Approved by Library Leadership Team on April 2021
In this policy, the Robert L. Bogomolny Library (the Library) formalizes a sustained commitment to the long-term preservation of and access to the unique digital assets and collections created and held by the Library and all of its stakeholders.
As defined by the American Library Association (ALA), digital preservation is the combination of “policies, strategies and actions that ensure access to digital content over time” (1. 2.). This definition implies the need for more action than is required to make digital objects accessible, and requires active management and ongoing planning to ensure long-term preservation.
The Library’s digital preservation program contributes to the Library’s mission to ensure the preservation of and access to information, resources, learning spaces, and technology in order to cultivate knowledge creation within members of the University of Baltimore campus, the Baltimore metropolitan area, and beyond. The Robert L. Bogomolny Library endeavors to be the physical and digital nexus for information preservation, access, learning, and knowledge creation at the University of Baltimore.
In accordance with the Library’s mission and strategic goals to preserve and provide access to information, this policy and digital preservation program codifies the continued preservation of digital collections while ensuring access to users.
This policy addresses the preservation of digital collections and resources managed by the Library. This policy is subject to change and may be revised and updated at any time to reflect any changes in technology, infrastructure, and archival standards used in the digital preservation program.
Once the policy is completed and approved, it will be formally reviewed annually in order to manage and be appropriately revised. An informal review process may also take place on an ad-hoc basis.
The intended audience for this policy includes staff, archivists, and librarians of the RLB Library across all departments.
The objectives of this digital preservation policy include:
The policy addresses the preservation of digital materials for which the Library (including all departments and the Special Collections & Archives) is the primary custodian and includes digital materials (born-digital or digitized) created by the Library which have archival value. The Library cannot guarantee preservation of materials that we do not directly own or manage. The Library cannot commit to preserving materials for which we do not know what needs to be preserved; can’t judge the extent of the commitment; and/or has not been funded to preserve the material.
Materials Preserved:
Content Types:
The Digital Preservation Task Force: a group of existing archivists and librarians at the Library who hold permanent or annual membership. The task force develops the goals and direction of the Digital Preservation Program. The task force investigates and assesses digital preservation tools and solutions and presents findings to the Library Administration for review. The task force creates this digital preservation policy and workflow for the library and is responsible for updating it as needed.
Leadership/Library Administration: Directors or head of each department in the library that govern and implements policy in the library. Leadership will support and collaborate with the task force members on goals. Library leadership will review, approve, and integrate the outcomes of task force findings and reports into library policy and their respective department goals to create an environment of uniform accountability and progress.
Producers (Library Faculty and Staff and Archives Donors): Producers are the creators of the content included in the Digital Preservation Program. Producers create or use digital materials that have lasting or archival value. Producers will be responsible for managing materials prior to transfer to the archives. This includes: identifying materials in need of long-term preservation, providing appropriate description for those materials prior to transfer to the Digital Preservation Program, using and submitting acceptable file formats to include in the digital preservation program, and for communicating with the task force when there are materials in need of preservation.
Consumers: All internal and external users including but not limited to: researchers, students, UB library and university faculty, and non-UB university faculty, the general public, or other organizations who use content identified for digital preservation or currently stored in the digital archive. Consumers are responsible for honoring applicable copyright restrictions, licensing agreements, and Library policies.
IT Services: The University Office of Technology Services (OTS) with the support of the Integrated Digital Services (IDS) department of the Library are responsible for the maintenance and security of the servers, digital preservation tools and software, networks, and storage systems employed by the Digital Preservation Program. OTS, IDS, and the Digital Preservation Task Force ensure that the Digital Preservation Program systems and tools are working properly and efficiently in a sustainable manner.
Digital preservation programs face challenges and risks such as:
Born-digital: Information created in electronic format.
Digital surrogate: materials that were originally created in analog form, but were reformatted into digital form, usually for preservation and access
Metadata: A characterization or description documenting the identification, management, nature, use, or location of information resources (data).
Open Archival Information System (OAIS): A high-level model that describes the components and processes necessary for a digital archives, including six distinct functional areas: ingest, archival storage, data management, administration, preservation planning, and access.