Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together: Forming UH Libraries Digital Preservation Landscape

As more institutions digitize rare and unique materials and acquire born digital objects, the need for a robust and sustainable digital preservation program is critical for long-term access to this content. In the summer of 2014, the University of Houston Libraries established a Digital Preservation Task Force to create a digital preservation policy and identify strategies, actions, and tools needed to preserve digital assets maintained by UH Libraries. This presentation will outline the digital preservation policy tool kit being used by the task force to generate a digital preservation policy and develop a digital preservation system.

A substantial portion of the presentation will focus on the creation of the digital preservation policy for UH Libraries. The task force selected the Action Plan for Developing a Digital Preservation Program as a model to draft the policy. Conforming to the OAIS Reference Model and the Trusted Digital Repository guidelines, this document guides institutions through the creation of a high-level framework for digital preservation, drafting local digital preservation policies and procedures, and identifying resources needed to sustain a digital preservation program. Presenters will describe how they used this tool to generate digital preservation documentation and will share portions of their work to date. Additionally, the presentation will focus on the methods used to identify potential digital information systems to assist with the preservation process. Presenters will outline the process of selecting three potential systems to evaluate and share the task forces results from testing one system. The presentation will conclude with recommendations from the task force and a discussion on how others can apply the methods used by UH Libraries to implement a digital preservation solution for their materials.