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Katherine Skinner - Collaborative Distributed Digital Preservation: The MetaArchive Cooperative

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Katherine Skinner

A presentation delivered at the University of North Texas by Dr. Katherine Skinner on December 11, 2009, on organizational and technical considerations regarding collaborative distributed digital preservation. The MetaArchive Cooperative, a distributed digital preservation network, is covered as a case study.

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Katherine Skinner Executive Director, Educopia Institute Program Manager, MetaArchive Cooperative University of North Texas December 11, 2009
What is distributed digital preservation? Why do we need to collaborate? What are some basic principles of collaborative networking? What do they look like in practice? MetaArchive Cooperative Skinner 12/11/09
Digital preservation: Managed activities necessary for ensuring both the long-term maintenance of a byte stream and continued accessibility of its contents. Aims to ensure that future users will be able to discover, retrieve, render, manipulate, interpret and use digital information in face of constantly changing technology Skinner 12/11/09
“ Disaster recovery strategies and backup systems are not sufficient to ensure survival and access to authentic digital resources over time. A backup is short-term data recovery solution following loss or corruption and is fundamentally different to an electronic preservation archive.” JISC. Digital Preservation: Continued Access to authentic digital assets. (November, 2006) Skinner 12/11/09
Internal policies Internal strategies/procedures Implementation Monitoring Skinner 12/11/09
Policy should Explain how digital preservation can serve major needs of the institution State some of the principles/rules that form the basis of implementation Provide guidance and authorization on preservation of digital materials (selection, rights info, formatting, etc) Ensure the authenticity, reliability and long term accessibility of the digital materials Be date stamped and marked for next review Skinner 12/11/09
Document preservation practices The “what”—what content is preserved and where is it preserved The “how”—what service(s), how process for ingest/harvest, how retrieve if necessary, how monitor Skinner 12/11/09
Maximizing survivability through adapting long-known preservation conventions Multiple copies Distribution Security Skinner 12/11/09
How do you do preservation? Rule 1: you don’t do it alone! Skinner 12/11/09
Skinner 12/11/09
Collections Books, journals, newspapers, unique items, etc. Services Building, disseminating, and preserving collections Once solitary; now defies such boundaries Competition vs. collaboration issue Viability at stake Skinner 12/11/09
Adjust to a more collaborative mindset to accomplish two preservation goals: To preserve the digital collections we create Maintain integrity so that we can continue to access both “born digital” and digitized materials To preserve our own institutional missions Outsourcing a core mission is a dangerous proposition Danger of becoming a broker rather than a do-er Skinner 12/11/09
Collaborative Network: An association of autonomous entities collaborating to achieve common or compatible goals. Source: Wikipedia.org Skinner 12/11/09 FLEXIBILITY FRAGILITY
Enables communities to work together on a common solution to a common problem Demands attention to organizational structure in order to work Requires three key elements: A common cause Solid institutional buy-in Attention to the organizational arrangement that governs the partnerships Skinner 12/11/09
Skinner 12/11/09
Founded on the premise that cultural memory organizations should maintain their historical role as cultural stewards Preservation of digital assets as corollary to preserving physical ones Need in house expertise and knowledge Value of curators and librarians and archivists Chose technical and organizational infrastructure that capitalizes on cultural memory organization’s proven methodologies Distributed preservation Partnership to keep costing affordable Skinner 12/11/09
A distributed digital preservation cooperative for digital archives, based on LOCKSS Founded in 2003; supported by combination of sponsored funding (NDIIPP, NHPRC), consulting fees, and membership fees Provides digital preservation infrastructure and training and models to enable other groups to establish similar networks Skinner 12/11/09
MetaArchive is a cooperative, not a vendor: A cooperative (or co-op) is an organization that consists of a group of individuals who have joined together to perform a function more efficiently than each individual could do alone. The purpose of a cooperative is not to make profits, but to improve each member's situation and the situation of the surrounding society. collaborative association of cultural memory organizations with a nonprofit administration All hardware and software assets are owned by members Membership fees go to a central pool of support for members’ co-op activities Skinner 12/11/09
Skinner 12/11/09 14 US Members + Lib. of Congress 2 Overseas Members
Auburn University Boston College Clemson University Emory University Florida State Univ. Folger Shakespeare Lib. Georgia Tech Pontifícia Universidade Católica (Rio) Rice University Univ. of Hull Univ. of Louisville Univ. of North Texas Univ. of South Carolina Virginia Tech Library of Congress NDLTD SDSC Skinner 12/11/09
Works with any repository system Collections must be available via http for initial harvest (it can be a highly secure pathway) Tiered membership: $5K or $1K per year Server cost: $4,600/3 years (currently) Space is at cost : $0.67/GB/year for six replications Skinner 12/11/09
Collections Technical Infrastructure Organizational Infrastructure Skinner 12/11/09
Format-agnostic solution Subject- and genre-based archives Southern Digital Culture Electronic Theses and Dissertations TransAtlantic Slave Trade Early Modern Literature Newspapers (coming soon) Skinner 12/11/09
MetaArchive provides a cost-effective cooperative structure: secure distributed digital preservation of archives based on re-use of LOCKSS for archives Network participation as a MetaArchive-LOCKSS cache is simple and inexpensive Skinner 12/11/09
Preservation solution needed a long-term, sustainable infrastructure Question arose: Who’s in charge of a Cooperative of peer institutions? Sought guidance legal team, librarians, archivists, and IP specialists Created core structure in 2006: charter, membership agreement, papers of incorporation, business plans, etc. Skinner 12/11/09
Separated the administrative apparatus and member institutions provides a clear line of leadership and responsibility helps to keep any one member’s goals from unduly influencing the cooperative’s direction gives leverage for external partnerships Skinner 12/11/09
reducing our short- and long-term costs Investing in a commonly-owned solution, not purchasing a service Sharing technological development and organizational tasks decentralizing our activities Safety in this “brave new world” of digital preservation may well reside in shared knowledge and shared commitment decreasing dependence on third-party solutions There is room for various types of solutions Increased capacity for acting as a community of cultural stewards Skinner 12/11/09
Outsourcing core services = risky proposition Core missions: Building collections Disseminating collections Preserving collections Cannot focus on the collections at the expense of the services … need both in order to carry our missions and memory forward Skinner 12/11/09
Dr. Katherine Skinner 404 783 2534 [email_address] Skinner 12/11/09

More Related Content

Katherine Skinner - Collaborative Distributed Digital Preservation: The MetaArchive Cooperative

  • 1. Katherine Skinner Executive Director, Educopia Institute Program Manager, MetaArchive Cooperative University of North Texas December 11, 2009
  • 2. What is distributed digital preservation? Why do we need to collaborate? What are some basic principles of collaborative networking? What do they look like in practice? MetaArchive Cooperative Skinner 12/11/09
  • 3. Digital preservation: Managed activities necessary for ensuring both the long-term maintenance of a byte stream and continued accessibility of its contents. Aims to ensure that future users will be able to discover, retrieve, render, manipulate, interpret and use digital information in face of constantly changing technology Skinner 12/11/09
  • 4. “ Disaster recovery strategies and backup systems are not sufficient to ensure survival and access to authentic digital resources over time. A backup is short-term data recovery solution following loss or corruption and is fundamentally different to an electronic preservation archive.” JISC. Digital Preservation: Continued Access to authentic digital assets. (November, 2006) Skinner 12/11/09
  • 5. Internal policies Internal strategies/procedures Implementation Monitoring Skinner 12/11/09
  • 6. Policy should Explain how digital preservation can serve major needs of the institution State some of the principles/rules that form the basis of implementation Provide guidance and authorization on preservation of digital materials (selection, rights info, formatting, etc) Ensure the authenticity, reliability and long term accessibility of the digital materials Be date stamped and marked for next review Skinner 12/11/09
  • 7. Document preservation practices The “what”—what content is preserved and where is it preserved The “how”—what service(s), how process for ingest/harvest, how retrieve if necessary, how monitor Skinner 12/11/09
  • 8. Maximizing survivability through adapting long-known preservation conventions Multiple copies Distribution Security Skinner 12/11/09
  • 9. How do you do preservation? Rule 1: you don’t do it alone! Skinner 12/11/09
  • 11. Collections Books, journals, newspapers, unique items, etc. Services Building, disseminating, and preserving collections Once solitary; now defies such boundaries Competition vs. collaboration issue Viability at stake Skinner 12/11/09
  • 12. Adjust to a more collaborative mindset to accomplish two preservation goals: To preserve the digital collections we create Maintain integrity so that we can continue to access both “born digital” and digitized materials To preserve our own institutional missions Outsourcing a core mission is a dangerous proposition Danger of becoming a broker rather than a do-er Skinner 12/11/09
  • 13. Collaborative Network: An association of autonomous entities collaborating to achieve common or compatible goals. Source: Wikipedia.org Skinner 12/11/09 FLEXIBILITY FRAGILITY
  • 14. Enables communities to work together on a common solution to a common problem Demands attention to organizational structure in order to work Requires three key elements: A common cause Solid institutional buy-in Attention to the organizational arrangement that governs the partnerships Skinner 12/11/09
  • 16. Founded on the premise that cultural memory organizations should maintain their historical role as cultural stewards Preservation of digital assets as corollary to preserving physical ones Need in house expertise and knowledge Value of curators and librarians and archivists Chose technical and organizational infrastructure that capitalizes on cultural memory organization’s proven methodologies Distributed preservation Partnership to keep costing affordable Skinner 12/11/09
