Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Systematic planning for digital preservation: evaluating potential strategies and building preservation plans

  • Published:
International Journal on Digital Libraries Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A number of approaches have been proposed for the problem of digital preservation, and the number of tools offering solutions is steadily increasing. However, the decision making procedures are still largely ad-hoc actions. Especially, the process of selecting the most suitable preservation action tool as one of the key issues in preservation planning has not been sufficiently standardised in practice. The Open Archival Information Systems (OAIS) model and corresponding criteria catalogues for trustworthy repositories specify requirements that such a process should fulfill, but do not provide concrete guidance. This article describes a systematic approach for evaluating potential alternatives for preservation actions and building thoroughly defined, accountable preservation plans for keeping digital content alive over time. In this approach, preservation planners empirically evaluate potential action components in a controlled environment and select the most suitable one with respect to the particular requirements of a given setting. The method follows a variation of utility analysis to support multi-criteria decision making procedures in digital preservation planning. The selection procedure leads to well-documented, well-argued and transparent decisions that can be reproduced and revisited at a later point of time. We describe the context and foundation of the approach, discuss the definition of a preservation plan and describe the components that we consider necessary to constitute a solid and complete preservation plan. We then describe a repeatable workflow for accountable decision making in preservation planning. We analyse and discuss experiences in applying this workflow in case studies. We further set the approach in relation to the OAIS model and show how it supports criteria for trustworthy repositories. Finally, we present a planning tool supporting the workflow and point out directions for future research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Alves, C., Castro, J.: CRE: A systematic method for COTS components selection. In: XV Brazilian symposium on software engineering (SBES), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2001)

  2. Ayris, P., Davies, R., McLeod, R., Miao, R., Shenton, H., Wheatley, P.: The LIFE2 Final Project Report. London, UK (2008). Research report LIFE Project, London, UK. http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/11758/

  3. Beagrie, N., Semple, N., Williams, P., Wright, R.: Digital Preservation Policies Study. Technical report. Charles Beagrie Limited (2008)

  4. Becker, C., Kolar, G., Kueng, J., Rauber, A.: Preserving interactive multimedia art: a case study in preservation planning. In: Asian Digital Libraries. Looking Back 10 Years and Forging New Frontiers. Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL’07), Volume 4822/2007 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Hanoi, Vietnam, 10–13 Dec 2007, pp 257–266. Springer, Berlin (2007)

  5. Becker, C., Strodl, S., Neumayer, R., Rauber, A., Bettelli, E.N., Kaiser, M.: Long-term preservation of electronic theses and dissertations: a case study in preservation planning. In: Proceedings of the 9th Russian Conference on Digital Libraries (RCDL’07), Pereslavl, Russia, October 2007. http://rcdl2007.pereslavl.ru/en/program.shtml

  6. Becker, C., Ferreira, M., Kraxner, M., Rauber, A., Baptista, A.A., Ramalho, J.C.: Distributed preservation services: integrating planning and actions. In: Christensen-Dalsgaard, B., Castelli, D., Ammitzbll Jurik, B., Lippincott, J. (eds.) Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries. Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL’08), Volume LNCS 5173 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Aarhus, Denmark, 14–19 Sept 2008, pp. 25–36. Springer, Berlin (2008)

  7. Becker, C., Kulovits, H., Rauber, A., Hofman, H.: Plato: a service oriented decision support system for preservation planning. In: Proceedings of the 8th ACM IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL’08), pp. 367–370 (2008)

  8. Becker, C., Rauber, A., Heydegger, V., Schnasse, J., Thaller, M.: A generic XML language for characterising objects to support digital preservation. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC’08), Fortaleza, Brazil, 16–20 March 2008, vol. 1, pp. 402–406. ACM (2008)

  9. Becker, C., Kulovits, H., Kraxner, M., Gottardi, R., Rauber, A., Welte, R.: Adding quality-awareness to evaluate migration web-services and remote emulation for digital preservation. In: Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL’09), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Corfu, Greece, September 2009. Springer Berlin (2009)

  10. Brody T., Carr L., Hey J.M.N., Brown A., Hitchcock S.: PRONOM-ROAR: adding format profiles to a repository registry to inform preservation services. Int. J. Digit. Curation 2(2), 3–19 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Carvallo J.P., Franch X., Quer C.: Determining criteria for selecting software components: lessons learned. IEEE Softw. 24(3), 84–94 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Carvallo, J.P., Franch, X., Quer, C.: Requirements engineering for cots-based software systems. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC’08), Fortaleza, Brazil, 16–20 March 2008, pp. 638–644. ACM (2008)

