ϲʹ Archives & Special Collections
Digital Preservation Policy
Contents:
1. Vision and Mission
2. Introduction
3. Purpose and Scope
4. Context
5. Selection, Appraisal and Acquisition
6. Creation
7. Storage and Access
8. Roles and Responsibility
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Document Control |
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File Name |
Archives and Special Collections Digital Preservation Policy |
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Original Author(s) |
Archivist |
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Current Revision Author(s) |
Archives and Special Collections Manager |
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Status |
Approved by Collections and Cultural Affairs Task Group 19 December 2022. |
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Distribution |
BU Digital Services |
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Authority |
Archives and Special Collections |
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Version |
Date |
Author(s) |
Notes on Revisions |
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0.1 |
October 2017 |
Archivist |
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0.2 |
April 2018 |
Archivist |
Sections removed under 7. Storage and Access, minor formatting changes |
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0.3 |
June 2018 |
Archivist |
Approved by Library & Archives Task Group, 6th June 2018 |
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0.4 |
November 2019 |
Archivist |
Awaiting approval by new Taskgroup |
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0.5 |
October 2022 |
Archivist |
Minor amendments to reflect the recent departmental restructure. Minor amendments and additions to text including vision and mission. |
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0.6 |
November 2022 |
Archives and Special Collections Manager |
Following consultation with the Digital Preservation Project Manager and Head of Unique Collections and Collection Care at NLW – some minor changes made. |
Review Date: November 2025
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Vision and Mission
It is the vision of the Archives and Special Collections to be recognized as one of the finest university archives in Wales - supporting research, teaching and learning, taking part in collaborative ventures and providing an inclusive environment for researchers.
It is the mission of the Archives and Special Collections to collect, preserve and provide access to the unique collections held by the University. The Archives and Special Collections aims to make a key contribution towards improving research excellence, learning experiences, student experience and a bilingual environment – the four pillars that underpin the University’s strategy.
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Introduction
2.1. ϲʹ Archives and Special Collections (hereafter “BUASC”) is responsible for the collection and long-term preservation of manuscripts, archival collections and a diverse range of rare books and printed material. Although the majority of the records in the care of BUASC exist in parchment and paper form, increasingly records are now either digitised or created electronically. BUASC must act now to prepare for the future by being proactive in setting up a suitable digital preservation repository, engaging with the public to dispel traditional views of archives being predominantly analogue and to raise awareness of the issues that come with digitally born objects and their continued survival. The institution must find ways in which to preserve these records and make them accessible both for current and future users.
2.2. To ensure that digital resources remain authentic and accessible BUASC must counter the threats of technological obsolescence and the inherent fragility of digital media, by providing mechanisms to identify and predict the impacts of those threats of its resources, and to plan and execute appropriate preservation strategies to mitigate these impacts. Best practice is developing quickly in the area of digital preservation and policies and procedures written now can only reflect current thinking and research. BUASC will seek to work with colleagues from the Information Technology Services department of ϲʹ (ITS) to meet these challenges presented by digital preservation.
2.3. For access and preservation reasons, analogue archives are also digitised as part of the responsibility of BUASC towards greater access and as a preservation tool. Considerations also need to be made at the point of creation on how these surrogates will be preserved over time to ensure the best use of resources and avoid duplication of work.
3. Purpose and Scope
3.1. The BUASC Digital Preservation Policy is intended to ensure that digitisation of analogue records and preservation of born-digital records meets the broader objectives of Digital Services to improve access to materials for teaching, learning and research. It aims to outline what the service hopes to achieve in preserving digital material and the expectations from BUASC for depositors and other stakeholders.
3.2. For the purposes of this policy, digital material falls into 3 distinct categories;
‘Born Digital’ - records originally created in electronic formats which form the whole or part of collections gifted, loaned or purchased by BUASC. Such records include:
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emails
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websites
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spreadsheets
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databases
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audiovisual (AV) material
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images
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social media
‘Digitised Records’ - scanned copies of paper or parchment records that are accessioned in place of the paper record.
