Deciding how to decide: Using the Digital Preservation Storage Criteria

Abstract

The Digital Preservation Storage Criteria (hereafter, the Criteria) grew out of a community discussion at the 12th International Conference on Digital Preservation (iPRES 2015) on the evolving landscape of digital preservation storage approaches. A Working Group convened to develop guidance for organizations that either use or provide digital preservation storage. The first version of the Criteria was presented at an iPRES 2016 workshop and outlined the Working Group’s preliminary results and sought feedback. The Working Group has shared iterative versions over the last three years that have been informed by community feedback gathered through conference sessions, online review and a survey. Possible uses of the Criteria include helping organizations to develop requirements for their digital preservation storage, evaluating digital preservation storage solutions, raising awareness about digital preservation storage, and providing training materials to inform practitioners and others, including a game to demonstrate how the Criteria might be adapted for use. A Usage Guide accompanied the release of the current public iteration of the Criteria to help apply the Criteria. This iteration of the Criteria contains 61 criteria grouped into categories: Content Integrity, Cost Considerations, Flexibility, Information Security, Resilience, Scalability and Performance, Support, and Transparency. The unreleased draft, Version 4, includes an additional category: System Security. In addition to introducing the Criteria and providing background about their evolution, this article highlights new areas of development. First, the preliminary results from an ongoing effort to map the Criteria to relevant international digital preservation and information technology standards are presented. Second, updates to the Usage Guide are discussed. The Usage Guide is a supplement to the Criteria that provides the contextual information necessary for implementing the Criteria and includes sections on considerations such as risk management, cost, understanding independence and ensuring bit safety. Finally, examples of using the Criteria in various contexts are provided to encourage organizations to apply the Criteria to their own situation. The Criteria, the Usage Guide, the Criteria game and related documents are open and available for review at https://osf.io/sjc6u/ , where future additions and updates will be shared.