Digital Preservation Policies Study
A major business driver in all universities and colleges over the past decade has been harnessing digital content and electronic services and the undoubted benefits in terms of flexibility and increased productivity they can bring. The priority in recent years has been on developing e-strategies and infrastructure to underpin electronic access and services and to deliver those benefits. However any long-term access and future benefit may be heavily dependent on digital preservation strategies being in place and underpinned by relevant policy and procedures. This should now be an increasing area of focus in our institutions.
This JISC funded study aims to provide an outline model for digital preservation policies and to analyse the role that digital preservation can play in supporting and delivering key strategies for Higher and Further Education Institutions. Although focussing on the UK Higher and Further Education sectors, the study draws widely on policy and implementations from other sectors and countries and will be of interest to those wishing to develop policy and justify investment in digital preservation within a wide range of institutions.
We have created two tools in this study:
- Model/framework for digital preservation policy and implementation clauses based on examination of existing digital preservation policies
- Series of mappings of digital preservation links to other key institutional strategies in UK universities and colleges. Our aim has been to help institutions and their staff develop appropriate digital preservation policies and clauses set in the context of broader institutional strategies
There are a number of ways in which development of digital preservation policies and procedures could be further developed in UK universities and colleges. We have made therefore two recommendations to JISC and other funders for future work:
Recommendation1 Funders should utilise this study to evaluate and encourage best practice in terms of institutional preservation policies and procedures and their development in their funded programmes and evaluations.
Recommendation 2 JISC should consider assisted take-up by funding case studies on how the generic digital preservation policy in this study might apply in practice to specific activities, digital content or units within HEIs, for example institutional repositories.