‘Digital Surrogates’ - paper or parchment original is retained as the record and a digital image is used as an access copy.
4. Context
4.1. This policy forms part of BUASC’s overarching preservation strategy and is complemented by the following documents:
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Collections Policy
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Preservation Policy
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Archives and Special Collections Operational Plan 2021-2026
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Records Management Policy 2022
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Copyright Policy
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Research Data Management Policy
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Information Security Policy 2022
5. Selection, Appraisal and Acquisition [Born Digital and Digitised Records]
5.1. Collections are either gifted, loaned or purchased according to the BUASC Collections Policy. Additionally they are deposited as part of the Institutional Archive (i.e. records of historical significance and / or relating to the function of ϲʹ). In most cases these will be hybrid collections including traditional paper based archives as well as digital material. It should be noted that digital records will only be stored and preserved if they are to be permanently retained.
5.2. The nature of the creation of digital material means that it is difficult to be certain that a deposited digital item is ‘the’ authentic record and that no copy remains with the depositor which could subsequently be amended. This is fundamentally different from the creation and deposit of records in analogue format. Integrity and fixity checks can help to secure the chain of custody and guarantee authenticity e.g. at the point of accession it is important that digital records are properly screened and documented. Administrative and preservation metadata can help secure and manage digital content from accession to the point of access.
5.3. Digital records benefit significantly from assessment as early as possible for any preservation requirements. This presents a significant challenge for BUASC as the identification, collection and management of the records is paramount in ensuring their authenticity and accessibility. BUASC will develop new policies and practices for doing so, reflecting the quantity and nature of records.
5.4. BUASC will seek to work with depositors to encourage good practice on the creation and care of digital records. Where digital material is included the Archives and Special Collections Manager or Archivist will gather contextual metadata from the source and determine through the deposit agreement any specific software used in the creation of the material. Wherever possible, incoming records must be ‘open format’ or commonly used formats. Ideally, the original formatting within the document should be preserved. Where relevant digital material will also be requested in alternative formats (i.e. hard copy).
5.5. As part of the initial listing, any digital carriers which are readable (e.g. CDs, DVDs, flash drives) will have their contents itemised and catalogued according to the standards required for their eventual cataloguing according to ISAD(G) and internal cataloguing standards. Where digital carriers are not readable BUASC will discuss reformatting with the depositor and / or seek advice from ITS, but will not be able to commit to preserve material not in accessible / readable formats.
6. Creation [Digital Surrogates]
6.1. BUASC staff undertake digitisation activities to meet the needs of specific service users who request copies of original materials for their research or for commercial use, and proactively preserve items at risk of physical decay or destruction.
6.2. Digitisation may be carried out as part of thematic or other projects to preserve entire collections (or selected contents of collections) or for broader teaching, research and public engagement purposes.
6.3. Digitisation may further be carried out to make best use of staff resources by making material available to users in a self-service manner. Material in constant or frequent use will be identified and digitised. We will work in partnership with academic staff to ensure our priorities for digitising content are aligned to the research and teaching objectives of the University.
6.4. Digitisation may take place irrespective of physical format - including paper, magnetic tape, and optical carriers - and the type of information contained, but the processes of digitisation may differ in each case.
6.5. Materials are digitised primarily to enhance access and reduce the damage to the source material. Digital preservation is required to offset the cost (financial and staff time) of subsequent re-digitising the source material.
6.6. Where necessary the preservation needs of the collections will be paramount in all digitisation processes, to ensure that material is preserved and not put at risk.
6.7. Digitisation must meet appropriate collection care thresholds commensurate, as appropriate, with The National Archives’ Accreditation standard, and with the format of the item being digitised.
