Tailoring Digital Preservation Services for Practice: Workflow Development and Cost Modeling

  • Reinhard Altenhöner
Keywords: Digital preservation, workflow management, process management, service management, long-term archive, national libraries, ingest

Abstract

The introduction of digital preservation services into the operations of institutions where existing workflowprocesses are established affects the process infrastructure in many ways. This leads in itself to mutualadaptation needs. If not only internal but also external organisational units are involved and that is oftenunavoidable in a complex process such as the long-term preservation-the importance of a comprehensiveservice including an advanced organisational solution and a cost model is striking. Against this background,it is necessary to bring together technology and organisation and to anchor in a holistic approach operationalaspects of digital preservation and its organisational embeddedness in institutions. Of course needs that arestated in a theoretical manner require practical implementation. Reflecting the history of workflow implementationin the German National Library some central needs and results from these experiences are presented. Thenew workflow for mass ingest of digital publications integrates requirements from the digital preservation unitin the broader scope of ingest routines and showcases the demand for modular and generic components,which can be integrated in the IT-infrastructure of a library. Results from the project DP4lib show in additionhow a service-oriented infrastructure for digital preservation services can be established. By implementingthe project was learned that much more important than technical tools is the workflow-related work, and hereespecially quality assurance, verifiable processes, predictable costs, reliable reporting, and documentationof history.

http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.32.4.2523

Published
2012-07-18
How to Cite
Altenhöner, R. (2012). Tailoring Digital Preservation Services for Practice: Workflow Development and Cost Modeling. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 32(4). https://doi.org/10.14429/djlit.32.4.2523
Section
Special Issue on Visualising Libraries