  13. Dobratz, S., Schoger, A., Strathmann, S.: The nestor catalogue of criteria for trusted digital repository evaluation and certification. J. Digit. Inform. 8(2), (2007). http://journals.tdl.org/jodi/article/viewArticle/199/180

  14. erpanet: Digital Preservation Policy Tool, September 2003. http://www.erpanet.org/guidance/docs/ERPANETPolicyTool.pdf

  15. Farquhar A., Hockx-Yu H.: Planets: integrated services for digital preservation. Int. J. Digit. Curation 2(2), 88–99 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Franch X., Carvallo J.P.: Using quality models in software package selection. IEEE Softw. 20(1), 34–41 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Gilliland-Swetland, A.J., Eppard, P.B.: Preserving the authenticity of contingent digital objects: the InterPARES project. D-Lib Mag. 6(7/8), (2000). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july00/eppard/07eppard.html

  18. Guttenbrunner, M., Becker, C., Rauber, A.: Evaluating strategies for the preservation of console video games. In: Proceedings of the Fifth international Conference on Preservation of Digital Objects (iPRES 2008), London, UK, September 2008, pp. 115–121

  19. Hockx-Yu, H., Knight, G.: What to preserve?: significant properties of digital objects. Int. J. Digit. Curation 3(1), (2008). http://www.ijdc.net/ijdc/article/view/70/70

  20. Hoeven J.R., Van Der Diessen R.J., Van En Meer K.: Development of a universal virtual computer (UVC) for long-term preservation of digital objects. J. Inf. Sci. 31(3), 196–208 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Hofman, H., Planets-PP subproject, Becker, C., Strodl, S., Kulovits, H., Rauber, A.: Preservation plan template. Technical report, The Planets project (2008). http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/dp/plato/docs/plan-template.pdf

  22. ISO: Software Engineering—Product Quality—Part 1: Quality Model (ISO/IEC 9126-1). International Standards Organization (2001)

  23. ISO: Information technology—Multimedia Content Description Interface—Part 1: Systems (ISO/IEC 15938-1:2002). International Standards Organization (2002)

  24. ISO: Open Archival Information System—Reference Model (ISO 14721:2003). International Standards Organization (2003)

  25. ISO: Document management—Electronic Document File Format for Long-term Preservation—Part 1: Use of PDF 1.4 (PDF/A) (ISO/CD 19005-1). International Standards Organization (2004)

  26. ISO: Information Technology—JPEG 2000 Image Coding System—Part 12: ISO Base Media File Format (ISO/IEC 15444-12:2005). International Standards Organization (2005)

  27. ISO: Information Technology—Open Document Format for Office Applications (ISO/IEC 26300:2006). International Standards Organization (2006)

  28. Jadhav A.S., Sonar R.M.: Evaluating and selecting software packages: a review. Inf. Softw. Technol. 51(3), 555–563 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. King, R., Schmidt, R., Jackson, A.N., Wilson, C., Steeg, F.: The planets interoperability framework: an infrastructure for digital preservation actions. In: Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL’2009), 2009

  30. Knight G., Pennock M.: Data without meaning: establishing the significant properties of digital research. Int. J. Digit. Curation 4(1), 159–174 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Kontio, J.: OTSO: a systematic process for reusable software component selection. Technical report, College Park (1995)

  32. Kontio, J.: A case study in applying a systematic method for COTS selection. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE-18), Berlin, pp. 201–209 (1996)

  33. Kulovits, H., Rauber, A., Brantl, M., Schoger, A., Beinert, T., Kugler, A.: From TIFF to JPEG2000? Preservation planning at the Bavarian State Library using a collection of digitised 16th century printings. D-Lib Mag. 15(11/12), (2009). http://dlib.org/dlib/november09/kulovits/11kulovits.html

  34. Land, R., Blankers, L., Chaudron, M., Crnkovic, I.: High Confidence Software Reuse in Large Systems, Volume 5030 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Chapter COTS Selection Best Practices in Literature and in Industry, pp. 100–111. Springer, Berlin (2008)

  35. Lawrence, G.W., Kehoe, W.R., Rieger, O.Y., Walters, W.H., Kenney, A.R.: Risk management of digital information: a file format investigation. CLIR report 93, Council on Library and Information Resources, June (2000)