7. Storage and Access
7.1. Internal Storage of Digital Material
7.1.1. The primary storage media for digital files preserved under this policy will be in-house storage available through the Office 365 Suite which provides large amounts of cloud based storage data
7.2. Access to Digital Material
7.2.1. Understanding potential users is essential when planning for the provision of access to digital materials as well as being a key consideration of broader digital preservation activities. BUASC will need to understand what the service users want to do and what functionality can be provided e.g. what will they be using to access the resource.
7.2.2. While there is a strong link between preservation and access in terms of the overriding objective of a digital preservation programme, there is also a need to make a clear distinction between them. There may be a combination of technical, legal, and pragmatic reasons to separate the access copy from the preservation copy, so it may be desirable or even necessary, to deliver an access copy of the digital object to the user in a different format from that held within the preservation system's storage1.
7.2.3. There are a several legal issues that will need to be taken into consideration when providing access to digital objects:
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Restrictions of use relating to sensitivity and data protection
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Agreed restrictions on content where early access may represent a breach of contract
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Management of intellectual property rights, e.g. copyright
These items must be protected to ensure they are not accessed by non-authorised users and be managed in accordance with the organisation's Information Security Policy. By managing appropriate administrative and preservation metadata the correct access levels and controls can be applied in relation to records that might be restricted due to copyright or data sensitivity.
7.2.4. Detailed policies relating to access and reuse will be developed separately.
7.2.5 In house future developments relating to access will involve the exploration and possible purchase of digitized content description and controlled access systems such as ALMA-D
7.3. Collaborative Projects
7.3.1. BUASC is supportive of collaborative working with external bodies and institutions and in the past has contributed to numerous digitisation projects of a thematic nature. For example:
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Glaniad – Welsh Colony in Patagonia
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Cymru 1914
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Bulkeley Diaries ()
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ϲʹ Cathedral Pontifical Project (/archives/bangorpontifical.php.en)
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JSTOR Open Community Collections Scheme – ()
* Penrhyn Castle (Jamaica) Papers
* Book of Hours
* North Wales Women’s Peace Pilgrimage
* African Training Institute, Colwyn Bay
* Welsh Grammars
7.3.2 BUA&SC will continue to work collaboratively in order to provide access to our records on different platforms e.g. We have signed up to the Archives Hub Labs programme (March 2022) which includes plans to provide a IIIF service to produce an interoperable technology and community framework for image delivery of materials in any format.
7.3.3 BUA&SC is a member of the North Wales Archives Partnership and is fully committed to the Digitisation Strategy and Action Plan set out in 2021.
7.4. Vision for a Wales-Wide Digital Repository
7.4.1. Wales has a National Digital Preservation Policy
7.4.2 The ARCW Digital Preservation Working Group, a consortium within Archives and Records Council Wales (ARCW), was established to ensure long-term access to digitised and born-digital material in Wales. Archive institutions in Wales, working through the ARCW Digital Preservation Working Group, have recognised that a strategic all-Wales approach is vital in tackling digital preservation. It is only by pooling resources and staff expertise that the disadvantages inherent in working in small institutions with limited resources and staff time can be addressed. By working together on digital preservation activities, a standardised and sustainable professional approach can be achieved, providing assurance to stakeholders, and facilitating inter-operability. 2
7.4.3. The ARCW Digital Preservation Working Group is continuing to address the potential for an all-Wales digital preservation solution, in partnership with the National Library of Wales. Current developments are based on open-source software tools that allow users to process digital objects from ingest to access in compliance with the OAIS Reference Model
7.4.4. It is possible that relevant collections can be digitally preserved via the collaboration project.
8. Roles and Responsibility
8.1. Day-to-day oversight of this policy lies with the Archives and Special Collections Manager with the assistance of the Archivist and ϲʹ’s Digital Services department.
8.2. Digital collections have the same significance as analogue collections to BUASC. As such, the Archives and Special Collections Manager with the Archivist have the ultimate responsibility to ensure long-term access to digital collections within the care of the repository.
8.3. The Archivist reporting to the Archives and Special Collections Manager will be responsible for liaising with ITS and providing advice to depositors.