Electric Connections 2005 Perth, 22 August 2005 Maggie Jones Executive Secretary Digital Preservation Coalition

1. Mind the Gap: digital preservation needs in the UK Electric Connections 2005 Perth, 22 August 2005 Maggie Jones Executive Secretary Digital Preservation Coalition

2. Summary of Presentation • Challenges of digital preservation • The Digital Preservation Coalition • Why it was formed • Current membership • Workplan • The UK Digital Preservation Needs Assessment

3. The General Trend • More and more information is being created digitally and for a diverse range of purposes • More and more dependence on being able to find the information we need on the web

4. Internet Growth World-wide growth in Internet Users and Internet Hosts over nine year period. [Sources: Internet user statistics - Internet World Stats/IDC http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm Internet host statistics - Internet Systems Consortium Domain Survey http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/ops/ds/]

5. Digital Records • Key drivers are Modernising Government Agenda and the FOI Act • More and more important public and commercial records are created digitally • Word documents, spreadsheets, databases, emails, etc. • More and more organisations are placing their information on their websites

6. Ministry of Defence House of Commons DEFRA Digital Records Examples:

7. Research • Digital technology enables new, collaborative research to take place • e-science programme is generating massive amounts of data • Materials created in digital form and for which there is no non-digital original are sometimes referred to as “born digital”

8. Books and Manuscripts • Historic film and photographs MS. Ashmole 1431 Ps. Apuleius, Herbal, Bodleian Library • Historic images and slides • Sculpture HMJ Underhill Collection, University of Oxford HMJ Underhill Collection, University of Oxford Greek head, http://www.archaeoptics.co.uk/ Digitised materials • Digital materials such as:

9. Technological Obsolescence “ digital documents last forever – or five years, which ever comes first” Jeff Rothenberg 1997 (photo: BBC Domesday Disk System)

10. Facts and Figures: Web Archiving ‘Linkrot’ “…with the life of an average website estimated to be around 44 days (about the same lifespan as a housefly) there is a danger that invaluable scholarly, cultural and scientific resources will be lost to future generations.” UK Web Archiving Consortium: Project Overview.

11. Traditional Preservation Storage – major cost factor Timeframe – less crucial Visual clues Digital Preservation Storage – less of an issue Timeframe is critical Needs involvement of creators Relies heavily on collaboration Differences between dp and traditional preservation

12. The Digital Preservation Coalition • Membership organisation • Cross-sectoral • Formed in 2001, and became a registered company in 2002 • Formed in the belief that there needs to be concerted co-ordinated effort to progress the dp agenda in the UK • Emphasis is on UK but international context is very important • Currently has 27 members

13. DPC Membership http://www.dpconline. org/graphics/join/ mi-map.html

14. DPC Activities Disseminating information Training and skills development Meetings and Forums DPC Members Providing a focal point Building a knowledge base Advocacy Awareness raising

15. Mind the Gap:The UK Digital Preservation Needs Assessment • A major initiative to raise the profile of digital preservation in the UK and to promote investment • Has been proceeding in stages • DPC Members survey – 03/04 • Information on volumes of material held by DPC members and costs • Scenarios of risks of loss • Regional survey (funded by MLA)

16. What we already know • Members’ individual activities • DP profile higher, but not high enough • Need for still more practical experience and projects to inform theory • Excellent international activity • Need for strategic review and planning • Scale of the problem? • Priorities for action?

17. Some Challenges • Political awareness slow to grow • Lack of precision of hard data eg volumes, costs • Less awareness/progress/resource at regional levels • Harder to sell DP as a long term issue

18. What can the UKNA achieve? • Greater visibility of the issues • Greater understanding of any sectoral differences • Great understanding of scale of digital materials being produced and where the problem areas are • More concrete arguments and evidence to support action

19. Timeframe • July – Tessella selected as successful tender • August – preparation of survey and synthesis of existing sources of information • September-October – survey of a wide range of organisations from several sectors and analysis of results • November/December 05 – Report completed • January 06 - Launch

20. Summary • The UKNA will provide us with a sounder framework for building a national strategy • Please fill out a survey form if you receive one! • For further information, please see: http://www.dpconline.org Or email me at: maggie@dpconline.org