Digital preservation advice and consultancy

About the service

There is increasing awareness of the importance of digital preservation among Jisc members and customers. However, there are many hurdles to be overcome when moving from the ‘awareness of the need stage’ to the scoping, procurement, and roll-out of a suitable solution. It can be a long and challenging process, particularly for those starting out on the preservation journey.

Common issues include:

Lack of understanding around what digital preservation is and/or what it entails
Staff find the potential enormity of the task overwhelming
No in-house expertise in digital preservation
No appropriate policies in place
Any approach to the problem focusses on a very narrow viewpoint (eg individual departments instead of across the institution)
No institutional understanding of what or where the data is
No understanding of who could/should be a stakeholder in the process

There are many users and stakeholders to consider, and it can be difficult to determine which system will best meet everyone’s needs, let alone make the case to key stakeholders, including senior management.

Our digital preservation consultancy has been created to provide a structure to guide you through that process.

Whether you have identified a problem with your existing solution or have just made the decision to start on your preservation journey, we can provide advice, guidance, support and paid consultancy. We can help you establish and agree the problems that the system needs to solve, identify user needs and use those needs to find the right solution.

“We could never have achieved the same outcomes and outputs working on our own, the project was a huge success for us”

Maria Follett, researcher engagement and collections manager, Liverpool John Moores University

Benefits

We focus on identifying the scope of the problem space, the key stakeholders, what they want or need to achieve, and - perhaps most importantly - what's stopping them.

Activities

We offer a series of tried, tested, and tailored activities to help institutions:

Develop policies
Raise awareness
Identify current digital assets, stakeholders and policy requirements
Measure maturity/current status in the digital preservation space and map a path to the next maturity level
Gain support from senior stakeholders
Develop a business case for provision of a digital preservation service for the institution
Develop a minimum viable product (MVP)
Produce a strategy and roadmap for delivery of a coherent approach to retention and digital preservation
Procure the appropriate system
Review/test the adequacy of existing provision when re-procuring

The service also includes regular catch ups with our delivery team to make sure that the work is on track and delivering the required outcomes.

One team

Our support seeks to build on and complement the expertise of your in-house team, forming a single team. We give you the time and space to identify your needs as an institution and to confidently select the system that best suits your specific circumstances and priorities.

Gathering input from an extended circle of stakeholders and hearing the views of users not only allows the needs of all users to be considered, but also leads to the buy in necessary for user acceptance of any new solution.

Holistic

This digital preservation advice, guidance and consultancy forms part of a holistic suit of consultancy services offered by us and can be provided along with other related consultancy components as appropriate.

Eligibility

This service is for anyone involved in the consideration, selection and procurement/re-procurement of a new or replacement digital preservation solution at any level of digital preservation maturity.

The service is available to both Jisc members, associate members and those outside of the Jisc grouping.

"...by engaging the Jisc team we were finally able to make progress. Their expert application of the DPC rapid assessment model enabled the institution to finally move towards system procurement and service development."

Simon Bains, university librarian and head of library services, University of Aberdeen