  36. Maiden N.A., Ncube C.: Acquiring COTS software selection requirements. IEEE Softw. 15(2), 46–56 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Mellor, P.: Camileon: emulation and BBC domesday. RLG DigiNews 7(2), April (2003)

  38. Mohamed, A., Ruhe, G., Eberlein, A.: COTS selection: past, present, and future. In: Proceedings of the 14th Annual IEEE International Conference and Workshop on the Engineering of Computer Based Systems (ECBS’07), pp. 103–114 (2007)

  39. National Library of Australia: Guidelines for the Preservation of Digital Heritage. Information Society Division United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2003). http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=130071

  40. Ncube, C., Dean, J.C.: COTS-Based Software Systems, Volume 2255 of LNCS, Chapter The Limitations of Current Decision-Making Techniques in the Procurement of COTS Software Components, pp. 176–187. Springer, Berlin (2002)

  41. Ncube, C., Maiden N.A.M.: PORE: Procurement-orienteds requirements engineering method for the component-based systems engineering development paradigm. In: Development Paradigm. International Workshop on Component-Based Software Engineering, pp. 1–12 (1999)

  42. nestor Working Group-Trusted Repositories Certification: Catalogue of Criteria for Trusted Digital Repositories, Version 1. Technical report. nestor—Network of Expertise in long-term STORage, Frankfurt am Main (2006)

  43. Neubauer, T., Stummer, C.: Interactive decision support for multiobjective cots selection. In: HICSS’07: Proceedings of the 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Washington, DC, USA, p. 283b. IEEE Computer Society (2007)

  44. RLG/OCLC Working Group on Digital Archive Attributes: Trusted Digital Repositories: Attributes and Responsibilities. Research Libraries Group (2002). http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/past/trustedrep/repositories.pdf

  45. Rolland C.: Requirements engineering for COTS based systems. Inf. Softw. Technol. 41, 985–990 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Ross, S., McHugh, A.: The role of evidence in establishing trust in repositories. D-Lib Mag. 12(7/8), (2006)

  47. Rothenberg, J.: Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital Preservation. Council on Library and Information Resources (1999). http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/rothenberg/contents.html

  48. Rothenberg, J., Bikson, T. Carrying authentic, understandable and usable digital records through time. Technical report. Report to the Dutch National Archives and Ministry of the Interior, The Hague (1999)

  49. Saaty T.L.: How to make a decision: the analytic hierarchy process. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 48(1), 9–26 (1990)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  50. Strodl, S., Becker, C., Neumayer, R., Rauber, A.: How to choose a digital preservation strategy: evaluating a preservation planning procedure. In: Proceedings of the 7th ACM IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL’07), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 2007, pp. 29–38

  51. Strodl S., Rauber A.: Preservation planning in the OAIS model. New Technol. Libr. Inf. Serv. 1, 61–68 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  52. The 100 Year Archive Task Force: The 100 year archive requirements survey. http://www.snia.org/forums/dmf/programs/ltacsi/100_year/ (2007)

  53. The Center for Research Libraries (CRL), Online Computer Library Center, Inc.(OCLC): Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist (TRAC). Technical Report 1.0. CRL and OCLC (2007)

  54. Thibodeau, K.: Overview of technological approaches to digital preservation and challenges in coming years. In: The State of Digital Preservation: An International Perspective, Washington, DC, July 2002. Council on Library and Information Resources (2002). http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub107/thibodeau.html

  55. van der Hoeven, J., van Wijngaarden, H.: Modular emulation as a long-term preservation strategy for digital objects. In: 5th International Web Archiving Workshop (IWAW05), Vienna, Austria (2005)

  56. van Lamsweerde, A. Goal-oriented requirements engineering: a guided tour. In: Proceedings RE’01, 5th IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering, Toronto, Canada, pp. 249–263 (2001)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Christoph Becker, Hannes Kulovits, Mark Guttenbrunner, Stephan Strodl & Andreas Rauber

  2. Nationaal Archief, The Hague, The Netherlands

    Hans Hofman

Authors
  1. Christoph Becker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hannes Kulovits
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mark Guttenbrunner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Stephan Strodl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Andreas Rauber
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Hans Hofman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Becker.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Becker, C., Kulovits, H., Guttenbrunner, M. et al. Systematic planning for digital preservation: evaluating potential strategies and building preservation plans. Int J Digit Libr 10, 133–157 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00799-009-0057-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00799-009-0057-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation