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PolonskyBlogArchives&RecordsAssociationUK&IrelandConference2016HiltonLondonWembley31stAugust–2ndSeptember2016Ithasbeen threeweeks since the last cupof teawas self-served, the lastmorselof cakeconsumedandthesinceregoodbyestofellowcolleaguessaidattheannualARAConference,heldatWembley.Manydelegatesleftwithmindscrammedwithnewideas,innovationsandpracticallessonstousebackatwork.Ileftwiththestrongimpressionthatdigitalpreservationwithin the recordkeeping community in the UK and Ireland has become part of the‘mainstream’ in recordkeeping practice across a variety of sectors. The recordkeepingcommunityhasmovedonfromwantingtoknowwhatdigitalpreservationistohowitgetinvolvedandpreservedigitalcollectionsforfuturegenerations.I’mgoingtoreflectupontheconference’sdigitalpreservationofferings,summingupeachsession for thosenotable tomake the road toWembley.Extendedwritesupof selectedsessionswillalsobemadeavailableinthefuture.AfullwriteupoftheARAwholeconferenceisavailableontheARAwebsiteandforthosewishingtoreadit,the link isavailablehere:http://www.archives.org.uk/latest-news/647-reflections-on-ara-conference-2016-global-futures.html.Day1MorningSessionDigitalPreservation:collectiveresponsibilityandtechnicalinnovation

SarahHiggins,Lecturer,DepartmentofInformationStudies,AberystwythUniversity SallyMcInnes,Archivist,LLGC/NationalLibraryofWalesThemorningsessionbeganwithSallyMcInnes(NationalLibraryofWales)andSarahHiggins(AberystwythUniversity)presentinganoverviewofongoingworkstartedin2009todevelopshared digital preservation provision inWales. The project aimed for sustained access toWelsh recordsand indevelopingcapacity fordigitalpreservation; theapproachwouldbeincremental.Throughanational,sharedapproach,asurveywasfirstundertakenin2009tounderstandwhatdifficultieswereinimplementingdigitalpreservationacrossWales.Fromtheresults,gapswereanalysed(needingtoaddresslackofconfidence,skills,infrastructure,resources) and a business made. The work undertaken included first setting up projectmanagementstructures,devisingpolicyandprocedureswhichthenenabledtheprojecttodeployapproachestoaddressinginfrastructureandskillsneeds.First, open source systems were reviewed, selected and tested. Archivematica was firstselected, piloted and installed in local record offices. Unfortunately, some Record Officesystemsteamsdidnotlikewhattheyconsideredtobeundeveloped,notbeta-testedsoftwarein their systems. The project’s responsewas to have software cloud-based as a proof ofconcept through Arkivum’s interfaces and storage services through Microsoft Azure andCloudSigmasothatthelocalRecordOfficescouldparticipate.Preservicawasalsopilotedandthe12institutionsinvolvedintheprojectreceivedtwofulldaysoftraininginthesystems.Forskillsandtraining,traininggrantsweremadeavailabletoprojectparticipants.Theproject

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continues with the development of a National Digital Preservation Policy for Wales andcontinuedscopingforacquiringasharedcloud-basedstorageandmanagementsystem.Itisgreattoseethatasustained,nationaldigitalpreservationprojectcontinuestoevolve.Whilstitusessystems‘solutions,’itisclearthatdigitalpreservationisacontinuouspieceofworkthatnotonlyreactstotechnologicalchangebutalsototheskillsandtrainingneedsofthepractitionersinvolvedtobuildboththeirskillsetsandtheirconfidence.Creatingvaluewithdigitalpreservation:thelivinganddynamicdigitalarchive

