What resources are we focussing on?: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Question what.png|400px|right|What?]] | |||
====What resources do you have available?==== | |||
*Money and people/time. Find out whether you can make the case for one or the other more easily. | |||
*Know whether this is entirely new, or an extension of something you are doing already in part or in whole. | |||
*Think about: staffing/skills, technical infrastructure (storage, processing), processes (e.g. cataloguing) | |||
*Distinguish reccurent costs from capital investment costs. | |||
====Where does the stuff come from?==== | |||
*Know your mandate, collecting policy, retention schedule. | |||
*Know your producers and the nature of the relationship. Develop working understandings where possible. | |||
*Understand the amount of influence you have and the guidance and support you can provide to control what you receive. | |||
*Make sure you receive enough contextual information, or can create it during acquistion. | |||
*Define an exit plan where possible. | |||
*Try to plan and project for the types and quantities of content you are likely to receive based on your collections policy. | |||
====Have you got a skills gap?==== | |||
*Map existing roles and responsibilities. | |||
*Identify gaps or unrealistic expectations by consulting staff, community team profiles and job descriptions. | |||
*Decide whether the gaps or bottlenecks can be addressed by training for existing people or hiring new posts. | |||
*Understand willingness to change - whether you can stop doing things you do now and change job roles. | |||
*Define a skills roadmap showing development over time. Include succession planning. | |||
====Have you got the infrastructure you need?==== | |||
*Accessioning workstation - capacity to process various media types. | |||
*Ingest - tools for characterisation, fixity, etc. | |||
*Store - capacity, understanding growth, redundancy/backups. | |||
*Access - user requirements, interfaces for discovery/rendering, accessibility. | |||
*Consult with other stakeholding departments to determine who has responsibility for supporting infrastructure. | |||
*Are there existing resources within the wider organisation that could provide infrastructure. | |||
*Prioritise your implementation with a clear roadmap. Don't try to do everything at once! | |||
====What are the legal constraints on your digital assets?==== | |||
*Determine IPR, data protection and potential liability issues. Are they known or do they need to be reviewed? | |||
*Ensure that depositor conditions are clear (closure periods or embargos, reproduction rights, etc.) | |||
*Define use cases. Define user requirements (as far as they can be anticipated). For example authenticity - will material be available remotely?. | |||
====What is the condition of your digital assets?==== | |||
* | *Know what you need to know - how much detail? | ||
* | *Know what you don't need to know. What is enough information? | ||
* | *Think about complexity/diversity, volume/growth. | ||
* | *What is the integrity of the content? Is it sanitised? Can you safely ingest it? | ||
*What | *Are the assets organised or catalogued in anyway? | ||
* | *Is there any supporting material that provides wider context? | ||
* | |||
* | ====What are the bit-level problems?==== | ||
*What | *Save the bits! | ||
* | *Find fragile media (e.g. floppy disk, CDs/DVDs, flash drives) | ||
*Volume/complexity/quantity: Large files, complex technology or large numbers of files can be problematic for data management. | |||
*Derive fixity information and check it regularly. | |||
====What are the low level digital preservation challenges?==== | |||
*Identify the variety of formats, and number of files in each format. | |||
**use format identification tools. | |||
*Determine the problems that these formats might cause: | |||
**decide the level of analysis you can realistically achieve | |||
**pro-active (checking all files and formats) | |||
**approaches: consult the community format registries | |||
**does a file validate against it's file format specification? Does this matter? Can you identify long term risks? Can you check if the file renders correctly, now? | |||
**reactive (provide files as-is and wait for problems to be reported) | |||
*What metadata (descriptive and preservation) do you have? Do you need to create any more? | |||
**Just in case metadata can be costly. Each field should have a clear use case. | |||
*Identify your needs for documentation and the needs of your depositors and users. |
Latest revision as of 15:00, 8 August 2013
What resources do you have available?
- Money and people/time. Find out whether you can make the case for one or the other more easily.
- Know whether this is entirely new, or an extension of something you are doing already in part or in whole.
- Think about: staffing/skills, technical infrastructure (storage, processing), processes (e.g. cataloguing)
- Distinguish reccurent costs from capital investment costs.
Where does the stuff come from?
- Know your mandate, collecting policy, retention schedule.
- Know your producers and the nature of the relationship. Develop working understandings where possible.
- Understand the amount of influence you have and the guidance and support you can provide to control what you receive.
- Make sure you receive enough contextual information, or can create it during acquistion.
- Define an exit plan where possible.
- Try to plan and project for the types and quantities of content you are likely to receive based on your collections policy.
Have you got a skills gap?
- Map existing roles and responsibilities.
- Identify gaps or unrealistic expectations by consulting staff, community team profiles and job descriptions.
- Decide whether the gaps or bottlenecks can be addressed by training for existing people or hiring new posts.
- Understand willingness to change - whether you can stop doing things you do now and change job roles.
- Define a skills roadmap showing development over time. Include succession planning.
Have you got the infrastructure you need?
- Accessioning workstation - capacity to process various media types.
- Ingest - tools for characterisation, fixity, etc.
- Store - capacity, understanding growth, redundancy/backups.
- Access - user requirements, interfaces for discovery/rendering, accessibility.
- Consult with other stakeholding departments to determine who has responsibility for supporting infrastructure.
- Are there existing resources within the wider organisation that could provide infrastructure.
- Prioritise your implementation with a clear roadmap. Don't try to do everything at once!
What are the legal constraints on your digital assets?
- Determine IPR, data protection and potential liability issues. Are they known or do they need to be reviewed?
- Ensure that depositor conditions are clear (closure periods or embargos, reproduction rights, etc.)
- Define use cases. Define user requirements (as far as they can be anticipated). For example authenticity - will material be available remotely?.
What is the condition of your digital assets?
- Know what you need to know - how much detail?
- Know what you don't need to know. What is enough information?
- Think about complexity/diversity, volume/growth.
- What is the integrity of the content? Is it sanitised? Can you safely ingest it?
- Are the assets organised or catalogued in anyway?
- Is there any supporting material that provides wider context?
What are the bit-level problems?
- Save the bits!
- Find fragile media (e.g. floppy disk, CDs/DVDs, flash drives)
- Volume/complexity/quantity: Large files, complex technology or large numbers of files can be problematic for data management.
- Derive fixity information and check it regularly.
What are the low level digital preservation challenges?
- Identify the variety of formats, and number of files in each format.
- use format identification tools.
- Determine the problems that these formats might cause:
- decide the level of analysis you can realistically achieve
- pro-active (checking all files and formats)
- approaches: consult the community format registries
- does a file validate against it's file format specification? Does this matter? Can you identify long term risks? Can you check if the file renders correctly, now?
- reactive (provide files as-is and wait for problems to be reported)
- What metadata (descriptive and preservation) do you have? Do you need to create any more?
- Just in case metadata can be costly. Each field should have a clear use case.
- Identify your needs for documentation and the needs of your depositors and users.