1. Blue Ribbon Task Force on the economic sustainability of digital preservation
Dr Paul Ayris
Director of UCL Library Services and UCL Copyright Officer

2. Contents Why is digital preservation important?
Implications – UK exemplars
Blue Ribbon Task Force

3. Contents
Why is digital preservation important?

5. Library Strategy 2005-10 10 over-arching goals
E-Strategy a priority for:
Teaching and Learning
Research
Student experience
Partnership working
See

6. Institutional portal? Prescribed core readings and textbooks VRE/VLE/
local web
Student/UCL Library
systems
Local UCL
holdings
Paper and e-
Research collaborations;
Primary data; Group
project work; Learning
interface
Pay fees; book residences;
pay fines; see course and
exam marks; see loans
information
Core textbooks (STM);
Digital readings (AHSS)
Books/Journals/
AV/Digital Collections
and Archives
Institutional portal?
YouTube, FaceBook, Flickr
Global resources - free
E-Journals, E-Books,
mass digitisation
Social networking tools
Google interface to
Internet
External content
subscribed and free

7. Key Strategic Questions
British Museum Reading Room is traditional model
Library pulls readers into library space
In a networked and global environment, library is just one content provider
In UCL, STM researchers hardly ever set foot into a physical library space
Digital material is pushed to them electronically at their desktop
Should the Library push stuff out to where the student is (e.g. Facebook)?
Is an institutional portal helpful in providing a one-stop shop for the user to navigate both local and remote content and services?
Thanks to Lorcan Dempsey for this metaphor and discussion

8. Implications
2. Implications – UK exemplars

9. Digital Preservation – Key Questions for Higher Education
In the new information landscape, long-term digital preservation of assets is essential
It is irresponsible to steer users towards the use of digital resources and not to curate those materials digitally for the long-term
Several scenarios for long-term preservation of digital content:
Big Science: UK Research Data Service
Small Science: Institutional, third-party/commercial services

10. UK Research Data Service UKRDS
RLUK (Research Libraries UK – formerly CURL) and RUGIT (Russell Group IT Directors) have issued an Invitation to Tender
£200,000 from HEFCE for a Feasibility Study into the development of a shared digital research data service for UK Higher Education Institutions
Locally, there is uncertainty about the costs involved in managing large data volumes and the availability of a suitably skilled workforce to manage the new challenges posed by data curation
Feasibility Study will address the need not just for storage capacity but for active management of the creation, selection, ingest, storage, retrieval and preservation of research data - the data lifecycle identified in the LIFE models
See

11. Other options What other options does a UK University Library have?
National services which work for the academic community
E-Depot in The Hague is a national Dutch exemplar
Archiving e-journal copy from commercial publishers
Digital archiving policy at
Does it have a European role, if it embraces the RAND Corporation recommendations at its review?

12. Other options Commercial services Local digital curation services
Portico for e-journal content – over 7,000,000 preserved articles
See
Local digital curation services
UCL Library Services has established such a service
Covers long-term digital curation (including preservation) of library content
E.g. output of library digitisation projects, e-prints in UCL repository
Looking at primary data produced by academic researchers

13. Task Force
3. Blue Ribbon Task Force

14. See http://blueribbontaskforce.sdsc.edu/

15. Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access
BRTF-SDPA
Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in partnership with the Library of Congress, the JISC (UK), the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA – US)
Created in late 2007 to run for 2 years

16. Key Questions being addressed
How will we ensure the long-term preservation and access to our digital information, growing exponentially with each passing day?
How will we successfully migrate data as technology moves from one preservation medium to the next?
Who should determine which digital data should be saved, and what criteria will be used to make those decisions?

17. Economic Sustainability
What is the cost to preserve valuable data and who will pay for it?
Broadly speaking, economically-sustainable digital preservation will require
new models for channeling resources to preservation activities
efficient organization that will make these efforts affordable
recognition by key decision makers of the need to preserve, with appropriate incentives to spur action

18. Economic Sustainability in a Digital Preservation Context
The set of business, social, technological, and policy mechanisms:
Encourage the gathering of important information assets into digital preservation systems
Support the indefinite persistence of digital preservation systems, thus securing access to and use of information assets into the long-term future
Economically-sustainable digital preservation requires:
Recognition of the benefits of preservation by key decision makers, as part of a process of selecting digital materials for long-term retention
Appropriate incentives to induce decision makers to act in public interest
Mechanisms to secure an ongoing allocation of resources, both within and across organizations, to digital preservation activities
Efficient use of limited preservation resources
Appropriate organization and governance of digital preservation activities

19. Outputs
BRTF-SDPA
Has taken Charlie as the starting point for the discussion
Task Force needs to understand what Charlie will need…
Not just to be a student or researcher
Our Reports should be ground-breaking in identifying roles, responsibilities, mechanisms and models for economically-sustainable digital preservation
With the goal of making Charlie an empowered, global citizen, using digital resources and services which are sustainable
First Report due to be signed off at the July meeting of the Task Force

20. Because… Charlie is not simply an individual… He is each one of us…
Task Force has to meet Charlie’s needs and to empower him/her to achieve and contribute to Society…
I hope, and believe, we are up to the challenge…
If you have been, thanks for listening…