Tuesday 18 June 2013

Trust and Digital Preservation - RIA 4th June, 2013.

I attended the first day of the Trust and Digital Preservation workshop at the RIA on the 4th of June 2013. It was a very busy day with a lot of very specific information at the start. Eventually we got to examples of digital preservation projects, and trust certification routes. These are my headline notes from the day, and are not necessarily in chronological order. #DPTrust was used on the day. 

I decided to only attend day one, as I am new to the whole area. The high level of content on day one reinforced this decision.

Trust is one area of concern in relation to Digital repositories  the others are Sustainability, Usability and continued Access. 

Trust: can be certified. A certification of trustworthiness path is laid out, depending on the level of commitment, local expertise and import of the digital collection preserved different levels may suit different repositories. 

Activities in this area re being led by APARSEN 
APARSEn is finded from the EU's 7th Framework from 2011-4 and aims to unify diverse organisations and practices within the field encouraging coherence, cohesion and continuity. The Virtual Centre for Digital Preservation Excellence (VCOE) will provide online training.  A formal qualification is being considered. 

Digital Repository of Ireland focuses on contemporary historical, social and cultural data in Ireland. It is interactive and trusted. HEA PRTLI5 funds it until 2019. They have created a report - Digital Archiving in Ireland. The OAIS model is used (ISO 14721). Advice; Don't preserve everything - the organisation needs to decide strategically what should be preserved. (Also discussed were, OA to Metadata, DOI minting, PID's, file formats, IP/Copyright Issues)

Authenticity and Provenance of digital data is important. As a concept Trust has been used and abused, so be careful how you approach this topic. It is not blind or and act of faith. Depositors and End Users need to be able to trust the custodian/curator. Reliability is key. Core elements to trust are reputation, performance, competence and confidence which should be built into workflows and procedures. The level of trust required varies with the relative sensitivity of the nature of the materials. Librarians have good concepts and standards for this. (Also discussed InterPARES, CASPAR, SCIDIP-ES, PREMIS, ISO 15489 and ISO 16363 )

Ethical concerns were discussed as a barrier to the submission of data to repositories. The issue becomes how to protect and share this data, especially as the permission needed from participants in a research sample become more complicated over time. ON the other hand, not all data is sensitive. Anonymization has it's place (Levels of this were also discussed). Another issue is ethical committee mismatches to the research proposed. Informed consent V. invasion of Privacy. IQDA webpage was discussed. It was noted that solely digital storage is not reliable and that researchers should be encouraged to have three sources including one off site, and a paper copy. 

To encourage trust it should be mentioned explicitly in mission statements, indicating dedication, then the repository should do what it promises in this statement, building a reputation for trustworthiness, and be transparent, looking for peer-review and certification. 
There are standards of trust. See UK digital archive. These include the Data Seal of Approval. as the entry point for certification of trust. (Also mentions DANS, DIN,  NESTOR)
ISO  16363  and din 31644. Test auditing is due in 2013. 
ISO 16363 uses 100 metrics, the OAIS model and includes a full external audit by peers. 
Audit specification are still being finalized and training has yet to be undertaken by auditors. 
Data Seal of Approval was suggested as being sufficient for small repositories  while ISO/DIN would be appropriate for larger ones. RDA Group on Certification was mentioned in this context.

It was argued that trustworthiness is not an illusion. 

An overview of activities in this area since 2002 was given. ISO 16919 re auditing is in draft format. Also mentioned PTAB , CCSTS, RAC. Trusted Digital Repository EU


Any errors are my own please inform me of any and I will correct them! 

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