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Subject: [padiforum-l] Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification
Checklist is Published


Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification Checklist is Published

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 8 March, 2007-The Center for Research Libraries and
RLG Programs (a unit of the OCLC Programs and Research division)
announce the publication of Trustworthy Repositories Audit &
Certification: Criteria and Checklist.

In 2003, RLG and the US National Archives and Records Administration
created a joint task force to address digital repository certification.
The goal of the RLG-NARA Task Force on Digital Repository Certification
was to develop criteria to identify digital repositories capable of
reliably storing, migrating, and providing access to digital
collections. With partial funding from the NARA Electronic Records
Archives Program, the international task force produced a set of
certification criteria applicable to a range of digital repositories and
archives, from academic institutional preservation repositories to large
data archives and from national libraries to third-party digital
archiving services.  Ken Thibodeau, Director of the ERA Program, points
out, "We need to foster a context where people can trust information
from a digital repository as readily as they trust twenty dollar bills
from an ATM, without looking inside the shell.  The Checklist provides
milestones repositories can use to earn this trust."

In 2005, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded funding to the Center
for Research Libraries to further establish the documentation
requirements, delineate a process for certification, and establish
appropriate methodologies for determining the soundness and
sustainability of digital repositories.  Under this effort, Robin Dale
(RLG Programs) and Bernard F. Reilly (President, Center for Research
Libraries) created an audit methodology based largely on the checklist,
tested it on several major digital repositories, including the E-Depot
at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in the Netherlands, the Inter-University
Consortium for Political and Social Research, and Portico.

Findings and methodologies were shared with those of related working
groups in Europe who applied the draft checklist in their own domains:
the Digital Curation Center (U.K.), DigitalPreservationEurope
(Continental Europe) and NESTOR (Germany).  The report incorporates the
sum of knowledge and experience, new ideas, techniques, and tools that
resulted from cross-fertilization between the U.S. and European efforts.
It also includes a discussion of audit and certification criteria and
how they can be considered from an organizational perspective.

With the publication of this report, all related digital repository
audit and certification work is moving to CRL.  According to Bernard
Reilly, "At a time when universities and research libraries are being
called upon to bear the substantial costs of preserving digital data and
electronic content, the TRAC checklist will help make possible the kind
of due diligence that the community exercises in their other investments
of comparable scale.

This conviction is shared by James Michalko, Vice President, RLG
Programs "This is a critical time for research institutions tasked with
providing long-term access to digital information. TRAC will help
institutions objectively evaluate responsibilities against capabilities
and identify potential risks to digital content held in repositories,
archives, and by content providers.  It provides the community with a
tool to facilitate assessment and understanding, and will enable vital
collaboration among repositories."

The 93-page report is available in pdf from the Center for Research
Libraries <http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/16712>.

Background on the CRL project can be found at
<http://www.crl.edu/content.asp?l1=13&l2=58&l3=142>.

Background on the RLG-NARA Task Force and its work can be found at
<http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=580> and related OCLC Programs &
Research work can be found at <http://www.oclc.org/research/>.

About OCLC
<http://www.oclc.org>
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a
nonprofit organization that has provided computer-based cataloging,
reference, resource sharing, eContent and preservation services to
57,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories.
OCLC, FirstSearch and RLG are trademarks and/or service marks of OCLC
Online Computer Library Center, Inc. Third-party product, service and
business names are trademarks and/or service marks of their respective
owners.

About CRL
<http://www.crl.edu/>
The Center for Research Libraries is a not-for-profit consortium of 202
North American research libraries and universities that promotes the
preservation of critical resources for advanced research and teaching in
the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.