Final Report of the Blue Ribbon Task
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Acknowledgements This report represents the work of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, with funding and support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF Award No. OCI 0737721), The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the U.S. Library of Congress, the U.K. Joint Information Systems Committee, the Electronic Records Archives Program of the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Council on Library and Information Resources. The chairs would like to thank these organizations for their generous support of our work, as well as those organizations that granted time to Task Force members to participate in this work. Special thanks go to Abby Smith Rumsey, writer and editor of the report; our interns Lorraine Eakin and Elizabeth Bedford; Susan Rathbun, Jan Zverina, Ben Tolo, and Richard Moore of the San Diego Supercomputer Center; Kathlin Smith; and to the San Diego Supercomputer Center and OCLC for managing the Task Force funds. Finally, we are grateful for the written and oral testimony generously provided to the Task Force by economic and preservation experts over the course of our work. The views and opinions expressed in this report represent the rough consensus among members of the Task Force and should not be construed to represent those of our sponsoring agencies and organizations. i List of Members Francine Berman, Vice President of Research, Professor Abby Smith Rumsey, Historian and Consulting Analyst of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to the Library of Congress, San Francisco, CA [co-Chair] Anne Van Camp, Director, Smithsonian Institution Brian Lavoie, Research Scientist, OCLC [co-Chair] Archives, Washington, DC Paul Ayris, Director, UCL Library Services, University College London, UK Liaisons to Task Force G. Sayeed Choudhury, Associate Dean, Director of the Martha Anderson Hodson Digital Research & Curation Center, Johns Library of Congress Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD Director of Program Management, National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program Elizabeth Cohen, Acoustician, STEAM Education Washington, DC Evangelist (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Philip Bogden (2009-2010) National Science Foundation Program Officer, Office of Cyberinfrastructure Paul Courant, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, Arlington, VA University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Laura Campbell Lee Dirks, Director of Scholarly Communications, Library of Congress Microsoft Corporation Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives Washington, DC Amy Friedlander, Director of Programs, Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Washington, Robert Chadduck DC National Archives and Records Administration Computer Engineer, Principal Technologist, Electronic Vijay Gurbaxani, Taco Bell Endowed Professor, The Records Archives Programs Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, College Park, MD Irvine Chris Greer National Science Foundation (2007) Anita Jones, Professor of Engineering and Applied Program Officer, Office of Cyberinfrastructure Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA Arlington, VA Ann Kerr, Consultant to Library of Congress, AK Networking and Information Technology Research and Consulting, La Jolla CA Development (2008-2010) Director of National Coordination Office Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Arlington, VA Networked Information (CNI), Washington, DC Lucy Nowell (2008-2009) Daniel Rubinfeld, Robert L. Bridges Professor of Law National Science Foundation and Professor of Economics, University of California, Program Officer, Office of Cyberinfrastructure Berkeley Arlington, VA Sylvia Spengler (2009) Chris Rusbridge, Director or the Digital Curation National Science Foundation Centre, University of Edinburgh Program Officer, Division of Information and Intelligent Systems, CISE Directorate Roger Schonfeld, Manager of Research, Ithaka Arlington, VA ii Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................... 1 Preface ...................................................................................................... 6 1. Purpose and Background of the Report ................................................. 9 1.1 Purpose of the Report ...................................................................... 10 1.2 Background of the Report ................................................................ 12 2. The Economic Perspective on Digital Preservation ............................. 17 2.1 Supply and Demand ......................................................................... 17 2.2 Digital Preservation as an Economic Good ...................................... 23 3. Addressing Economic Risks to Sustainability ...................................... 35 3.1 Systemic Problems with Demand ..................................................... 36 3.2 Systemic Problems with Supply ....................................................... 38 4. Sustainable Preservation in Context .................................................... 49 4.1 Scholarly Discourse ......................................................................... 50 4.2 Research Data ................................................................................. 56 4.3 Commercially Owned Cultural Content ............................................. 60 4.4 Collectively Produced Web Content ................................................. 66 5. Recommendations for Achieving Sustainability ................................... 73 5.1 General Principles and Actions for Sustainable Preservation ........... 73 5.2 Agenda for Further Action ................................................................ 79 5.3 Conclusion ....................................................................................... 80 Appendix 1. Characteristics of Sustainability in Public and Corporate Records ............................................................................... 86 Appendix 2. Analog and Digital Preservation Strategies .......................... 89 Appendix 3. When Markets Do Not Work ................................................ 91 Appendix 4. Mechanism Design .............................................................. 93 Appendix 5. Representing Stakeholder Interests and the Role of Proxy Organizations. ....................................................................... 96 Appendix 6. Flexibility in Preservation Decision Making .......................... 98 Appendix 7. Policy Frameworks for Digital Preservation ....................... 101 Glossary ................................................................................................ 106 iii List of Figures 1.1 Growth of Information and Storage Trends....................................... 10 2.1 Layered Demand.............................................................................. 19 2.2 Core Attributes, Context-Specific Attributes, and Choice Variables .. 24 2.3 Traditional and Digital Information Cycles ........................................ 29 3.1 Digital Preservation Risks and Remedies ......................................... 38 List of Tables 5.1 Action Agenda for Leading Actors and Organizations ...................... 82 5.2 Action Agenda by Content Domain .................................................. 84 List of Boxes 1.1 Conditions for Sustainable Digital Preservation ................................... 12 1.2 Value, Incentives, Roles and Responsibilities .................................. 14 2.1 Definitions: Efficiency, Economics of Scale, and Economies of Scope . 22 2.2 Context-Specific Attributes ............................................................... 31 3.1 Open Strategy for Materials of Uncertain Long-Term Value ............. 37 3.2 Common Funding Models for Digital Preservation ............................ 45 4.1 Action Agenda for Scholarly Discourse ............................................ 55 4.2 Action Agenda for Research Data .................................................... 60 4.3 Action Agenda for Commercially Owned Cultural Content ................ 66 4.4 Action Agenda for Collectively Produced Web Content .................... 71 iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Executive Summary Digital information is a vital resource in our knowledge economy, valuable for research and education, science and the humanities, creative and cultural activities, and public policy. But digital information is inherently fragile and often at risk of loss. Access to valuable digital materials tomorrow depends upon preservation actions taken today; and, over time, access depends on ongoing and efficient allocation of resources to preservation. Ensuring that valuable digital assets will be available for future use is not simply a matter of finding sufficient funds. It is about mobilizing resources—human, technical, and financial—across a spectrum of stakeholders diffuse over both space and time. But questions remain about what digital information we should preserve, who is responsible for preserving, and who will pay. The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access investigated these questions from an economic perspective. In this report, we identify problems intrinsic to all preserved digital materials, and propose actions that stakeholders can take to meet these challenges to sustainability. We developed action agendas that are targeted to major stakeholder groups and to domain-specific preservation strategies. The Task Force focused