MikeQuinn,CommercialDirector,PreservicaMike Quinn opened his paper suggesting that digital preservation was “not an archivesproblem,butarecordsproblem.”HereferredtothebenchmarkreportfromtheInformationGovernance Initiative (IGI)which reportson theneed fororganisations tohave long-termprotectionandaccesstotheirdigitalinformation.Delegateswereremindedthattheyneedtoremainflexibleinrelationtodigitalpreservationchallenges,nothingisguaranteed:Appleendingsupportforthe.MOVfileformatdemonstratesthis.Inordertohelptackledigitalpreservation,recordkeepersneedtointeractwiththedigitalrecords creators. Recordkeepers need to encourage those creating the records to be‘archiviststhemselves’andreferredtothecasestudyoftheAmericanInstituteofArchitectswhoeffectivelydelegatedtheworkoftheingestprocesstothecontentcreators.MikeQuinnofferedusaslideonthefastevolvingworldofdigitalpreservationwheretherearenewtools,communities,standardsandprocesses,showingthattechnologychangesallthetime.Hesuggestedthatwearemovingfromaworldofindividualtoolsbeingavailablefordigitalpreservation, tobuildyourownsolutionsandnowto ‘outof thebox’solutionswherewecancuratethemintherightway.Thedigitalpreservation industrymovingtoamoreautomatedwayofworking,soitisnowbecomingaprocessthatisbusinessasusual.Healsowarnedthedelegatesthatthere’sawargoingoninthestoragemarket.Donotbelocked in long-term deals as storagewill continue to get cheaper. He also enthused thatrecordkeepersneedtofocusondeliveringvalue,engagingtheirusersandnottobecomeatechnologist,insteadoptingforaholisticapproach.Digitalpreservation:keepcalmandgetonwithit! DrMatthewAddis,ChiefTechnologyOfficer,ArkivumLimitedForthosewantingtheslideandnotesfromthespeakerhimself,pleasedoclickthroughtothislinkandenjoyhisclearandeasytounderstandapproachtowhatTimGollinscoinedas‘parsimoniouspreservation’.Ifyoudonothavetotimetodothispleasereadon,althoughIreallydoinsistthatyouhaveapeekoftheslides.They’rereallyrathergood.MatthewsAddissuggeststhatmanagingdigitalrecordsisreallymanagingriskduetotheirfragility.Don’tletthebitsbecomederelicttorotaway.“Apathyisthedigitalrecordkiller,”sostartingfromsomewheresimpleandworkingfromthereisthebestwaytotacklethedigitalpreservation ‘problem’. Addis observed that lots of organisations seem to suffer from a

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“digital preservation paralysis” and fear getting it wrong. However, he advised thoseassembled that “doing nothing is the worst choice”. As seen in the slides, he gave thedelegates an overview of the tools available to start a collections audit or get a betterunderstandingofdigitalholdings,includingDROIDandtheDigitalAssetFramework(DAF).Aswellaslookingatfileformatidentification,healsosuggestedthatitisimportanttoconsiderbit-levelfixitysuchasusingchecksumtoolsonceyou’vegotthefiles‘in’.Whenlookingatthematurityofyoursystems,itisgoodtobenchmarkthemagainstmaturitymodels.Re-iteratingwhathesaidearlier,it’salwaysgoodtostartfromthelowerlevelsandbuildmaturity.Alliedtolookingattechnicalsolutions,staffskillsandpolicymustalsobedevelopedforthedigitalpreservationaprogrammetobemaintained.InreferencetoOAIS,itneedstoberemodelledbutisveryusefulasastartingpointwhenthinkingaboutdigitalpreservationbutitshouldbeadaptedtosuitspecificcircumstances.Hesuggestedthatstandardsshouldevolvesotobuildinflexibilitytodigitalpreservationmodels.TheOAISmodelisunderreviewoftheDPCarehostingawikitogatherinputontheOAISreview.Day1FirstAfternoonFirststepsindigitalpreservationandonlineaccesstotheBTHeritagecollection

JamesElder,ArchivesManager,BTArchivesJennyHunt’stweetneatlysumsupfeelingoftherecordkeepingcommunitywantingtolearnmoreandsharedigitalpreservationexperiences:“Secondyearof#digitalpreservationstreamand great to see the room is at capacity #howthingschange.” James Elder continued thestronglyattendeddigitalpreservationsessionfortheafternoonwithapackedcrowdsharinghisexperiences.JamesElderoutlinedthatfortheBTArchives,“agoodwayofgettingtogripswithpracticaldigital preservation” for the uninitiated is to start offwith digital surrogates asmeans oflearningthesystemsandsoftwareinvolvedintheprocesses.TheBTArchivesstartedwithpreserving digital surrogates as they were a priority at the time after a series of largedigitisationprogrammes.The BT Archives maintain TIFFs as the digital preservation copies of the photos throughPreservica systems. He found that after trials, it was necessary to have a PC with largeprocessingpowerdedicatedto the ingestprocess.Forstorageand faster ingest, theyhadmovedfromexternalharddrives(HDD)withUSB2portstosolidstatedrives(SSD)withthefasterUSB3ports.Oncehehadbatch,hewouldcreateaSIPusingSIPcreatorinPreservicaandthen“zipthatSIP”usingaWindowstoolratherthantheSIPcreator.ThezippedSIPwouldthenbetransferredintotheTransferAgentuploadfolder,whichthenautomaticallystartstoupload.Toavoidslowingdownnetworks,herecommendedthatuploadsaredoneovernightor over weekends. Once ready, the ingest process is controlled from the Preservicadashboard.DocumentswerecreatedasTIFFsonlybutaccessJPGswerealsoproducedasapartoftheSIP.

