long term

11. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Basic preservation activities Libraries say: “Emulate or migrate” –Works well with data only in special cases  Can repeat what was done before instead of new things Can repeat what has been done before with the software BUT Cannot use new applications Convert to format which new software can use BUT What if there are many software systems?

12. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Additional technique: add Representation Information OAIS introduces the concept of Representation Information –Information to help understand the digitally encoded object - includes  emulators  bit-level descriptions  dictionaries –Ideally description allows automated extraction of information In general if a digital object is no longer usable/understandable adding Representation Information digital can often solve the problem

13. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Migration OAIS defines various types of Migration: –Do not change the bits  Refresh  Replicate –Change the packaging but not the content  Repackage –Change the content  Transform (usually non-reversible) + Need to consider “Transformational Information Properties” – important for AUTHENTICITY »Related to “Significant properties” + Add appropriate Representation Information for the new format

14. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA AND – be prepared to Hand-over Preservation requires funding Funding for a dataset (or a repository) may stop Need to be ready to hand over everything needed for preservation –OAIS (ISO 14721) defines “Archival Information Package (AIP) which brings together everything needed for long term preservation – With information which covers  Understandability  Authenticity  How things are packaged together Not a one-off – Need to ensure that Understandability (for the Designated Community) is maintained  Needs a support system

15. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Evaluating Preservation techniques For each technique look for evidence – what evidence? –accelerated lifetime tests – check understandability and evidence for authenticity  comparison with preservation objectives Which techniques work for which type of objects? –rendered vs non-rendered –composite vs simple –dynamic vs static –active vs passive must look at all types of threats

16. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Tools and services Many lists of tools to help in digital preservation e.g. http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/tools/ http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/tools/ APARSEN: –Evidence-based Digital Preservation Tools Repository http://www.alliancepermanentaccess.org/index.php/knowledg e-base/tools/ - where are tools applicable and what is the evidence http://www.alliancepermanentaccess.org/index.php/knowledg e-base/tools/ SCIDIP-ES –Preservation services – evidence of effectiveness from CASPAR project

17. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Storage Service Gap Identification Service Orchestration Service RepInfo Registry Service Preservation Strategy Toolkit Data Virtualisation Toolkit Process Virtualisation Toolkit Authenticity Toolkit Packaging Toolkit RepInfo Toolkit Finding Aid Toolkit Cloud Storage External Access/Use Services Persistent ID i/f Service External PI services ISO Certification Organisation Certification Toolkit These SUPPLEMENT what repositories do (customised for repositories) Make it easier for repositories to do preservation – share the effort Proven through a series of projects CASPAR, PARSE.Insight These SUPPLEMENT what repositories do (customised for repositories) Make it easier for repositories to do preservation – share the effort Proven through a series of projects CASPAR, PARSE.Insight

18. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA ThreatRequirement for solution Users may be unable to understand or use the data e.g. the semantics, format, processes or algorithms involved Ability to create and maintain adequate Representation Information Non-maintainability of essential hardware, software or support environment may make the information inaccessible Ability to share information about the availability of hardware and software and their replacements/substitutes The chain of evidence may be lost and there may be lack of certainty of provenance or authenticity Ability to bring together evidence from diverse sources about the Authenticity of a digital object Access and use restrictions may make it difficult to reuse data, or alternatively may not be respected in future Ability to deal with Digital Rights correctly in a changing and evolving environment Loss of ability to identify the location of data An ID resolver which is really persistent The current custodian of the data, whether an organisation or project, may cease to exist at some point in the future Brokering of organisations to hold data and the ability to package together the information needed to transfer information between organisations ready for long term preservation The ones we trust to look after the digital holdings may let us down Certification process so that one can have confidence about whom to trust to preserve data holdings over the long term RepInfo toolkit, Packager and Registry – to create and store Representation Information. In addition the Orchestration Manager and Knowledge Gap Manager help to ensure that the RepInfo is adequate. Registry and Orchestration Manager to exchange information about the obsolescence of hardware and software, amongst other changes. The Representation Information will include such things as software source code and emulators. Authenticity toolkit will allow one to capture evidence from many sources which may be used to judge Authenticity. Packaging toolkit to package access rights policy into AIP Persistent Identifier system: such a system will allow objects to be located over time. Orchestration Manager will, amongst other things, allow the exchange of information about datasets which need to be passed from one curator to another. Certification toolkit to help repository manager capture evidence for ISO 16363 Audit and Certification

19. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA Summary You should have gained a better understanding of: –types of data that you could encounter –the basic preservation techniques –how to evaluate preservation techniques –the widely recognised threats –what is needed to counter the threats –what is available to help

20. Co-funded by the European Union under FP7-ICT-2009-6 aparsen.eu #APARSEN Options to Counter Threats to Digital Preservation David Giaretta, APA What next? For more information about training events see http://www.alliancepermanentaccess.org/index.php/training/ http://www.alliancepermanentaccess.org/index.php/training/