  • 17. A distributed digital preservation cooperative for digital archives, based on LOCKSS Founded in 2003; supported by combination of sponsored funding (NDIIPP, NHPRC), consulting fees, and membership fees Provides digital preservation infrastructure and training and models to enable other groups to establish similar networks Skinner 12/11/09
  • 18. MetaArchive is a cooperative, not a vendor: A cooperative (or co-op) is an organization that consists of a group of individuals who have joined together to perform a function more efficiently than each individual could do alone. The purpose of a cooperative is not to make profits, but to improve each member's situation and the situation of the surrounding society. collaborative association of cultural memory organizations with a nonprofit administration All hardware and software assets are owned by members Membership fees go to a central pool of support for members’ co-op activities Skinner 12/11/09
  • 19. Skinner 12/11/09 14 US Members + Lib. of Congress 2 Overseas Members
  • 20. Auburn University Boston College Clemson University Emory University Florida State Univ. Folger Shakespeare Lib. Georgia Tech Pontifícia Universidade Católica (Rio) Rice University Univ. of Hull Univ. of Louisville Univ. of North Texas Univ. of South Carolina Virginia Tech Library of Congress NDLTD SDSC Skinner 12/11/09
  • 21. Works with any repository system Collections must be available via http for initial harvest (it can be a highly secure pathway) Tiered membership: $5K or $1K per year Server cost: $4,600/3 years (currently) Space is at cost : $0.67/GB/year for six replications Skinner 12/11/09
  • 22. Collections Technical Infrastructure Organizational Infrastructure Skinner 12/11/09
  • 23. Format-agnostic solution Subject- and genre-based archives Southern Digital Culture Electronic Theses and Dissertations TransAtlantic Slave Trade Early Modern Literature Newspapers (coming soon) Skinner 12/11/09
  • 24. MetaArchive provides a cost-effective cooperative structure: secure distributed digital preservation of archives based on re-use of LOCKSS for archives Network participation as a MetaArchive-LOCKSS cache is simple and inexpensive Skinner 12/11/09
  • 25. Preservation solution needed a long-term, sustainable infrastructure Question arose: Who’s in charge of a Cooperative of peer institutions? Sought guidance legal team, librarians, archivists, and IP specialists Created core structure in 2006: charter, membership agreement, papers of incorporation, business plans, etc. Skinner 12/11/09
  • 26. Separated the administrative apparatus and member institutions provides a clear line of leadership and responsibility helps to keep any one member’s goals from unduly influencing the cooperative’s direction gives leverage for external partnerships Skinner 12/11/09
  • 27. reducing our short- and long-term costs Investing in a commonly-owned solution, not purchasing a service Sharing technological development and organizational tasks decentralizing our activities Safety in this “brave new world” of digital preservation may well reside in shared knowledge and shared commitment decreasing dependence on third-party solutions There is room for various types of solutions Increased capacity for acting as a community of cultural stewards Skinner 12/11/09
  • 28. Outsourcing core services = risky proposition Core missions: Building collections Disseminating collections Preserving collections Cannot focus on the collections at the expense of the services … need both in order to carry our missions and memory forward Skinner 12/11/09
  • 29. Dr. Katherine Skinner 404 783 2534 [email_address] Skinner 12/11/09

Editor's Notes

  1. Building, disseminating, and preserving collections used to be a single institution’s work “ Digital age” defies those institutional boundaries Competition vs. collaboration conundrum Academia—highest stakes are reputation How do we incentivize?