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Histakehomemessagewasto,“plan,plan,plan.”Whenrunningaproject,workoutwhatyouaretryingtoachieveandhowyouaregoingtodoit.“Flowchartsandchecklistsareyourfriends”.Preservicahasitsownprocesses,howeveryouwillneedtomanageyourownuseoftheproduct.Andfinally,herestateshisopeningwith,“startingdigitalsurrogatesisagoodintroduction”butadmitsthatit’snotusingPreservicatoitsfullpotential,butyoudohavetostartsomewhere.Thepathtodevelopingadigitalpreservationprogramme:theviewfromthebottom

KirstyLee,DigitalPreservationCurator,UniversityofEdinburghKirstyLee’srelatable,easytounderstandapproachbeganbycalminganydigitalpreservationanxietiesamongstthedelegatesinthat“youdon’tfeelyouneedtobeanexpert.”Shethenstructured her paper and slides through a series of ‘tips’ for developing a preservationprogramme.Thefirstpieceof,inthewordsofthespeaker,“simplebutvital”advicewastounderstandwhereyourorganisationisintermsofdigitalpreservationworkandworkoutwhatitisyouwanttodowithdigitalpreservation.Whenstartingout,shesaidthatAdrianBrown’sbookon Digital Preservation became her vade mecum as the Digital Preservation CapabilityMaturityModel (DPCMM)was reallyuseful inworkingout the levelofmaturityofdigitalpreservationwithinherorganisation.ForLee,shefoundthattheDPCMMwasauseful,clearvisualguidetoworkoutwhereyouarewithdigitalpreservation.SheadvocatedAgileprojectmanagementmethodologiesfordigitalpreservationandagreedwithJamesElder’stakehomemessageof,“plan,plan,plan.”PLATTER’sRepositoryPlanningChecklistandGuidancetoolwasalsoofgreatuseandwhenusedwiththeDPCMMtheycansetouttheOAISandPREMISrequirementsandidentifywhatgapsneedtobefilled.When it comes around to testing, Lee’s tip was to make sure that you systematicallydocumentyourtests(forexampleoncompressionleveltesting)whenusingArchivematicaorsimilarsothatyoucanreferbacktothemforfutureuse.Fordigitalpreservation,workflowsandprocessesmustbedevisedasabasistoworkfromandadjustedovertime.Mindmappingcanalsobeausefultoolwhenworkingonthis.Tools,practitionersshouldkeepaneyeoutfordevelopingtools,althoughthereistheissueofthesustainabilityofthemsoyoushouldnotrelyonthemorbuildthemintoworkflows.The Community Owned Digital Preservation Tool Registry (COPTR) was referred to(http://coptr.digipres.org/Main_Page).Thetakehometipwastodocumenteverythingyoudoandshareitasmuchasyoucanthroughblogsandpapers.E-ARKProject:ProgressandOutcomes

DrAndrewWilson,SeniorResearchFellow,E-ARKProject,UniversityofBrightonTheEuropeanfundedE-ARKproject(http://www.eark-project.com/)hasattemptedtofillthegaps in current digital preservation and interoperability and aimed to provide practicalsolutions“torealdigitalpreservationissues.”Thepresentationshowedtothedelegatesthat

