There has been a lot of investment and activity in digital preservation over the last decade and a lot of it has been supported by grant funded activity and research projects. The ‘learn by doing’ approach and the prodigious number of beta systems and project reports have all played their part in helping to mature the digital preservation field - and judging by the changing tone of conferences over the years, the community has come a long way. So far - in fact - that a lot of organisations are now at the stage when theory is less important than action. They need to work out the best implementation paths and make procurement choices. So the economic landscape for digital preservation has shifted and the onus is now on many organisations to look closely at their needs and their objectives and to make investment choices that are sustainable as part of the business needs of their organisation rather than as an adjunct activity that is supported by ‘soft’ research money. Work being taken forward by the 4C Project is looking at providing resources to support organisations to make sustainable digital preservation investment choices and this webinar will describe some of that work. But budgets are hard to secure and digital preservation remains a difficult case to argue so collaboration with like-minded organisations and the establishment of shared services should support the arguments and drive down the cost. This is one of the core messages that underpins the Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation (ANADP) initiative and this will also be described and explained during the webinar.

1. PASIG Webinar: Implementing
Sustainable Digital Preservation
Tuesday, October 22, 2013,
11:30am-12:30pm (EDT)
Neil Grindley
Programme Manager – Digital Infrastructure,
Digital Preservation, Curation and Archiving
Project Coordinator – A Collaboration to Clarify
the Cost of Curation (The 4C Project)
Programme Committee – Aligning National
Approaches to Digital Preservation (ANADP II)

2. http://www.educopia.org/events/ANADPII/program
ANADP II differs in intent and structure from
other digital preservation conferences and
meetings. Its primary purpose is not to
encourage information sharing, but rather to
foster and support sustained global networks
of influence and action.
The Action Assembly includes four main
components:
•
Panel Discussions
•
Action Sessions
•
Patio Perspectives Sessions
•
Future Opportunities for Collaboration
+ Keynote Presentations + Poster Session

3. http://www.educopia.org/events/ANADPII/program
The Panel Discussions ...
1. Community Alignment – What makes a community work?
2. Resource Alignment - How can we employ the resources we have available to us
most economically to achieve our digital preservation objectives?
3. Capacity Alignment - How can consistency in capacity building promote digital
curation excellence?
4. Alignment Exemplars and Current Opportunities for Collaboration
5. Future Opportunities for Collaboration

4. http://www.educopia.org/events/ANADPII/program
The Action Sessions ...
1. Creating a Community Driven Tools Registry
2. Applying the OAIS Framework to Distributed Digital Preservation
3. Case Studies and Quantitative Data from the 4C project
4. Towards a Cost Spectrum
5. Creating an International Education and Training Catalogue
6. Testing the Community Capacity Model Framework
7. Developing and Sharing Teaching Infrastructure

5. ... judging by the changing
tone of conferences over
the years, the community
has come a long way.
So where are we now?
And by the way ...
what do you mean by
“the community”

6. Digital Asset Management / Preservation Planning
Why is your organisation interested in preserving
digital assets? Are they assets or liabilities?
What are the defining features of the digital assets
that you want to preserve?
Who will be given responsibility for digital
preservation and how can they best be supported?
When do you expect the digital assets to realise
value?
How are you going to technically organise the
preservation of the assets?
IT Specialist
Digital Preservation
Specialist
Management
Content Specialist

7. What might organisations need in terms of preservation services?

8. Sustainability is not a ‘tick-box’ exercise
Impact
Expertise
Service
Effectiveness ??
VFM ??
Funder

9. Activity = You do something
Objective = You aim to achieve something
Vision = You aim to change something
Benefit = You’ve helped somebody
Impact = You’ve made a difference
Activity
Objective
Project
Vision
Service
Benefit
Impact
Funder
Possibly a JISC-centric view of services and sustainability!

