Introduction
Digital preservation seems more like a journey than a destination. As technology changes so the processes and tools of effective preservation need to adapt and so good practice remains provisional: more accurately identified as a commitment to constant improvement than a single steady state. Never entirely certain what success looks like, the digital preservation community has over the years developed several proxies for success and maturity of service. The ideal of a Trusted Digital Repository has gained much traction since it was first posited in 1996, and it is now encapsulated and codified as a series of standards. The resulting requirements and checklists provide a framework for repository improvement; but with many demands and too little transparency they can also become a barrier to practical improvement. Practitioners and their managers simply want to know how they are doing and how they can do it better. Good practice takes practice
This workshop tries to bring these threads together, updating attendees on some important developments since the topic was last discussed at a briefing day in 2016. On one hand it will examine practical experience with archive accreditation which, since 2017, has involved an explicit component derived in turn from the NDSA levels of Digital Preservation. It will also introduce and explore important developments in the Data Seal of Approval and World Data System which were relaunched and revised in 2017 as the new CoreTrustSeal for Trustworthy Data Repositories. It will introduce the ‘Nestor Seal’, a preservation certification based on DIN31644 and offered as a paid for service through nestor and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. A central consideration in the discussions will be the development of consistent frameworks for continuous quality improvement in the management of digital collections. This theme might be summarized as ‘good practice takes practice’.
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Participants at the workshop will:
- Better understand current trends in archive and repository certification
- Better understand the strengths and weakness of specific standards including Archive Accreditation, the Core Trust Seal, Nestor Seal applied in a number of different contexts
- Test and reflect on emerging metrics for the accreditation of digital archives
- Make and gather recommendations on behalf of the DPC on quality improvement and accreditation and certification techniques for digital preservation
Who should come?
- Archivists, librarians, curators or data managers with digital collections
- Digital preservation specialists and repository managers
- Chief information officers or chief technology officers of agencies with needs for long-term data retention
- Information professionals interested in new developments in digital preservation and community engagement
- Managers in public sector agencies and universities interested in impact and assessment
Programme
1000 – Registration open, tea and coffee
1030 – Welcome and Introductions (William Kilbride)
1100 – Update 1, Archive Service Accreditation (Melinda Haunton, Accreditation Manager)
1130 – Update 2, nestor Seal (Christian Keitel, nestor Working Group on Certification)
1200 – Update 3, Core Trust Seal (Herve L’Hours, UKDA)
1230 – Q&A
1245 – Lunch
1345 – Case study 1: Archive Service Accreditation (Sean Rippington, University of St Andrews)
1415 – Case study 2: The British Library (Maureen Pennock, The British Library)
1445 – Case study 3: Library and Archives Canada (Faye Lemay and Nathalie Villeneuve, Library and Archives Canada)
1515 – Q&A
1530 – Coffee
1545 – Roundtable and discussion (Chaired by William Kilbride)
1630 – Next steps and thanks
Registration
Registration is free for members of the DPC and £275 for non-members. There is a limit of 5 places per full member and 1 place per associate member (incl. consortia and membership organisations) and these will be available on a 'first come, first served' basis. Additional registrations will be accepted but will be placed on the wait list until registration closes a week before the event, at which time they will be distributed equally amongst members. To check if your organisation qualifies for free attendance, please check the DPC Member List. If you have any questions about registration please contact Sarah Middleton (sarah.middleton[at]dpconline.org).
Registration is now closed.
Illustration by Jørgen Stamp digitalbevaring.dk CC BY 2.5 Denmark