Digital Preservation in State & Territorial Archives: Current State and Prospects for Improvement

A presentation on Lori Ashley and Charles Dollar's Digital Preservation Capability Maturity Model. A survey for this model was taken by all state archives. Three archives at varying levels of capacity talk about what steps they are taking to improve, and how they have used the survey's results.

Transcript

1. Digital Preservation in State & Territorial Archives: Current State and Prospects for Improvement SESSION 505 2:45 – 3:45 p.m. August 16, 2013 1
2. Session Objectives Present high level summary of the CoSA self-assessment initiative Validate self-assessments of three State Archives with different levels of digital preservation capability Engage audience on how to develop a digital preservation improvement roadmap to advance capabilities over time as resources become available 2
3. Participants Charles Dollar, Chair Lori Ashley, Consultant Michael Strom, State Archivist – State of Wyoming Christine Garrett, Electronic Records Archivist – Alabama Department of Archives and History Walker Sampson, Electronic Records Archivist – Mississippi Department of Archives and History 3
4. Overview of CoSA Digital Preservation Capability Self-Assessment Lori Ashley 4
5. Digital Preservation Capability Maturity Model 5 Click to edit Master text styles Second level Third level Fourth level Fifth level
6. DPCMM Overview Based on functional specifications of ISO 14721, ISO 16363, and good practices from operational digital repositories Systems-based tool for charting evolutionary path towards increasingly mature stages of digital preservation capability Assessment methodology “scores” organizations on current state capabilities Helps establish priorities and communicate with stakeholders
7. 15 & 5 Infrastructure Components Policy Strategy Governance Collaborative Engagement Technical Expertise OS/TN File Formats Designated Community Electronic Records Survey Services Components Ingest Archival Storage Media/Device Renewal Integrity Security Preservation Metadata Access 7
8. Stages of Digital Preservation Capability Maturity 8
9. 2. Digital Preservation Strategy Description  Stipulates processes and activities that will be executed to implement the digital preservation policy  Ensure integrity, usability and reliability of long-term electronic records  Addresses collaboration, how to deal with technology obsolescence, integrity protections and access requirements Thresholds  Describes how Archives/RM unit will acquire and preserve collections of digital records for its current and future users  Describes approaches to: – File format obsolescence – Storage device obsolescence – Media obsolescence
10. Performance Metrics: Strategy 10
11. Digital Preservation Capability Score Card
12. Adaptation of Model for CoSA Solicited information on surrogate services and repositories Established thresholds for conformance to all fifteen DPCMM components Developed self-assessment statements and scoring logic mapped to capability levels 12
13. Conformance with ISO 14721/ISO 16363 Does your digital archival repository conform to the functional specifications of the ISO 14721 standard on open archival information systems (OAIS)? Yes No Does your digital archival repository conform to the certification and audit criteria of the ISO 16363 standard? Yes No
14. CoSA Baseline Digital Preservation Capability Surveys initially completed June/July 2012 Minor revisions by Consultants and SERI Steering Committee Committee worked with web host to integrate revised text and scoring logic CoSA issued corrected DPC Self-Assessment scores June 2013 Established 4 quartiles based on score ranges 14
15. NHPRC Grant Electronic Records Training, Tools, and Standards (PERTTS) – New Portal for Electronic Records Training, Tools, and Standard – Curriculum development and delivery of training – Creation of a State Electronic Records Program (SERP) Framework that will provide a foundation for both the portal and training, designed to become a recognized source of best practices for state electronic records programs 15
16. Digital Preservation at the Wyoming State Archives Mike Strom
17. Wyoming State Archives Background Records management is one of our responsibilities Digital records not managed or preserved In 2012, the State Legislature approved funding for a digital records project – Records Management Application (RMA) software – Records retention schedules – Digital preservation policy framework
18. Environmental Scan No policies in place regarding born digital records State statutes mandate that we operate a microfilm division Approaching digital preservation from the records management perspective first
19. Nominal (0) Minimal (1) Intermediate (2) Advanced (3) Optimal (4) Wyoming State Archives State Parks and Cultural Resources July 2013 Composite Capability Score of 2 out of 60 = Stage 1 Minimal Digital Preservation Capability
