Thursday 6 November 2008

Digital Preservation Policies Study published

JISC appointed Charles Beagrie to develop this Digital Preservation Policies Study back in March with a pretty small timeframe to deliver the goods. It's well worth a look if you're putting your own digital preservation policy together, especially if you're operating in the HE sector. The study provides a handy template of policy clauses that can be adapted for local needs. That should help people get started.

If I'm honest, it's the emphasis on context and mappings that I like best about the work (as an archivist I'm bound to like that ;-), right?). By examining policy documents in the areas of research, teaching and learning, information, library and records management, the study has identified how digital preservation supports the work of universities. This alignment of digital preservation policy to the business of the University is critical to answering questions about why digital preservation matters. Anyone needing to make the case for digital preservation should take a look at the detailed mappings to these wider university policies in the appendices.