Sustainable Preservation Services for Archivists through Distributed Custody

1. Sustainable Preservation Services for Archivists through Distributed Custody Caryn Wojcik State of Michigan Records Management Services

2. NHPRC Issued a Call… • Design a digital preservation service with a business model for the archival community • Fill the needs of archival repositories that cannot build and sustain their own electronic records archive

3. DCAPE Project • Distributed Custodial Archival Preservation Environments • Project was funded by NHPRC in 2008 (RE10010-08) • Officially started in December 2008 • Project will run for 2 ½ years • http://salt.unc.edu/dcape/

4. What is Distributed Custodial Preservation? • Physical custody of archival collections is distributed outside of the archival repository to a trusted preservation service • Archival repository retains legal custody • Archival repository remains responsible for archival functions, including preservation and access • Access to collections is controlled by archival repository

5. DCAPE Partners • 28 people across 9 institutions and 4 staff at UNC, for a total of 32 participants • Cultural Entity: Getty Research Institute • Cyberinfrastructure: West Virginia University, Carleton University (Canada) • State Archives: California, Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina, New York • State Library: North Carolina • University Archives: Tufts • UNC: Center for Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE), School of Information and Library Science (SILS), Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI)

6. DCAPE Goals • Build a preservation environment that meets the needs of archival repositories for trusted archival preservation services. • Services are based on policies (“rules”) that are defined by the archivist • A series of rules might “look” like this: • When files are ingested, replicate them in three different locations and run a checksum on each file. Bit-check files every month. Send an alert about any changes to the files.

7. DCAPE Goals • The trusted digital repository infrastructure will be assembled from state-of-the-art rule-based data management systems, commodity storage systems, and sustainable preservation services. • The software infrastructure will automate many of the administrative tasks associated with the management of archival repositories. • Tasks will include: authentication, replication, migration, obsolete file management, preservation metadata management, etc.

8. Project Tasks • Execute service agreements between UNC and partners to govern use of the test collections. • Define rules and services (organized according to the OAIS framework) for iRODS to perform on test collections. • Ingest test collections into iRODS and validate the rules and services. • Develop business model (including costs) for sustaining a repository service based on iRODS. • Develop model service agreements that define the standard and optional services of the repository.

9. Role of iRODS • Preservation environment provides rule-based automation of archival functions (repeatable services) • Standard and optional services will be available • Shared service should reduce costs for each archival repository compared to the cost of building in-house preservation capabilities

10. DCAPE is More • More than a storage service or environment • More than a reference tool • DCAPE will provide the capability for all archival repositories to fulfill their responsibility to preserve electronic records

11. DCAPE Interface • Web-based, no software to download and upgrade over time at the client/user end • Intuitive interface for archivists use without computer science experience • Services developed by team to align with OAIS model and TRAC audit checklist