10. Ithaka S+R and the Strategic
Content Alliance (JISC)
Investigating ‘Sustainability’
Empower leadership to define the mission
and take action
Create a strong value proposition
Creatively manage costs
Cultivate diverse sources of revenue
Establish realistic goals and a system of
accountability
http://www.sr.ithaka.org/research-publications/revenue-recession-reliance-revisiting-scaithaka-sr-case-studies-sustainability

11. Ithaka/SCA Revenue
Models
Blue Ribbon Task Force
Common Funding Models for DP
•
Subscription
•
Internal Budgeting
•
Endowment
•
Public Funding
•
Membership
•
Voluntary Contributions
•
Author pays
•
Fees for Preservation
•
Licensing
•
Fees for Access
•
Institutional subsidy
•
Government support
•
Public/private partnerships
•
Non-profit partnerships

12. Blue Ribbon Task Force for Sustainable Digital
Preservation & Access
Final report (February 2010)
http://brtf.sdsc.edu/
Three principal actions are required for sustainability:
•
•
•
Articulate a compelling value proposition
Provide clear incentives to preserve in the public interest
Define roles and responsibilities among stakeholders to ensure an ongoing
and efficient flow of resources to preservation throughout the digital
lifecycle

13. For both service provider and service user, the attributes of the
service must be understood
Stewardship
Business Model
Ambition
Ethics
Risk
Responsibility
Appetite
Willingness
Solvency
Affordabilty
Sustainability
Value
Trust
Importance
Credibility
Awareness
Capability
Knowledge
Capacity
Judgement
Collaboration

14. www.4cproject.eu

15. Engagement
Collaboration to
Clarify the
Costs of
Curation
Tasks
• Engage stakeholders
• Raise awareness
• Organise meetings
• Promote Research & Innovation
• Build community network
Networking &
Coordination
Assessment
Tasks
• Assess cost models &
strategies
• Examine good
practice
• Analyse requirements
• Integrate components
• Produce guidance &
briefing materials
• Setup costs exchange
Events,
Workshops,
Meetings &
Reports
Enhancement
Tasks
Examine and refine related concepts
• Value
• Risk
• Benefits
• Sustainability
• Economic Reference Model
Affiliate Partners
& Stakeholders
Outputs
Reports for
General
Dissemination
Curation
Costs
Exchange
Project
Coordination
Tasks
Project meetings
Project reporting
EC liaison
Budget oversight
Outputs QA
Reports for
European
Commission
Submission
of Roadmap
to the EC

16. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
What is the 4C Project hoping to
achieve?
... Or go back a step
What problem
is it trying to solve?

17. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
What people were saying about the costs issue as the 4C project was coming
together ...
“There is a lack of information on the costs of digital preservation and its benefits
(both tangible and intangible) which makes it hard to put together a convincing
business case”
An Emerging Market, Planets White Paper, July 2010
“I think there is indeed interest in the digital preservation community in the question
of cost prediction, but there are many unknowns so perhaps people have just decided
it is a difficult problem and tackled simpler ones instead!”
Bill Roberts, National Archives of the Netherlands, OPF Wiki, 4 August 2011
“The bad news is that deciding what to keep and what to throw away isn't free either.
Ignoring the problem incurs the costs of keeping the data; dealing with the problem
incurs the costs of deciding what to throw away. We may be in the bad situation of
being unable to afford either to keep or to throw away the data we generate”
David Rosenthal, DSHR’s Blog, December 2012

18. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
Sanity check
It is generally not a big problem for large
memory institutions (particularly national
scale libraries and archives) to make the case
for digital preservation.
But we need a wide range of organisations to
engage with digital preservation. And if it’s
not their core business, they will struggle to
make the case.

19. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
Digital Curation is best done collaboratively
It’s a big and complicated task and there is wide scope for duplicated and unnecessary
effort
To work collaboratively requires a shared understanding of concepts and processes and
principles
Having a clear view of the organisational mission and a strategic understanding of the
future increasingly means knowing how you are going to handle your digital assets
Even to hand things on effectively and efficiently, some knowledge of curation is required
... and curation most effectively happens as early as possible in the digital object lifecycle
Understanding whether your digital objects really are assets or whether they are
liabilities requires some engagement with curation concepts and preservation planning
issues
Ultimately ... It’s about understanding the business case for preservation

20. The SPRUCE Project
http://wiki.opf-labs.org/display/SPR/Home
What are
the
components
of a
business
case?
http://wiki.dpconline.org/index.php?title=Template_for_building_a_business_case

21. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
A DRAFT Economic Sustainability Reference Model (ESRM)
Brian Lavoie
(OCLC)
Chris Rusbridge
http://4cproject.eu/community-resources/outputs-and-deliverables/ms9draft-economic-sustainability-reference-model

22. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
What is the point of a Reference Model?
Reality
Reference
Model
Model
New
Reality
Model

23. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
Who is the ESRM aimed at?
Operational Staff
Operational Managers
Senior Managers
Funders & Investors

24. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
Operational Staff
Operational Managers
Senior Managers
Perspective ...
Funders & Investors
Focusing on ...
Digital Assets
Curation as ...
Activity and
Process
Time and
Effort
Value & Benefits
Black
Box

25. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
COSTS
MODEL
BENEFITS
MODEL
Digital Assets
Activity and
Process
Time and
Effort
Value & Benefits
Time and
Effort
Curation as
Black Box

26. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
Operational Managers
Senior Managers
Funders & Investors
ECONOMIC MODEL
Economic
Sustainability
Reference Model
Maintaining stakeholder incentives and
the flow of resources to sustain assets
COSTS
MODEL
BENEFITS
MODEL
Digital Assets
Activity and
Process
Time and
Effort
Value & Benefits
Time and
Effort
Curation as
Black Box

27. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
Components of a Sustainability Strategy
Economic lifecycle: the dynamic pattern, or sequence of events, against
which the sustainability strategy operates;
Sustainability conditions: the conditions the sustainability strategy must
address in order to achieve sustainability;
Key entities: the key elements of the economic environment – digital
assets, the curation process, and stakeholders – whose properties and
relationships shape the circumstances in which the sustainability strategy
operates;
Economic uncertainties: frictions and obstacles that may potentially act
to impede the ability of a repository to achieve economic sustainability;
the sustainability strategy must anticipate these uncertainties and if
necessary, mitigate them.

28. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation

29. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
The ESRM as it
appears within
the 4C Report
on this topic ...
http://4cproject.eu/community-resources/outputs-and-deliverables/ms9-draft-economic-sustainability-reference-model

30. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
The 4C ESRM Questionnaire (Appendix 1)
http://4cproject.eu/community-resources/outputs-and-deliverables/ms9-draft-economic-sustainability-reference-model

31. Please go to the community
resources section of the 4C
project website and let us
know what you think of the
outputs from the project.
The project runs until January
2015
http://4cproject.eu/community-resources

32. Collaboration to Clarify the Costs of Curation
COSTS
BENEFITS
INCENTIVES
SUSTAINABILITY
•
One of the big drivers for looking into the cost of preservation is to be able
to offer realistic and cost effective preservation services to others.
•
Understanding costs can support strategic planning.
•
Understanding costs can support tactical decision-making.
•
Understanding costs can provide evidence of cost-effectiveness and value.
•
Clarifying and publishing the cost of digital curation can be used to enhance
an organisation’s credibility. But this must be done along with the context of
how the costs were calculated
•
Understanding economic drivers can help to strategically align an
organisation

33. Budgets are hard to secure and digital preservation remains
a difficult case to argue so collaboration with like-minded
organisations and the establishment of shared services
should support the arguments and drive down the cost.
See you in Barcelona ...?
18-20 November 2013
http://www.educopia.org/events/ANADPII
Registration open until November 18th
“One of the greatest risks we run in not preserving our own digital
assets for ourselves is that we simultaneously cease to preserve
our own viability as institutions.”
K. Skinner and M. Schultz, A Guide to Distributed Digital Preservation
(Atlanta, GA: Educopia Institute, 2010)
Photo credit: Trent Strohm, FlickR