SHERPA Digital Perservation
The SHERPA DP project (2005 – 2007) investigated the preservation of digital resources stored by institutional repositories participating in the SHERPA project. An emphasis was placed on the preservation of e-prints – research papers stored in an electronic format, with some support for other types of content, such as electronic theses and dissertations.
Background
The JISC-funded Feasibility and Requirements Study for Preservation of E-Prints (James et al, 2003) argued that there is a unique window of opportunity to address the preservation requirements of repositories at the beginning of their adoption rather than leaving it until the lack of preservation management becomes an issue and content is no longer accessible. A key recommendation of the report was the establishment of a repository infrastructure based upon the OAIS reference model and a practical investigation that includes implementation of preservation practices (p.56, James et al, 2003). It noted that, in the absence of staff and services with practical digital preservation skills and expertise, a sensible approach may be to disaggregate functions and activities in the OAIS Reference Model and seek collaborative arrangements in which different repositories and specialist services take responsibility for different functions.
The collaborative model proposed for the SHERPA DP project took advantage of the skills provided by institutional repositories in the SHERPA consortium and the preservation expertise of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS). By extending this collaboration into a full preservation service the project removes from each individual institutional repository the burden of adding a preservation layer to their repository, and the need for them to seek to employ scarce preservation management skills and expertise. It was recognised that institutional repositories often have priorities that must be achieved in the short term – the embedding of their digital repository in the wider institutional infrastructure, and the collection and distribution of research data to the research community. At their current stage of development, many institutional repositories lacked sufficient time and resources to make long-term decisions on the management of the data in their repository. In planning and working on the project, we wished to assist IRs through the modelling and development of a third-party preservation service that would consider these requirements and provide appropriate guidance. The preservation service would take a uniform approach to preservation across institutions that would compliment and enhance the existing operation of the institutional repository.
The AHDS worked with representatives from Edinburgh University, Glasgow University, and Nottingham University, as well as the consortiums of the White Rose Research Online (Leeds, Sheffield, and York) and London Leap to develop a collaborative model for preservation and test it in a practical environment. Through subsequent work, we developed a cross-repository infrastructure that enabled Fedora to interact with EPrints and DSpace-based repositories.
The methodology used by the SHERPA DP project has similarity with other projects that were funded under the JISC 4/04 funding strand. The PRESERV project, managed at the University of Southampton, also investigated the development of preservation services in the institutional repository sphere. The project takes a different, but complimentary approach, considering the type of information that may be stored by an institutional repository itself that may prove useful. The Repository Bridge project also has some similarities through an investigation of the interaction between DSpace/EPrints and Fedora as a method of preserving electronic theses.