Task Force Interim Report Says Support for Digital Archiving Urgent

Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 02/03/2009

• Among questions, who should pay?
• Digital “universe” will grow tenfold within four-year period
• Current funding models inadequate 

The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, commissioned in 2008 to address the economics of digital preservation, has released its interim report, saying there is an urgent need for a strategy—and investment—to meet the challenges facing the preservation of and continued access to digital information. “There is no time to waste,” the report’s executive summary states. “Access to data tomorrow requires decisions concerning preservation today.”

The task force was created by the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in partnership with the Library of Congress (LC), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), of the United Kingdom, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

 As an interim report, it “traces the contours of economically sustainable digital preservation” and identifies the “systemic challenges that create barriers to long-term, economically viable solutions.” A final report, due sometime in 2009, will provide an “economic framework” and “practical recommendations and strategies” for sustainable digital preservation.

Challenges abound
Looking forward to its final report, the task force stressed there was little time to spare in asserting an economically feasible digital preservation plan across a range of institutional stakeholders. While much of the discussion thus far has revolved around technology challenges, the interim report noted, there remains a critical need to examine the broader questions underlying the creation of a sustainable blueprint for archiving and accessing the digital future. Simply put: “how much does it cost,” and “who should pay.”

While explicit answers to those questions remain elusive in the interim report, it does assert that “institutional, enterprise, and community decision makers must be part of the access and preservation solution,” and that “decision-makers must make access and preservation a strategic and actionable priority, incorporating it into their planning, economic models, and interactions with constituent communities.” And, of course, it all should happen sooner rather than later, the authors suggest. Citing a study by the International Data Corporation (IDC), the report notes that within two years the “digital universe,” everything—from texts, to research sets, data, video, images, and music—will be ten times the size it was in 2006. 

History on our side
The current digital preservation environment, meanwhile, is marked by some notable institutional challenges, the report concludes, including: 

• Inadequate funding models to address long-term access and preservation needs 
• Confusion and/or lack of alignment between stakeholders
• Inadequate institutional, enterprise, and/or community incentives to support the collaboration needed to reinforce sustainable economic models 
• Complacency that current practices are “good enough” 
• Fear that digital access and preservation is “too big to take on” 

Nevertheless, despite the enormity of the task, the report was fairly upbeat. “There is general agreement that in its entirety, digital preservation is a big problem, incorporating technical, economic, regulatory, policy, social, and other aspects,” the report notes. “But it is not insurmountable.”

The report also astutely noted that the problem of preservation is hardly a new issue for our cultural institutions. “We are accustomed to making preservation investments on both a personal and societal level,” the report acknowledged, noting that “libraries, archives, and museums have traditionally embraced the mission of preserving the scholarly and cultural record.”

Investment is digital preservation however, clearly continues to present new twists. “In the analog world, the rate of degradation or depreciation of an asset is usually not swift, and consequently, decisions about long-term preservation of these materials can often be postponed,” the report asserts. “The digital world affords no such luxury; digital assets can be extremely fragile and ephemeral.” The full text of the BRTF-SDPA Interim Report is available here.

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