Digital continuity and Digital Sustainability: current problems, ongoing trends and [Archives

New Zealand’s] solutions

Presentation for Christchurch Recordkeeping Forum

Mick Crouch

Business Analyst

Digital Sustainability

“Preservation can be thought of as communication with the future. Information that is understood today is transmitted to an unknown system in the future where it will be interpreted and displayed.”

Toward a Theory of Digital Preservation

Reagan Moore, San Diego Supercomputer Center

A Brief History of Digital Continuity

1960s Early digital archive programmes

1990s Research (InterPARES I, Pittsburgh, Monash, etc.)

Post-custodialism and paradigm shifts

Awareness raising: “The lost decades”, “digital amnesia”

2000s Digital recordkeeping programmes

Collaborative, intensified research (ErpaNet, PLANETS, InterPARES II & III, DELOS)

Standards (OAIS, PREMIS, ADRI etc)

Where Are We Now?

• Digital preservation = community

• Many examples of digital archives systems:• Korea, Malaysia,

Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Australia, etc

• Useful experiences to share• Shift of focus to practice

Collaborative Research and Practice

• Archives, libraries, science / research sectors, arts, academics

• Preservation planning services

• Methodologies, tools and services

• Preservation action tools• Testbeds and prototypes• Aim for dissemination and

take-up

Interesting Trends

• Out of the box software• E.g. Safety Deposit Box (Tessella Support Services

and The National Archives UK)• Malaysia• Switzerland• Netherlands and others

• Further developments for each implementation

• Open source add-ons

Obstacles

• Transfer a problematic concept• Slow rates of transfer to established digital archives• Most common transfers from last resort context• Agencies keeping copies of records

• Mixed approaches to access• Still an afterthought, with focus on preservation? (e.g. Swiss

handling of databases)• Often access is through existing finding aids systems• Agency access interface for direct transfers (e.g. France)

Shared Services for (Non-Archival) Information

What is Archives New Zealand doing?

• Digital Continuity Action Plan• Interim Digital Archive (IDA) development• Work on file formats• Digital Archaeology• Community of Practice / Practical Implementers Guild• Guidance – ERKSS Review, Web, TC/DRM• Research – datasets, web, legacy records, TC/DRM

Archives NZ - Interim Digital Archive

How the Interim Digital Archive Works

Refer PRONOM

format registry,TNA

Digital Record

Analyse & prepare

Manage &preserve inrepository

NormaliseIdentify &validate

IdentifyIngest

Assign archival

metadata

DROIDJHOVE

XENA

Ingest and Normalisation

The Digital Archaeology Project

Hands-on experience with records held at Archives NZ

What do we hold?

• 297 floppy disks • 113 CDs or DVDs • 21 9-track tapes • 16 data cartridges• 2 ZIP disks

Practical Implementers Guild

• Archives New Zealand• National Library New Zealand• Statistics New Zealand• Victoria University• Te Papa

Research

• Datasets across the public sector – collaboration with Statistics New Zealand

• Web Information Continuity Project • TC / DRM• Legacy records

Research findings

• Agencies hold information which is at risk and/ or inaccessible

• Retrieval of legacy information is expensive and takes a long time

• Twenty-eight public sector agencies hold digital records over 25 years old; nearly a third of these offices hold more than 100 gigabytes of digital records each

Digital Continuity Action Plan

Digital Continuity Action Plan: Key Messages

• There when you need it. Information will be maintained as long as needed. Some is needed only for a few months, some forever.

• Authentic and reliable. Information is tamper-proof and free of technological rights restrictions. It can be trusted to be authentic and reliable.

• Trusted access. New Zealanders can be confident they can find and use information that is publicly available, and that their sensitive information will be protected from unauthorised access.

• Do nothing, lose everything. If no action is taken, public sector digital information will be lost. We need a proactive approach to maintain information for the future.

Digital Continuity Action Plan Consultation

• 206 public offices and 76 local authorities were asked to provide feedback

• 63 written submissions were received from 55 different organisations

• Local government now in scope• The term ‘information’ replaces ‘records’ and ‘documents’

Next steps • Consultation wrapped up Nov 2008

• Reviewed by Strategic Advisory Group Dec 2008

• Rewritten into an Action Plan Feb 2009

• Sent to Minister March 2009• Two weeks of further

consultation • The action plan goes to cabinet

through the Officials Committee April 2009

• Cabinet approves it as official Government policy

• Action point projects in July 2009

Don’t forget!

• It’s all about digital: The public records and archives of today and tomorrow will be in digital formats. Archives New Zealand is supporting digital continuity across the broader public sector.

• Do nothing, lose everything: if we don’t actively manage digital records and archives, we will have nothing in the future.

• We need to work together: Archives New Zealand is looking for partners to help trial new systems with real data – are you interested?