The Alabama Digital Preservation Network (ADPNet)

1. The Alabama Digital Preservation Network (ADPNet) Aaron Trehub Director of Library Technology Auburn University State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Newport News, Virginia March 14, 2008

2. Background • ADPNet inspired by experience from NDIIPP MetaArchive Project • IMLS grant: September 2006 through September 2008 • Grant awarded to and administered by Alabama Council on Higher Education/NAAL in Montgomery • Project director at Auburn University Libraries • Commitments from seven institutions across the state

3. Objective To create a low-cost, low-maintenance, sustainable, geographically distributed digital preservation network for libraries, archives, and museums in Alabama.

4. The seven participating institutions • Alabama Dept. of Archives and History • Auburn University • Spring Hill College • Troy University • University of Alabama • University of Alabama at Birmingham • University of North Alabama

5. The network • ADPNet is a Private LOCKSS Network (PLN) • Uses off-the-shelf equipment and software • LOCKSS servers (nodes) at all seven participating institutions • Each institution maintains its LOCKSS server • Each institution contributes content for harvesting and archiving by the network • Runs on sweat equity, with help from LOCKSS staff

6. Why Alabama? • Hurricanes • Tornadoes • Growing number of rich digital collections • Modest financial resources • Uneven technical support • Ideal test case for geographically distributed digital preservation network

7. Why LOCKSS? • Familiar with it (through MetaArchive) • Simple and robust • Cheap (except for membership in LOCKSS Alliance—more on that later) • Good technical support • Know it works

8. Costs • Servers: LOCKSS server and Web server (for making content available to the network) • Staff time (less than we anticipated) • Communication (negligible) • Some travel—not much • The biggie: LOCKSS Alliance membership fee (annual). Supports LOCKSS software development and technical support

9. ADPNet Content • ADPNet currently contains 11 collections (“archival units”) from five institutions • Approximately 100 gigabytes harvested • Network capacity: one terabyte • Plenty of room for more collections • More collections on the way, including audio and video files

10. ADPNet administration • ADPNet is a single-state network • Folded into existing administrative infrastructure: ACHE/NAAL • Not a service organization • No membership fees (but LOCKSS Alliance membership mandatory) • In-kind contribution: bring up and run a LOCKSS node in the network • Governance document in the works

11. ADPNet digital preservation awareness survey • Sent to academic and public libraries, archives, schools, and state and municipal offices in Alabama in February 2008 • 79 responses: public libraries largest single group of respondents • Most important decision factors: reliability (91 percent), expertise and support (88 percent), cost (86 percent), staffing (84 percent), and preservation of mission-critical collections (84 percent) • Most people learn about new initiatives from conferences and colleagues, so focus on those

12. Lessons learned • Keep it simple • Keep it cheap • Don’t get fancy • Low maintenance • Low administrative overhead • Take advantage of existing structures and relationships (easier to do with single-state network)

13. Future plans • Add more content to the network • Recruit more member institutions, including public libraries and museums • Spread the word

14. Contact Aaron Trehub Auburn University Libraries trehuaj@auburn.edu http://adpn.org/