Mid-afternoon, we were given some background information on the course: it is JISC funded, based on a course first given at Cornell University, run by the Digital Preservation Coalition, with the University of London Computing Centre, the Archaeological Data Service and KDSC Digital Consultancy.
There are two key documents: the Trusted Digital Repositories report and the OAIS standard (see sidebar links); there are ‘three legs‘ to their approach: Technology, Resources and the organisation; and they outlined five key stages to creating a digital preservation archive: Acknowledge, Act, Consolidate, Institutionalise, Externalise.
The five key stages are pretty interesting. I reckon we’re between Stage Two and Three.
Stage One: Acknowledge. Understand that digital preservation is a local concern.
Stage Two: Act. Initiating digital preservation projects.
Stage Three: Consolidate. Segueing from projects to programmes.
Stage Four: Institutionalise. Incorporating the larger environment.
Stage Five: Externalise. Embracing inter-institutional collaboration and dependencies.
These five stages are worth discussing in more detail when I get back to work.
