The establishment of the COW should be viewed in the context of the evolving national strategic approach to digital preservation in Wales. it was undertaken as a practical response to real issues which were identified through partnershipand collaborative working. The key points which constitute this context are described below: the ARCW business case, the formation of the COW, the selection of the technical infrastructure, Archivematica and the cloud, the creation of supporting documentation and communication and next steps.
ARCW Business Case
The ARCW digital preservation group was established in 2009 in response to one ARCW‘s strategic objectives:
"To address the preservation and maintenance of digital records and the provision of access." A business case was developed to outline options to facilitate this strategic goal, a specific aim of which was to develop a robust framework for all digital preservation activities, which would be able to be adopted by the ARCW partners. Prior to the business case, a survey of ARCW members had identified that barriers to digital preservation included a lack of confidence, skills, technical infrastructure and resources. The business case considered options for ensuring Welsh digital continuity, which was based upon the recognition that there would be limited resources available and that there was a requirement to act urgently. Options proposed included doing nothing, working individually or working collaboratively. Doing nothing would result in data loss through digital obsolescence and media degradation. individual action would probably be too costly, in terms of staff and equipment. Collaborative activity, which would share costs and risks, raise standards and facilitate interoperability, was selected as it had the lowest risk and the greatest benefit.
Establishment of COW
A project board was established to provide strategic direction and one of its first tasks was to contact partner institutions and ask what they could contribute to the collaborative activity. The majority of those who responded offered staff time and the Community of the Willing was established, with the aim of raising standards for all partners, working as a distributed network. At present, it includes 18 members, including representatives from local authority record offices, educational institutions and national institutions.
Selection of technological infrastructure
A key issue to be considered was the selection of an appropriate technological infrastructure which could be used by the partners. As there were limited resources available, open source software was the only realistic option. As the work of the Consortium was one of ARCW's key strategic aims, it was eligible for grant funding from CyMAL. A grant application was submitted and sufficient funding was awarded to enable the employment of a Project Officer for a year. The selection of an open source system, which could be used by organisations with diverse needs, but without significant resources, was his priority. Following research, three systems were under consideration: DAITSS, Xena and Archivematica. The Digital Preservation Project Board evaluated the systems and selected Archivematica as it appeared to be the most appropriate for partner needs.
Archivematica and the Cloud
The Project Officer provided training for the COW on Archivematica and provided installation information to enableinstallation on local systems. However, prior to February 2014, Archivematica had not been fully released and could be somewhat unstable and unpredictable. Many of the partners were not able to load the software onto their local systems, due to the understandable reluctance of IT sections to load unreleased software onto systems. Some partners could not afford to purchase the hardware and the built in Virtual layer caused concern to others. Therefore, a practical solution wasproposed, which would answer partner needs, but also contribute to developments in digital preservation. This solution was to provide access to Archivematica in the cloud, linked to cloud storage. This would enable partners to gain access to Archivematica for testing purposes, but without the need to load the software locally. A statement of work was drawn up, which indicated that the work was intended as a "proof of concept for a wider use of virtual _and cloud based technologies for preservation". Funding for the development was provided by CyMAL and the work was carried out by a consultant. The work provided a working version of Archivematica v.10 on the Microsoft Azure Pay as You Go platform. This enabled testing by the project board and identified a number of issues, including difficulties in managing multiple users and the loss of the folder structure when being passed from Archivematica to the discovery system, AtoM. These issues were communicated to Artefactual, the Archivematica developers, and ARCW sponsored a development to maintain the archival structure from g Archivematica to AtoM, which will be of use to the whole community.
Supporting Documentation
Digital preservation does not depend upon the technical infrastructure, but upon the policies and procedures which enable the sustainability of the digital objects. The technical developments have been supported by the creation of documentation to support digital preservation activities, including a business case for ITC support, Guidance for Depositors on Digital Records, Recommendations on inclusion of digital records in collection policies and Documents at Risk.
Communication
Communication of the activity has been undertaken through e-Newsletters to COW partners, presentations at ARCW and Archives and Records Association events, including the annual conference. On 12 February 2014, despite extremely adverse weather conditions, 60 delegates attended the Archivematica Go-Live Event. This event showcased the activity in Wales and aligned with the full release of Archivematica. One of the product managers Courtney Mumma, came over from Canada to provide more information about the product and its ' future developments.'
Achievements
Access to Archivematica in the cloud worked as a "proof of concept", and the training and documentation contributed to the strategic objective of addressing a robust digital preservation framework for ARCW partners. The next step is to procure an appropriate system for ARCW partners. The COW will be testing Preservica in July and a businesscase for an appropriate digital presenlation system will be prepared, based ' upon the identified needs of the partners.