1. Brian Lavoie Research Scientist OCLC lavoie@oclc.org The Economics of Sustaining Digital Information NDIIPP Partners Meeting Washington, DC July 22, 2010

2. Sustainable resources

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

4. 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 http://brtf.sdsc.edu/ Frame digital preservation as sustainable economic activity Understand problem space Interim Report (December 2008) Provide recommendations & guidelines Final Report (February 2010) BRTF

5. Task Force Final Report (February 2010) http://brtf.sdsc.edu/biblio/BRTF_Final_Report.pdf Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet

6. 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.”

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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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”

11. More information … Task Force reports & resources: http://brtf.sdsc.edu/ Questions/comments: lavoie@oclc.org