Simon Waddington presented on appraisal tools and requirements for digital preservation. An appraisal tool is needed to assess complex digital objects in a collection and determine which will remain reusable over time. Risks to the objects include technical obsolescence and outdated file formats. A manual appraisal is time-consuming and subjective. An automated tool is needed to assess primary risks to objects, secondary risks to dependent objects, and propose preservation actions to maintain reusability, helping data managers plan preservation strategies. The tool should provide visual risk assessments, automate actions where possible, and perform ongoing assessments, not just one-time appraisals.

1. GRANT AGREEMENT: 601138 | SCHEME FP7 ICT 2011.4.3
Promoting and Enhancing Reuse of Information throughout the Content Lifecycle taking account of Evolving
Semantics [Digital Preservation]
Simon Waddington (King’s College London)
IDCC, Amsterdam, 25 February 2016
Appraisal

2.  Problem
 Terminology
 Appraisal tool requirements
 Appraisal process

3.  Given a collection of archival content comprising
complex digital objects
 Can we preserve the objects?
◦ Technical versus content-based appraisal
 Which objects will be reusable after 1,2,3,5.. years?
◦ Risks and their proximity?
◦ Impact/cost?
 Manual data gathering and risk analysis are time-
consuming and subjective

4.  Three main dimensions
◦ Risk – probability of an entity being non-usable
◦ Proximity – time frame in which we consider risk/impact
◦ Impact – potential loss of functionality and cost of mitigating
actions
 Mitigation (or preservation action)
◦ Process to transform entities in ecosystem
E.g. Transcoding, software upgrade, hardware replacement
 Types of risk
◦ Primary risk
 to an entity arising through a stimulus that is external to the
ecosystem
◦ Secondary (or higher order) risk
 to an entity as a result of a potential change to another entity on
which it has a dependency

5.  Periodically review the projects, both current and
completed, and perform a risk assessment to
understand the potential impact and the costs in
maintaining the data in a reusable form
 Assist a data manager or conservator in planning
any preservation actions that are required, and
provide an overall assessment of the reusability of
the data.

6.  Provide assessments of risk, proximity (i.e.
timescale in which the risk is expected to occur)
and impact
 Be largely automated
◦ Manual subjective assignment of risk should be avoided
 Easy to use
◦ By e.g. supporting visualisation of risk, proximity and
impact.
 Where possible, preservation actions should be
proposed and automated
◦ Provide ongoing, not just one-off assessments

7. 1. Assess primary risks
a. Determine changes, probability and proximity
2. Determine secondary risks
a. Determine potentially affected entities
b. Probabilities of occurrence
3. Determine mitigating actions
a. Determine potential preservation actions
b. Estimate cost/impact
c. Present options to user
4. Implement and validate potential actions