20. Current Activities Revise records retention schedules Purchase, install, and conduct a pilot project using Records Management Application software Draft a Digital Preservation Policy Framework
21. Nominal (0) Minimal (1) Intermediate (2) Advanced (3) Optimal (4) Wyoming State Archives State Parks and Cultural Resources July 2016 Composite Capability Score of 26 out of 60 = Stage 2 Intermediate Digital Preservation Capability
22. Nominal (0) Minimal (1) Intermediate (2) Advanced (3) Optimal (4) Wyoming State Archives July 2013 – July 2016 From Minimal to Intermediate Capability in a three year period – our VISION for incremental progress
23. Next Steps Implement the digital repository Establish a fee schedule that ensures the repository is financially sustainable Address the issues associated with long term preservation
24. Lessons Learned Build a relationship with IT Engage records creators Communicate with others in the profession Develop different messages for different audiences Set realistic goals and be diligent but patient
25. Digital Preservation at the Alabama Department of Archives and History Christine Garrett 25
26. ADAH Background Responsible for all historically valuable permanent records of state agencies (determined by RDA); assist local agencies Government Services Division staff Electronic records part of overall records program
27. Survey Response Appraisal staff, Collections management staff, and IT staff went through each component to determine our answer
30. Self-Assessment Results Original score 14, raised to 18 after follow up questions Strengths: – Collaborative engagement (Scored 3) – Open standard/tech neutral formats, designated community, e-records survey, ingest, security, and preservation metadata (Scored 2) Areas for improvement: – Digital preservation strategy, governance, device/media renewal, integrity, and access (Scored 0) 30
31. Digital Preservation Road Map Appraisal, Collections Management, and IT went through each component, establishing a time line for meeting the individual benchmarks Some benchmarks we will never meet
32. Two Things Emerged 1st realized that there were some benchmarks we had already met though we did not indicate them on the survey 2nd began to see the pieces of our electronic records system fall into place 32
33. Next Steps Designated an electronic records archivist Team approach Unifying various electronic records initiatives into one program – Plan – Policies – Procedures – Trainings and leaflets 33
34. External Efforts Annual state agency liaison training Alabama established cabinet position of Information Technology Secretary in March – Brunson White started April 15 Information Services Division – added to State Records Commission in 2012
35. MDAH: Our Digital Preservation Road Map and Life After the DPCMM Self-Assessment Walker Sampson 35
36. MDAH Background Responsible only for permanent retention of digital records - does not manage temporary retention of digital records Records division part of the state archives State archives is allowed to have its own IT staff and structure 36
37. MDAH Background Early start: began in 1996 from NHPRC grant – Digital repository is composed only open-source software, and most processing and presentation technology is hand coded – The above framework can no longer scale to the workload 37
38. Self-Assessment Results Index Score: 34 / 60 Minimals: – Digital Preservation Policy – Device/Media Renewal – Integrity .Majority of our elements rated as Intermediate 38
40. What are our takeaways? Key areas lack decisive policy: – Digital Preservation Policy – Governance – Designated Community – Device/Media Renewal 40
41. What are our takeaways? Our present technical infrastructure cannot move beyond 'Intermediate' in most areas: – Integrity – Archival Storage – Preservation Metadata – Access 41
42. Roadmap: Policy and Governance Policy Drafting digital preservation policy – NDSA Levels of Preservation will inform scope Will reference Mississippi Digital Library's repository recommendation 42
43. Roadmap: Policy and Governance Governance - Re-engagement with state IT Attempting to build stronger ties to state ITS and CIO Previous efforts for redundancy assistance have not moved forward Pushing forward with email collaboration 43
44. Roadmap: Technical Infrastructure DSpace - Planning and testing stage Technical affordances allow better compliance to OAIS framework in: 1) ingest 2) preservation metadata 3) archival storage 4) access 44
45. Summary DPCMM has highlighted two general and crucial areas for improvement: policy and technical infrastructure – Tighter collaboration and support within state is necessary - policy definition is a precursor – Current infrastructure cannot support ISO 14721 45
46. Discussion 46
47. Digital Preservation in State & Territorial Archives: Current State and Prospects for Improvement Thank you for your interest and attention. 47