Task force to address sustainability in digital preservation

"The objectives of the taskforce complement Jisc strategy in this area and our involvement will help to formulate and disseminate outcomes that could be very influential and significant"

Jisc is supporting an international initiative, led by US-based organisations the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to address the issue of economic sustainability in digital preservation.

A Task Force to be co-chaired by Fran Berman, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California and a pioneer in data ‘cyberinfrastructure’, and Brian Lavoie, an economist and research scientist with OCLC, will receive support from the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration and the Council on Library and Information Resources, along with Jisc.

The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access is expected to meet over the next two years to gather testimony from experts in preparation for the Task Force's Final Report. Though significant progress has been made to overcome the technical challenges of achieving persistent access to digital resources, the economic challenges remain.

"It is impossible to imagine success in the Information Age without the availability of our most valuable digital information when we want it now and in the future," said Dr. Berman.  "It's critical for our society to have a long-term strategic plan for sustaining digital data and we are excited about the potential of the Task Force to help form that plan."

"Persistent access to digital information over long periods of time is vital for the future progress of research, education, and private enterprise," said Dr. Lavoie.  "In addition to developing sound technical processes for preserving digital information, we must also ensure that our preservation strategies are economically sustainable.  The work of the Task Force will be an important step toward achieving that goal."

Speaking about Jisc’s involvement in the initiative, programme manager Neil Grindley said: "This is a very important initiative that will examine the economic underpinnings of activities relating to digital preservation. Policy-makers and institutional strategists may agree in principle about the need to endorse long-term data preservation mechanisms but until such activities can be reliably costed and proved to be demonstrably sustainable, actual adoption of such strategies may be hindered or neglected entirely. The objectives of the taskforce complement Jisc strategy in this area and our involvement will help to formulate and disseminate outcomes that could be very influential and significant, not only for the digital preservation community but, ultimately, for anyone who is concerned about long-term access to digital resources.”

Dr. Berman and Dr. Lavoie will convene an international group of prominent leaders to develop recommendations on economic sustainability of digital information for the science and engineering, cultural heritage, public and private sectors. 

During the two years of its work, the Task Force also will produce a series of articles about the challenges and opportunities of digital information preservation, for both the scholarly community and the public.

For further information, please go to: Task Force