QA Focus

Digital Preservation

End of Programme Meeting:  5/99, 7/99, DiVLE and JISC/NSF International Digital Libraries

QA Focus

AHDS• The AHDS aids the discovery, creation and

preservation of digital collections in the arts and humanities

• The AHDS is a UK national service funded by the JISC and the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB)

QA Focus

QA Focus• JISC QA Focus has been set up to support the

JISC's Information Environment programme by encouraging participating projects to develop appropriate quality assurance (QA) processes which will ensure that project deliverables comply with standards and best practices.

• QA Focus is provided by a partnership of UKOLN (University of Bath) and the AHDS.

QA Focus

What Does QA Focus Cover?• QA across the entire digital resource lifecycle

(creation, management, collection development, access, repackaging, ...).

• QA for: – Digitisation of resources – Software development – Metadata – Learning materials – Web

– Deployment into service

QA Focus

Contacting QA Focus• For more information on the QA Focus visit

the Web site at

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/

• Hamish James, Collections Manager, Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS)

hamish.james@ahds.ac.uk

QA Focus

OAIS (not OAI)

QA Focus

Issues• The content of digital resources is only

accessible with the aid of intermediary technologies

• Digital resources are complex– Reliance on specific combination of formats,

software and hardware to operate correctly

• I.T. develops rapidly and resources can become obsolete very quickly

QA Focus

Digital Information

Bitstream + logical format + functionality=

Digital information

media + file format + software=

Digital information

backup standards ?

QA Focus

Question• Your project has ended, what will happen to

the digital outputs you have created (data, metadata, software etc.)

QA Focus

Planning for the Future• Short-term: Initial technology still current

and actively supported

• Medium-term: Initial technology still in use and supported, but no longer used for new work

• Long-term: Initial technology no longer used or supported

QA Focus

How Soon?• Short-term, ~ 0 - 5 years

• Medium-term ~ 5-10 years

• Long-term ~ 10+ years

QA Focus

Question• What will have happened to your digital

outputs in 1, 5 and 10 years?

QA Focus

After the Project• Once a project is completed, what

happens to its digital outputs

1. Live, (supported) system

2. Archived

3. ‘Shelved’

4. Abandoned

QA Focus

Live System• Who is running the system, and what is

their commitment to it?

• What will happen if the system is shut down?

• Is the digital resource completed or on-going?

QA Focus

Archived• Is the digital resource going to an archival

digital repository?

• Are only some aspects of the resource being archived?

• Will it be available for others to use?

• Will the resource be updated in the future?

QA Focus

‘Shelved’• Don’t

• Shelving a digital resource without active, on-going attention is highly likely to result in its loss– Media degradation– Software and hardware obsolecences– Loss of knowledge about the resource

QA Focus

Abandoned• May be appropriate, probably isn’t, think

about archiving the resource instead

QA Focus

User Interaction

What to Preserve?

Software

Data

QA Focus

Significant Characteristics• Binding digital information to a particular

medium does not ‘fix’ that information

• Need to understand the significant aspects of the digital information you are trying to preserve

QA Focus

Significant Characteristics?• Plain text

– Characters, lines

• Word document– Characters, lines– Font, size, position– Styles, hyperlinks, bookmarks?

QA Focus

Question• What are the significant characteristics of

your digital outputs?