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digitalpreservationisaffordableandnotanexpensivevendorbasedsolution.Thiswasanespeciallyvaluablelessontothoseinsmallerorganisationswithsmallerpurses.Theprojectwasacollaborationandhadadurationofthreeyears.Thefirstyearconsistedofa stateof the art review, the second year saw thedevelopmentof specificationand tooldevelopmentandthethirdyearsawthebeginningofpilotprojects.Themessageseemedtobe that to do digital preservation properly and sustainability, timemust be taken in theplanningstages.ApartoftheoutputsoftheprojectincludedcommonSIP,AIPandDIPformats,pre-ingest,preservation and access workflows. Open source tools were developed for theimplementationofspecificationswhichwerescalable,modular,robustandadaptable.Thetools couldbe implemented individuallyorasan integrated reference implementation. Inparticular, the project developed specifications for relational databases (SIARD 2.0) incollaborationwiththeSwissFederalArchives.TheE-ARKprojectisindiscussionwiththeOPFandtheDLMForumfortheongoingmaintenanceofthesetools.Thiswasahighlyinformativepaperwhichwascrammedfullofinformationontheprojectandsomeofthedeliverablesinvolved.Tofindoutmoreaboutthisprojectwhichwillsoonbefinishing(andwehopewillcontinueasE-ARK2!)dovisithttp://www.eark-project.com/. Day1SecondAfternoonSession“Wouldliketoknowmore”–Digitalpreservationtrainingandprofessionaldevelopment EdwardPinsent,DigitalArchivist,UniversityofLondonComputerCentre StephanieTaylor,SeniorConsultant,UniversityofLondon SharonMcMeekin,HeadofTrainingandSkills,DigitalPreservationCoalition Thefinalafternoonsessionofthedaysummarisedthefindingsofthe‘DigitalArchivingandPreservation Training Needs Survey’ led by the University of London’s Computer Centre(ULCC) in collaboration the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) and the Digital CurationCentre (DCC). The lively and engaging delivery of Ed Pinsent began the session throughintroducingthesurveywhichseemedtoaskthecriticalquestion,“whatdoyouwantfromdigitalpreservationtraining?”.Thesurveysawagoodresponseandthereweretwomainissuesthatcameoutofit.Thefirst,beingthetitleofthesession,wasthatrespondentswould‘like to know more’. Secondly, it was the ‘confidence’ in being able to address digitalpreservationissues.‘Confidence’wasnotawordthatwasusedinthewordingofthesurvey,butlookingthroughthequalitativedataitwasareoccurringword.Anotherissuethatwasraisedwasthe‘fast-changing’natureofdigitalpreservationenvironmentsasthetechniquesandtoolsusedindigitalpreservationnowwillnotbefitforpurposeinthefuture.EdPinsentneatlypresentedthefindingsoftheneedssurveyasfollows:

1. Peoplewanttolearnaboutstrategyandplanning,notexclusivelyDPtheory,notexclusivelyIT;

2. PeopleareclearthatDigitalPreservationtrainingwillbeingthembenefitsdirectlyrelatedtotheirjob/organisation/collections;

3. Peoplewanttolearnbydoing;

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4. Everybodywantstoknowmore;and5. Everyonewantstofeelconfidentaboutdigitalpreservation.

ThesessioncontinuedwithStephanieTaylor’sviewonhowtrainingcouldbedevelopedasaresultofmeetingtheneedsofthesurvey.Theteamwillbe“workinghard”toaddresstheseneedsthroughthedeliveryofnewcoursesandupdatingtheirexistingcourses.ThesurveyseemstosuggestthatdigitalpreservationintheUKis‘maturing’asadiscipline.Asaresult,specialismswithindigitalpreservationarebeginningtoemerge. In termsofdeliveringthetraining,onedayface-to-facecoursesandonlinetrainingofferingswereapopularneedandtheywilldevelopcoursesinthiswayasaresult.Asatasteoftheonlinecourses,theULCCDigitalArchiveTraining (DART)Blog containsa link to their freeOAIS introductory coursewhich they introduced last year. You can sign up for it here:https://dart.blogs.ulcc.ac.uk/2015/11/02/free-oais-online-course/.Sharon McMeekin’s paper even went as so far to suggest the idea that perhaps digitalpreservation is a specialism in its own right (cue debate!). The DigCurV framework wasrecommended as being very helpful when thinking about digital preservation skills anddevelopment, although actual digital preservation skills are only a small part of theframework. In the training needs survey, they found thatmost peopleworking in digitalpreservationhaveatleastaMastersqualification,sothepractitionersworkinginthisfieldarehighlyqualified.Fortraining,peoplewouldliketocomeawayfromtheircoursesfeelingthattheyhaveeitherenhancedtheircompetencyinparticulardigitalpreservationskillsareasaswellashavingsomethingtoshowforit.Trainingandworkshopsseemtofocusmoreonthesepracticalskillsandcompetencies.Asapartoftheclose,StephanieTayloradvisedthatfordigitalpreservationtraining,therewasno‘magicanswer’ora‘rightpath’inprovidingtraining,butyoudohavetoacceptthatongoingreviewandstartingfromanewisapartofthepractice.ItwasashamethatLaurawasunabletoattendasIwaslookingforwardtohearinghowdigitalpreservation training could be delivered for ‘non-scientific’ audiences, possibly throughmeansofadjustingthetechnicallanguageforthepractitionerfromanartsandhumanitiesbackground.ItwouldbegoodtohearLaura’sthoughtsonthis.FortheDigitalPreservationatOxfordandCambridgeproject,theseconclusionsandlessonsfromtheULCC ledsurveywillcertainlybe interestingtocompareoncethe initialTrainingNeedsSurveyhasbeencarriedoutat the tworespective institutions.This talkwashighlyinterestingandinstructiveastothestateofdigitalpreservationtrainingintheUKtodate.