Apologies for cross posting
Embargoed until 10pm on Wednesday 15 February 2006:
Mind the Gap
Report reveals major gaps in long term management of valuable digital
assets
A ‘state of the nation’ report today reveals that less than 20% of UK
organisations surveyed have a strategy in place to deal with the risk of
loss or degradation to their digital resources - despite a very high
level of awareness of the risks and potential economic penalties.
With the release today of the report, Mind the gap: assessing digital
preservation needs in the UK, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC)
aims to help government, public institutions and private companies turn
high awareness into concerted action.
The survey reveals that the loss of digital data is commonplace – it is
seen as an inevitable hazard by some – with more than 70% of respondents
saying data had been lost in their organisation. Awareness of the
potential economic and cultural risks is high, with 87% recognising that
corporate memory or key cultural material could be lost and some 60%
saying that their organisation could lose out financially. In 52% of the
organisations surveyed there was management commitment to digital
preservation – but only 18% had a strategy in place. A pdf version of
the report is available from
http://www.dpconline.org/docs/reports/uknamindthegap.pdf
Prior to the survey, a number of high profile cases had helped raise
awareness of the risks of digital data loss. In a recent judgement in
the US, Morgan Stanley had more than $1 billion awarded against them as
a result of their failure to preserve and hand over some documents
required by the courts. The Securities and Exchange Commission in the US
are also looking at fining the same bank over $10 million – specifically
for failing to preserve email documents.
The data tapes from the 1975 Viking Lander mission to Mars were recently
discovered to have deteriorated despite careful storage, and scientists
also found that they could not decode the formats used and had to rely
on the original paper printouts.
The BBC’s 1986 Domesday project is another example of the unique
fragility of digital material. Designed to capture a picture of Britain
in 1986, the collection of photographs, maps and statistical information
was recorded onto 30cm laserdiscs. But less than 20 years on, the
laserdiscs and player are obsolete. The date was only rescued thanks to
a surviving laserdisc player and more than a year’s effort by specialist
teams.
According to the DPC-commissioned report, the principal risks to digital
material are: the deterioration of the storage medium; obsolescence of
hardware, software or storage format; and failure to save crucial
document format information (a common example is preserving tables of
numbers without preserving an explanation of their meaning).
The report identifies 18 core needs, each of which has recommendations
which will address them. Recommendations are addressed to
organisations, government, and funding bodies. Among the key needs:
awareness of digital preservation issues needs to be more commonplace –
particularly amongst data creators; organisations need to take stock of
their digital materials (55% of the respondents to the survey do not
know what digital material they hold); and projects need to be funded
from the outset with the long-term value of the information produced and
the cost of retention taken into account. There needs to be funding for
more digital archives
This UK Digital Preservation Needs Assessment study, carried out by the
software services company Tessella, looked at digital preservation
practice in government bodies, archives, museums, libraries, education,
scientific research organisations, pharmaceutical, environmental,
nuclear, engineering, publishing and financial institutions
“Gone are the days when archives were dusty places that could be
forgotten until they were needed” said Lynne Brindley, Chair of the
Digital Preservation Coalition. “The digital revolution means all of us
– organisations and individuals – must regularly review and update
resources to ensure they remain accessible. Updating need not be
expensive, but the report is a wake-up call to each one of us to ensure
proper and continuing attention to our digital records.”
Dr Peter Townsend, Commercial Director of Tessella said: “It is
critically important that organisations create long-term pro-active
information management plans, and allocate adequate budget and resource
to implementing practical solutions.” Dr Robert Sharpe of Tessella
added: “Organisations that create large volumes of digital information
need to recognise the benefits of retaining long-term information in
digital form so that these can be balanced against the costs of active
preservation.”
Notes for Editors:
About the DPC: The DPC is a cross-sectoral membership organisation
dedicated to securing the preservation of digital resources in the UK.
It currently has 28 members and associate members: The British Library,
the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries (MLA), the Consortium of
University Research Libraries (CURL), the Digital Curation Centre (DCC),
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the National Archives, the
National Archives of Scotland; the National Library of Scotland, Public
Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI); the University of Oxford,
University of London Computer Centre (ULCC), Arts and Humanities Data
Service (AHDS), the BBC Information & Archives, the Centre for Digital
Library Research at Strathclyde (CDLR); the Corporation of London,
Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC) ,
the Ministry of Defence, National Electronic Library for Health,
National Library of Wales, Natural History Museum, Online Computer and
Library Center (OCLC), Open University, Publishers’ Association,
Research Libraries Group (RLG), Trinity College Library Dublin, the
University of Southampton, UK Data Archive, and the Wellcome Library.
Previous DPC research: A DPC Members survey, which was undertaken in
2003, revealed details of volumes and formats of digital materials held
by DPC members and the issue they faced in their preservation.
Additional work was undertaken to provide real-life scenarios of
circumstances in which digital materials become vulnerable to loss. In
2005, the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, funded a sample
survey of local and regional organisations in two regions. The report,
Mind the gap: assessing digital preservation needs in the UK is the
culmination of the two earlier surveys, and a more detailed, wider
survey undertaken in 2005
About Tessella: Tessella Support Services plc specialises in the
application of innovative software solutions to scientific, technical
and engineering problems. Tessella has over 20 years of proven expertise
in the area of reliable and authentic long-term preservation of
electronic records, both for government and scientific organizations. In
recent years a number of mainly academic and government organisations
have been at the cutting-edge of facing up to the digital preservation
challenge, and Tessella has played a key role in a number of the most
practical of these initiatives.
Further information:
For DPC press enquiries and interviews please contact Anna Arthur, 0207
637 2994, [log in to unmask]
www.dpconline.org
For Tessella press enquiries and interviews please contact Alison Smith,
Marketing Manager, + 44 (0) 01235 546609, [log in to unmask]
www.tessella.com
Maggie Jones
Executive Secretary
Digital Preservation Coalition
Innovation Centre
York Science Park
Heslington
YO10 5DG
e: [log in to unmask]
t: +44 (0) 1904 435 362
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