ENGAGING DECISION MAKERS: An Executive Guide on Digital Preservation

While, as a practice, digital preservation is becoming more widely understood, within any institution this understanding is likely to be limited to a handful of practitioners and the colleagues with whom they regularly interact. The same practitioners will often find themselves lacking resources, because support for research data management or digital preservation is not present at a senior level. Advocacy is still, therefore, an essential part of digital preservation.

Purpose and audience

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) and UNESCO Executive Guide on Digital Preservation [1] (the Guide) provides supports communications with decision makers with a view to embedding the value of digital preservation at the core of every institution.

Users of the Guide may belong to research institutions, higher education institutions, or memory and heritage institutions, commercial organizations and government bodies. The Guide recognizes that even within the same sector, every institution is different and  therefore presents generic and sector specific statements which may be tailored for use in internal advocacy activities, and also in the application of the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage Including in Digital Form [2].

Structure

Fully customizable, the Guide is an online collection of resources available to all, free-of-charge, containing:

• Generic statements defining digital preservation in non-jargon terms
• Information relating to digital preservation in specific sectors
• A summary of the importance of digital preservation, generally and sector-specifically
• Key ‘motivators’ for digital preservation in different organization types
• Risks and opportunities related to digital preservation
• Downloadable templates
• Links to relevant resources
• Case studies which support the case for digital preservation

Each statement within the Guide is associated with an institution type for which it might be most relevant. Currently the Guide contains statements which have been created for (and by):

• Higher Education and Research Institutions
• Archives
• Businesses
• Libraries
• Museums and Galleries

Each statement is also associated with a set of ‘motivators.’ Based on the DigCurV Executive Lens on Digital Skills [3], the motivators are issues that are important to an institution. The Guide identifies the following motivators:

• Accountability
• Authenticity
• Business Continuity
• Compliance
• Corporate / Cultural Memory
• Costs
• Reputation
• Revenue
• Security
• Technology

Users may interrogate the content by organization type or motivator before inserting into customizable templates alongside statistics and case studies to create their own messages.

Development and use

The Guide was developed by volunteer members of the DPC, which represent just a small portion of the global digital preservation community. Nevertheless, the Guide is relevant to an international and cross-sector audience as much of the information spans organization types and geography.

However, as each institution and the content it manages differs, users are expected to customize the statements, starting with the most appropriate. Once tailored for use within a specific institution, these customized messages are welcomed as updates to the resource, and their re-submission into the Guide is encouraged.

With subsequent submissions of statements tailored to other organisation types, the Guide will evolve and stay relevant to a broader research data and digital preservation community. This evolution is aligned with the fact that advocacy is not one single action but must be repeated continuously in order be successful.

References

[1]   Executive Guide on Digital Preservation, DPC: https://www.dpconline.org/our-work/dpeg-home

[2]   Recommendation concerning the preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage including in digital form, UNESCO: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000244675.page=5

[3]   DigCurV Executive Lens on Digital Skills, DigCurV: https://www.digcurv.gla.ac.uk/executiveLens.html