Preservation


under the Sixth Framework Programme and aimed to address core digital preservation challenges. The recently-completed initiative resulted in several web tools including its ‘Planets Testbed’ that allows the user, such as a design team or IT department in a library, to analyse different tools for digital preservation and assess which approach is best for them. In addition to such initiatives though, Grindley advocates a stronger role for governments. ‘There is no national digital preservation strategy in place in the UK... and government needs to ensure digital preservation is something for which it has an answer,’ he says. ‘Yes, there is a limit to what we can reasonably expect governments to do, but perhaps it might take more of an interest in the legislative challenges, such as copyright issues [modifying copyright laws to enable digital preservation].’ Like Meddings, Grindley is very aware of


the issue of payment for digital preservation activities, but points to a recent report ‘Sustainable digital preservation and access’, published by the Blue Ribbon Taskforce, a US digital preservation organisation. The report asks ‘how do we pay for preservation?’ and outlines a number of existing funding mechanisms that can work, including internal budgeting within a business for proprietary digital content and fee payment to providers of preservation services, such as Portico. But as the report also states: ‘Even the most compelling incentives to preserve do not generate resources... and there is no single “best” funding model for digital preservation.’ Grindley agrees, adding: ‘There are always bright people around that can work through the technology, but funding issues can be more of a problem.’ Despite the problems, Grindley is confident


about the future. ‘There’s been a lot of analysis over what digital preservation might be, what it achieves and what the benefits are,’ he says. ‘However, solutions emerge and models and frameworks emerge that all seem much more simple than they did five or 10 years ago. Trusted organisations are also emerging and I think at this point people will start to think it’s OK, digital preservation isn’t a problem now.’


Collaboration is king To ensure sustained progress in the field of digital preservation, both Meddings and Grindley are adamant that collaboration, be


www.researchinformation.info


in digital preservation,’ he says. ‘I haven’t had a great answer for this other than keep doing what we’re doing; talk about it at conferences and write papers so more people will understand and take action.’ Likewise Grindley states: ‘Wherever I go


Colin Meddings spoke about preservation challenges at this year’s UKSG meeting in Edinburgh


it between publishers, librarians, national libraries or not-for-profit organisations, is crucial. As Meddings points out, the OUP survey revealed, at the very least, that librarians are keen to collaborate with publishers on a wide range of preservation issues, particularly in method and funding. ‘I have also been asked at conferences


what we can do to educate the libraries and publishers that are not currently involved


From documents to databases


By 2009 more than 100GBytes of data had already been created for every single person on the planet, according to estimates by researchers involved in the European Union funded project ‘Planets’ (Preservation and Long-term Access through Networked Services). Seamus Ross, a professor at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Canada, says our awareness of the importance of digital preservation has rocketed in the last 10 years.


‘When we started, nobody really


in the future, access is going to be needed; there are going to be big, big preservation issues here.’ As Ross explains, databases contain


‘Preserving


knew what digital preservation was, what it was for and why we needed to do it,’ he explains. ‘Today, many more people are aware of the problem and we’re sharing ideas about best practices more widely.’ But while organisations worldwide focus on how to


databases is much more


important than


documents’ Seamus Ross


preserve precious documents, Ross believes a more important issue is going unnoticed. ‘Documents are the least significant problem we face; the preservation of databases is much more important,’ he asserts. ‘There isn’t a single thing you do in your daily life that isn’t influenced by a database. Insurance, tax, patient records and so on are the records of society, and


huge volumes of data and represent many processes, making them very complex to preserve. And while he points to some research already underway including projects at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Swiss Federal Archives, he claims much more is needed. ‘We’re still trying to understand


this problem space and there’s not as much going on to tackle this as there should be,’ he says. ‘The best way to keep this material accessible for the future is to keep using it; active use is a very powerful preservation mechanism.’


Ross also believes that, right now,


planning is crucial to getting digital preservation right and every single decision made needs to be documented. ‘Even a decision to use Portico or join a LOCKSS consortium should be based on planning, not an ad hoc decision,’ he stresses. ‘When you talk to people about digital preservation and the mistakes they make, it’s generally the fact that they haven’t got a plan.’


Research Information August/September 2010 11


to talk about digital preservation I always stress that it is key to have partnerships and alliances. If, say, you’re a local government archive and you’re struggling to deal with your records, join up with another government archive the next tier up.’ He does believe, however, that involving


too many players in digital preservation activities would be counter-productive and states that all an organisation really needs to do is recognise it has a problem and devolve that problem to somebody else. ‘Somebody in an organisation needs to


have ownership of information management problems. You don’t actually need everybody to be worried about digital preservation,’ he laughs. ‘It’s not an activity to panic about; instead, it’s an activity that needs a strategy.’


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