This document outlines small steps that small institutions can take towards archiving and preserving digital data. It recommends designating responsibility for archiving, establishing archival objectives to determine what data merits preservation, and securely storing data with backups and integrity checks. It also suggests creating a complete inventory of files with metadata, and developing preservation strategies like migrating to standard formats and visual representations to preserve data for future access. While complex archiving systems are costly, it presents smaller solutions like shared storage, outsourcing, and following certification standards.

1. Dr. Reiner Göldner 1
Small Solutions for Small Institutions
Steps Towards Archiving and Preservation of Digital Data
Dr. Reiner Göldner

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Small Solutions for Small Institutions
Content
❙ Basics
❙ Steps
❙ Responsibility and Competency
❙ Archival Objectives
❙ Secure Storage
❙ Complete Inventory
❙ Preservation Strategy
❙ Alternative Steps
❙ Résumé

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Archiving is …
… the most intensive and most expensive way
to store and to preserve data
! ! ! ?

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Basics
❙ meaning:
❙ archiving = long term preservation
❙ to permanently preserve content and function of digital data
and to provide access to it
❙ (main difference to other opinions: curation is included)
❙ archiving is
the most intensive and most expensive way
to store and to preserve data
❙ there are some small steps towards archiving,
that can be used as small solutions for small institutions

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Step: Responsibility and Competency
❙ always start with a clear archiving task
(may be project, better permanent)
❙ you need someone, who is responsible for this task
❙ and there has to be some basic resources (time, IT, …)
❙ you need someone, who is competent in archaeology, archiving and IT
( training)
❙ be inspired by OAIS (Open Archival Information System)
❙ look at global players like Digital Preservation Coalition, Open Preservation
Foundation, nestor, national archives, libraries, …
❙ look at ADS, ARCHES, DANS, IANUS, …

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Step: Archival Objectives
❙ A principle may be:
… to permanently preserve (digital) archaeological material
with enduring value to science and society …
❙ think about: Which records are of archival value? Which criteria could be used?
(never think about archiving “all”)
❙ think about a minimal quality management

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Step: Secure Storage
❙ no removable media
❙ use kind of corporate storage, data center (RAID, SAN, …)  enhanced security
❙ think about replication and backup (managed tape archive)
❙ think about signature or checksum to check integrity
❙ think about virus check
❙ [OAIS: archival storage function]

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Step: Complete Inventory
❙ descriptive metadata
❙ subject indexing
❙ content (dublin core, …)
❙ technical metadata
❙ file names and structure map (directories)
❙ data format (PRONOM)
❙ date of creation, modification
❙ organizational metadata
❙ access rights, copyrights, retention policies

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Step: Complete Inventory
❙ as possible, use available document management systems
❙ but in many cases a structured file system is sufficient,
maybe combined with a spreadsheet as inventory
❙ use e.g. DROID tool for data format and checksum
❙ [OAIS: ingest function, data management function and access function]

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Step: Preservation Strategies
❙ To build up preservation strategies
is the most important task
of long term preservation!
❙ (only) difference to document management
❙ archiving ever means: active preservation & curation
❙ reduce the number of your data formats
❙ only use simple formats
❙ understand your file formats
❙ observe changes in technology
❙ migrate obsolete data to contemporary formats

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Step: Preservation Strategy
❙ preservation strategy means:
to have an idea on how to preserve the material
to the next generation of hard- and software system
❙ think about 3 important types of potential archival representations
❙ original data
 short term use with original like system
❙ visual representation
 long term use with standard viewer
❙ abstracted functional representation (after individual preparation)
 long term functional use after individual customizing

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Step: Preservation Strategy
❙ think about types of materials to be archived as follows
❙ simple files at visual standard formats
(text, image, drawing, …)
 visual representation at well accepted archive formats
(PDF/A, baseline TIFF, …)
❙ more special files at functional standard formats
(simple databases, geodata, 3D, …)
 functional representation at some slightly accepted archive formats
(CSV, XML, GML, …)
 in addition make clear descriptions and store a visual representation
(PDF/A)
❙ special cases of complex data
(excavation data with linked datasets, geodata, plans, photogrammetry, …)
 special preservation strategies are needed, considering aspects of
function and interoperability

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Step: Preservation Strategy
❙ problem: archaeological and archival requirements interact  consider both
❙ tip: put systematic information into systematic data structures (datasets, geodata)
 permanently operated server databases can be considered as good archives
❙ [OAIS: preservation planning function]

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Alternative Steps
❙ complex systems are costly to maintain
❙  use shared or cloud systems
❙  look for service provider
❙ pay attention to certifications like
❙ Data Seal of Approval
❙ Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories
❙ nestor-Siegel für vertrauenswürdige digitale Langzeitarchive
❙ pay attention to an existing exit strategy

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Résumé
❙ remember some useful and small steps towards archiving:
❙ Responsibility and Competency
❙ Archival Objectives
❙ Secure Storage
❙ Complete Inventory
❙ Preservation Strategy
❙ There are some small archiving solutions for small institutions!

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Contact
Dr. Reiner Göldner
IT/GIS Consultant
Saxon Archaeological Heritage Office
Dresden, Germany
reiner.goeldner@lfa.sachsen.de
www.archaeologie.sachsen.de