Policies for Library Publishing: Module 4 - Digital Preservation Policies

Welcome to Getting Started in Library Publishing. My name is Jane, and in this video we will discuss digital preservation policies for your library publishing program. Before we begin, here are some of the things we will be looking at in this video. First will be a short introduction to preservation policies and why they may interest you as a library publisher. Following will be a breakdown of some of the components of preservation policies.

00:26 - So what is a preservation policy? A preservation policy allows you as the publisher to document the commitments you are making and clarifies those for both authors and readers. Once a publisher finalizes and releases a new publication in digital form, that publication becomes a preservation challenge. Unlike print publications which can often be shelved and left alone for long periods of time without significant degradation, digital content requires ongoing and persistent attention in order to remain viable and readable for future audiences. Digital content is notoriously ephemeral and easily compromised. Digital preservation focuses on a wide range of risk factors in order to offset the chances of unintended change to or loss of files due to concerns such as media or file failure security and other threats to the integrity of digital content over time.

The file types and devices you use to store published content today 01:19 - will need to be monitored and refreshed to ensure the longevity of a published work. Your preservation policy will document the commitments of the publisher and other parties involved to ensure longevity of published works. As is also documented in the preservation module of the sustainability course, if your library publishing program is seeking best practices for digital preservation you now have access to a wide range of resources. The the next few slides will cover some of the contents you would find in a preservation policy starting with the policy statement. The policy statement provides a simple statement, often one to two sentences, relating digital preservation to your mission and the communities it serves.

01:59 - The summary statement section tends to be two to three paragraphs and summarizes the institution’s approach. It may cover such topics as: What digital resources do you preserve, and who selects content for preservation? When are decisions about preservation made for an object or publication? What forms or formats are prioritized? Who wrote the policy and how often is it reevaluated, and by whom, etc? The scope section summarizes the resource groups such as units, departments, or external parties for which you take responsibility. For example, you may work with your university’s thesis office, such as the one pictured in this slide, to ensure that all masters- and PhD-level theses are digitally preserved. The scope section may also prioritize these according to institutional importance. And selection criteria is a section that outlines how decisions are made regarding what will be preserved.

It may include factors by which selection decisions are made 02:53 - such as the importance of an object or publication to user communities; quality of the object or publication uniqueness of the object; or publication risks to the object publication, etc. Strategies refers to a section that tends to contain high-level details regarding the curation and management practices of your institution. It may briefly describe things such as metadata creation, storage, refreshing, monitoring, security, redundancy, migration, emulation, access, integration with other units, and interaction with third party agents. Operating principles is a section that may refer to methodologies and philosophies guiding preservation activities at your institution, such as the open archival information system or OAIS. Roles and responsibilities is a section that describes who is involved in terms of roles, not specific individuals, and specific preservation responsibilities and tasks And metadata is a section that describes policies for ascribing metadata to published digital objects. This may include schema references.

04:03 - The permissions or access section documents policies around who can access preserved copies of content and under what circumstances. The economics or sustainability section documents expected costs associated with preservation and who shoulders the responsibility for those costs. The challenges section acknowledges the challenges you face in preserving digital content. The date or authors section documents the last revision date and provides contact information for the authors. The related documents section lists other institutional documentation that has a relationship to this digital preservation policy, and the definitions or glossary section clarifies terms used in the policy that non-specialists may not know.

This is just a representative 04:52 - sample of the categories of information found in numerous preservation policy documents created by libraries, archives, and museums. Your library publishing program may use some of these categories and leave out others at will. Likewise, you may find additional categories to be of use. In this video we have discussed the common elements in digital preservation policies. Thank you for watching! .