Digital preservation – more than just storage

With World Digital Preservation Day coming up on 7 November, the University of Aberdeen shared how it got started on a huge project to apply strategically effective and efficient information management across the whole institution, and how Jisc’s digital preservation consultancy provided essential support.

The digital preservation project is part of a university-wide records management project being led by the directorate of digital and information services. Simon Bains, university librarian and head of library services, took on the role of sponsoring the digital preservation project, one component of this work.

The scale of the project wasn’t lost on Simon, who said:

“The university was established in 1495, and we still have collections dating back that far. So we had to ask what we need to do about today's digital memory to keep it for 500 years, or, conversely, to be sure we are deleting it in line with regulations. It's hard, it's complicated and it requires money, staffing, systems and a lot of work.”

Advice and priorities

Simon and the university turned to the digital preservation consultancy at Jisc for advice and guidance. They deployed the digital preservation coalition rapid assessment model (DPC RAM), which took them through a set of workshops to help define what was needed, and who the stakeholders and key priorities were. Working with Jisc helped move the project to the next stage and meant Simon could bring together a project team to identify and procure a product and start to define a digital preservation service. He said:

"We need more than just a system, more than simply a storage solution, we need something that supports us running a digital preservation service in the long-term."

"One key thing with all projects is sustainability. Once we've completed the project, will we be able to establish a sustainable service? We also have to tie everything together. So all the digital systems that are creating and storing digital content, whether it's records, grant information, research publications, library collections - all of those things need to feed into a safe and accessible digital preservation model."

When Simon and the project team are ready to look for the right supplier, they intend to make use of Jisc’s dynamic purchasing system (DPS). The system provides access to approved vendors through a fast, agile procurement process, saving users time, money, and the need to rely on potentially complex tender processes.

Paul Stokes, Jisc’s digital preservation subject matter expert, also presented to the university’s project board, which ensured the buy-in of the directorate senior management team, an essential part of securing the necessary support and confidence in the project.

Alongside the financial and practical challenges of such a big piece of work, it was also vital to bring together a project team with the right mix of skills. Many of Simon’s colleagues hadn’t been involved in digital preservation, but had the necessary backgrounds in systems, IT infrastructure, metadata, and information governance.

“We then had to educate ourselves in how to apply those skills to the digital preservation space. There are different business needs to be met and then different types of objects. We need a system that will deal with the different types of objects, and also help us think about the rules around this for our users, because we probably can't keep every single type of digital content,” Simon said. “The learning process was really helpful because it upskilled a lot of people and allowed all the stakeholders to talk about what their requirements were.”

Jisc’s consultancy also assisted with reviewing the staffing levels needed to make any new service work.

“Jisc really helped us to navigate some of our issues in getting started with this project and to look at our spending and staffing needs.”

To save or not to save

From an outside perspective, it’s easy to think of preservation as purely a storage issue, but it’s far more than that. The digital preservation process is not just about deciding how to keep files forever, it’s actively managing retention timeframes, guarding against file degradation, and migrating files over time to ensure they remain accessible as technology changes. Simon said:

“We had to ask how we find something that supports all these elements. We need a combination of system and service; a service person who has enough time to have the conversations to work out exactly what’s needed and run the service, a system that automates as much as possible, and complies with relevant international standards.”

The first part of the project was driven by changes brought about by Covid. Previously, the university policy required hard copies of PhD theses to be kept. When this was no longer possible during lockdown, the university had to change to accepting this work in a digital format only, something Simon and the team were keen to continue with even after restrictions were lifted. Simon explained:

“We know we have good storage and backup solutions. The problem is in the longer term. In a decade's time, how sure are we that we would still be able to access those files? Might the files become difficult to access over time as technology changes? So I went to our postgraduate research committee to put forward the project plan and I've committed to having that solution in place quite soon, which provides assurance that digital only is the right thing to do. Then we’ll need to begin the lengthy process of changing the university policy.”

While the change to thesis management marks phase one, Simon and the team are already looking ahead to future phases, which will address the corporate record, research data, university archives and digitised collections. As the risk of cyber security breaches grows, reducing the consequent risk of data loss is vital.

As the project progresses, Simon said he’s grateful for the opportunity to be involved in such a forward-looking activity, and is thankful for Jisc’s advice and support.

“At a time when even keeping services stable can be difficult as a result of resourcing pressures, it’s hugely satisfying to find capacity and institutional support for innovation. There’s still a lot to do, but we wouldn’t have got to where we are now without Jisc taking us through the process and bringing in the expertise we needed.”

Further information

Find out more about Jisc’s digital preservation consultancy and dynamic purchasing system (DPS).

You may also be interested in finding out about our research systems consultancy and research management systems DPS.

Get involved in World Digital Preservation Day on 7 November.