da blog

We were pleased to have finally made available version 1.0 of the JISC PoWR Handbook. The Handbook is the result of our extensive work with UKOLN on the JISC Preservation of Web Resources project, which included three hugely valuable workshops, and extensive discussion on the PoWR blog.

In the Handbook we’ve tried to cover a huge, and sometimes controversial, area in as accessible a way as possible. The workshops, attended by both web-management and records-management professionals from HE institutions, brought  a wide range of concerns and issues to light. It’s been quite a job fitting it all in.

Even as the project progressed, we became aware of new developments in thinking about how to approach the special issues of managing web resources, including everybody’s favourite new fast automatic Web 2.0 applications. We saw the publication of Steve Bailey’s Records Management 2.0 book, TNA’s Web Continuity project, and further web archiving developments at UKWAC. We’ve even heard it whispered in some quarters that approaches to preservation may need a more profound reassessment in the context of the Web and the Cloud. Many of these issues were recorded on the PoWR blog, and we tried to reflect as much of this in the Handbook as possible.

Another recent JISC publication, The Digital Preservation Policies Study by Charles Beagrie Ltd, published at the same time, is complementary in many ways, and reassured us that many of the conclusions we groped towards in the Handbook were not so wide of the mark! Like PoWR, the  Digital Preservation Policies Study identified the necessity of high-level policy engagement as the sine qua non of effective digital preservation.

Digital preservation solutions are undoubtedly partly technical, and the tools being created will enhance digital longevity, but these solutions are also equally dependent on organisational issues. It is important to remember that digital preservation relies on the interaction between the digital preservation environment and wider organisational objectives and procedural issues. These could be financial and staffing issues, collection management, legal obligations, auditing requirements, and other strategies and policies. In this respect, recognition by organisational divisions that digital data is important and key to the successful running of an organisation is crucial.

The Digital Preservation Policies Study, p.11

Among the other recommendations the Study shares with PoWR include:

• Analysis of existing policies and strategies, and how our work can support them even if said polices don’t explicitly refer to preservation or digital assets
• Taking a phased approach – nothing happens all at once. (PoWR recommends pilot projects and working with supportive departments.)
• Careful scoping of preservation requirements. (With regard to web resources, PoWR suggests not everything, not every version, and not forever.)
• Identifying if and where existing systems will do the job
• Consideration of lifecycle, publication, and retention schedules.

The Charles Beagrie survey is a very concise and accessible contribution to the field, and we hope the PoWR Handbook, with its specific focus on established and emerging Web issues, and attention to the detailed and everyday concerns of our many contributors and correspondents, will be similarly useful. We also hope that the work of PoWR will continue in some form, on the blog and perhaps in the form of new projects and workshops, to fill in the gaps we left, and deal with the constantly emerging Web developments. Anyone for PoWR 2.0?

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.