The MetaArchive Cooperative: Sustainability, Outreach, and Growth

1. Katherine Skinner Educopia Institute and MetaArchive Cooperative Matt Schultz Educopia Institute and MetaArchive Cooperative The MetaArchive Cooperative: Sustainability, Outreach, and Growth NDIIPP Partners Meeting Arlington, Virginia July 20-22, 2010

3. MetaArchive Cooperative • Founded on the premise that cultural memory organizations should maintain their historical role as cultural stewards • Chose technical and organizational infrastructure that capitalizes on cultural memory organization’s proven methodologies • Distributed preservation • Partnership to keep costing affordable

4. Rapidly Growing Membership MetaArchive 17 members 11 states/districts 3 countries 14 US Members + Lib. of Congress

5. MetaArchive Members/Affiliates • Auburn University • Boston College • Clemson University • Emory University • Florida State Univ. • Folger Shakespeare Lib. • Georgia Tech • Indiana State Univ. • Library of Congress • Penn State University • Pontifícia Universidade Católica (Rio) • Rice University • Univ. of Hull • Univ. of Louisville • Univ. of North Texas • Univ. of South Carolina • Virginia Tech • NDLTD • SDSC

6. MetaArchive Components To address sustainability and attractiveness of preservation need to consider our: • Collections • Technical Infrastructure • Organizational Infrastructure

7. Collections • Format-agnostic solution • Works with any repository system • Collections must be available via http

8. Simple Shared Infrastructure • MetaArchive provides a cost-effective cooperative structure: • based on re-use of LOCKSS for archives • Network participation as a MetaArchive-LOCKSS cache is simple and inexpensive

9. Organizational model Preservation solution needed a long-term, sustainable infrastructure Question arose: Who’s in charge of a Cooperative of peer institutions? Separated the administrative apparatus and member institutions provides a clear line of leadership and responsibility helps to keep any one member’s goals from unduly influencing the cooperative’s direction gives leverage for external partnerships 9

10. Critical Challenges: 2010-2012 • Accommodate programmatic growth and avoid organizational memory loss. • Grow programs/projects without losing core strengths. • Expand credibility among opinion leaders and decision-makers (aka branding).

11. Six Goals: 2010-2012 • Diversify and expand funding • Develop staff capacity/administrative infrastructure • Build recognition of Educopia Institute • Promote DDP among cultural memory organizations • Identify new program areas • Ensure continued vitality of MetaArchive Cooperative

12. Reaching Goal #6 • Increase membership by 12 additional institutions by 2012 • Emphasis on attracting smaller institutions, perhaps as part of consortia • To that end, devise a new membership category: Collaborative Members

13. Collaborative Members • Current tiered membership: $5K or $1K/yr • Server cost: $4,600/3 years (currently) • Space is at cost: $0.67/GB/year for six replications • Inspired by interest from coordinated groups of institutions—i.e. collaboratives—with central repositories • One possibility: $1,000/year for the collaborative, plus $100/year per institution, for three years

14. Eligibility • Collaborative must have a lead organization, empowered to enter into legal agreements on the collaborative’s behalf • The collaborative must have a central repository • The collaborative must apply for membership in the MetaArchive Cooperative • Membership decisions will be made by the MetaArchive Steering Committee

15. Rights • Collaborative Members would enjoy the full array of rights under the Cooperative Charter, including: • Retrieval of the Member’s content in case of a catastrophic loss at that Member’s organization; • Assistance with LOCKSS software and any other improvements and ancillary software developed by the Cooperative; • Technical support.

16. Responsibilities • Guarantee sufficient rights and permissions to enable full participation in a DDP network; • Run a centralized repository through which all content will be prepared, staged, and ingested into the MetaArchive network; • Host and maintain a MetaArchive server in the same location as the centralized repository; • Write plugins for collections that will be harvested into the MetaArchive network

17. MetaArchive value proposition • reducing our short- and long-term costs • Investing in a commonly-owned solution, not purchasing a service • Sharing technological development and organizational tasks • decentralizing our activities • Safety in this “brave new world” of digital preservation may well reside in shared knowledge and shared commitment • decreasing dependence on third-party solutions • There is room for various types of solutions • Increased capacity for acting as a community of cultural stewards

18. Contact Info Dr. Katherine Skinner 404 783 2534 katherine.skinner@metaarchive.org Matt Schultz 616 566 3204 matt.schultz@metaarchive.org