1. Building a Business Case: or, why undertake digital preservation? Patricia Sleeman Archivist

2. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 20102 How do you communicate the value of information objects to decision-makers? –Speak in a language they understand –‘Because it is important’ is not persuasive enough!

3. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 20103 Three strategies 1.Risk is the only motivator 2.Challenge assumptions (including your own) 3.Use DP to support your Organisation

4. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 20104 Risk as the only motivator Don’t think of DP as a 'product' that makes money Rather as a long-term risk management strategy that protects the organisation –Companies being asked to keep ‘living wills’ to ensure continuity in case of disaster

5. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 20105 Business Risk Management British Standard 31100 - Code of practice for risk management UK Office of Government Commerce’s Management of Risk ISO 31000:2009: Risk Management – Principles and Guidelines (published 13.11.2009) BS ISO 14721:2003 Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS)

6. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 20106 Measuring risks Define what the risks of digital loss are and how they will directly affect your organisation Records management risks Financial risks Reputational risks

7. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 20107 Tools for measuring risks BS 31100: Code of practice for risk management currently being drafted DRAMBORA risk assessment tool PLANETS tools for identifying, assessing and mitigating risk –PLATO preservation planning tool –Characterisation service –Core registry –Testbed

8. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 20108 Some risk triggers Change in policy Change in business environment: e.g. merger, staff loss Change in technical environment A disaster! IMPORTANT to update and review risks periodically and during these times.

9. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 20109 Challenge assumptions (yours and theirs) Don't always assume they will think it is a ‘good idea’ Don’t assume it is going to be expensive Don’t assume preservation is forever Don’t assume someone it is someone else’s problem Don’t assume it is a technology-only problem (Chris Rusbridge 2006)

10. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201010 Use DP to support your organisation Connect to business drivers –“The digital preservation policy should be integrated into business drivers, activities and functions e.g. regulatory compliance, staff development, applied technology, academic excellence. Try to map these to digital preservation benefits.” Beagrie, Digital Preservation Policies Study (2008)

11. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201011 Use DP to support your organisation Analyse existing policies –“Identify what exists in your organisation in terms of high level policies and schedules, for example policies on financial, staffing or risk assessment. Highlight relevant policies and clauses. Be aware of any other detailed workflow documents within other divisions. Once you have identified them, the mappings in this study will help highlight how digital preservation can tie into even very high level policy clauses.” Beagrie, Digital Preservation Policies Study (2008)

12. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201012 Use DP to support your organisation Phasing Raise awareness Survey colleagues Scope Technology Digital Life Cycle Beagrie, Digital Preservation Policies Study (2008)

13. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201013 Other approaches Gather statistics and other evidence Consider alternatives Investigate legal mandate Incentives Use cost models Measure yourself

14. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201014 Statistics Usage of digital assets Web traffic Occupancy of disk space Numbers of unsupported file formats in use Other evidence, such as location of dispersed assets

15. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201015 Alternatives Before you speak to your HOD or Business Manager, convince them that you have looked into all the other options and costed them out. Some organisations will still think it's cheapest (and best) to just keep buying local hard drives to store their materials, instead of building a repository.

16. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201016 Legal mandate National Archives and Libraries will have guaranteed inscribed legal reasons to collect and preserve Your organisation may have other compelling legal drivers Explore all of them and find what will enable digital preservation to take place

17. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201017 Incentives What do you think they are?

18. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201018 Cost models How much it costs to preserve X digital objects over time, the implications of inaction Important to get concrete cost figures since no senior management will be prepared to write a blank cheque –Staff costs –Hidden costs (See The arXiv.org archive) Models –LIFE

19. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201019 Measure yourself Use measurement tools –E.g. AIDA based on five stages/3 legs – self- assessment for the Institution

20. 2010/03DPTP - SOAS March 201020 Resources ESPIDA: http://www.gla.ac.uk/espida/http://www.gla.ac.uk/espida/ PrestoSpace: Deliverable D12.7, The Case for Investment in Digital Archives DRAMBORA toolkit: www.repositoryaudit.eu www.repositoryaudit.eu PLANETS: http://www.planets- project.eu/software/http://www.planets- project.eu/software/ BS 31100 Code of practice for risk management