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Preservation Guide
Supplements Originated by the PrestoSpace project, supported by the Cultural Heritage Programme of the European Commission Information Society Technologies Programme.  |
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Preservation Guide - The Preservation Factory Approach9. The PrestoSpace Preservation Factory [Work in Progress; the business model is an active area of PrestoSpace development. This section will be expanded during 2006, and additions will be made available to the public via the web/wiki version of this document. ]
The motivation for the factory approach to preservation is to minimise loss. In most situations the resources are inadequate to the task. There is a shortage of time, money, training and equipment – and as recent surveys have shown there is also a shortage of understanding of the problem (ref to PrestoSpace D22.4(2006) when published). This situation should force people to attempt the most effective approach for dealing with the overall content of their collections, rather than taking an item-by-item approach. The factory approach is about throughput (most items saved per hour and per Euro) – but the increase in throughput is by taking a systematic approach to the whole problem, and putting resources where they give the best return. The factory approach is not about cutting corners, reducing quality or running preservation sweatshops!
Put in stark terms: if only half the budget (and time) that is needed is actually available, should that be expended randomly on easy and hard items – or concentrated on dealing with the items that work best? It’s a hard choice, but the implications are equally stark: dealing with items ‘as they come’ rather than using systematic selection (triage; separation of hard vs difficult items) takes twice as much time and money. On a fixed budget, the systematic approach – the factory approach – doubles the amount of material saved [1]. If the systematic approach also uses faster technology, automation, bar-coding -- and in general is engineered for efficient throughput, then the effect is another doubling in the amount of material saved – for the same fixed budget [2]. 9.2 Approach The basic approach has been mentioned above (section 5.2). A factory approach is really shorthand for effective engineering and a systematic approach to dealing with a collection as a whole, rather than nibbling away at it in a random or piecemeal fashion. The basic elements of the approach are: • knowledge of the whole collection (a collection map) • automation of the actual workflow • triage to keep the automation effective Automation can mean many things, ranging from use of bar-codes to full robotics for tape handling and signal monitoring. The important result documented by Presto, based on preservation work in ten major archives, is that a 50% savings can be made by setting up a specific process (workflow) to deal with preservation work, and then taking inefficiencies out of that workflow – even without using robotics or automated signal monitoring. Sensible engineering of a dedicated process is the key to the first 50% savings – and then advanced technology can give another 50% savings (where there is sufficient scale of material to implement such automation). 9.3 Some history The 'Preservation Factory' concept is due to the EC IST-Sponsored project Presto, coordinated by BBC Information & Archives. The first time it was referenced in public was May 2002, during the Presto Multimedia Archive Preservation practical workshop, in London. Before then, it was already present on the Presto Project web site, since at least 12/11/2001 [3]. One of the main conclusions of the Presto Project with respect to migration of audiovisual materials to the digital domain, was that the factory approach is roughly 50% cheaper than the on-demand approach. The PrestoSpace Project has then undertaken to develop the technical knowledge, and to prepare the emergence of Preservation Factories, as stated on the PrestoSpace web site Since then, in addition to the technical developments, communication towards the potentials users and service providers has been undertaken, including several events, among others two User Group meetings, in Amsterdam, 18-19/03/2004, and in London, 23-24/09/2004. It is worth mentioning that several existing and potential Preservation Service Providers assisted both meetings. The message with respect to Preservation Factories was probably very convincing, since one of them has since then registered Preservation Factory as his own trade-mark… We wish success to all Preservation Service Providers. However the project is currently recommending no Service Provider with preference to another. Therefore we recommend to potential customers of these services, to consider that any claim by a Service Provider to have the official support or be in line with PrestoSpace project, is overstated. top 9.4 Preservation Factory Business Models Preservation Factory Services -- Where to Find Them: Disclaimer: Text to be agreed concerning
Status of a service described as a PrestoSpace Preservation Factory
Method of verification of service provider capabilities and quality
Method of verification of information provided by Prestospace
Information on providers of preservation transfer services, and other preservation services, is given in Service Providers.
In addition to specific technology for preservation factories, there is also PrestoSpace work on the market and on business models. D20.2 Market Analysis The focus of this market analysis was the sizing and evaluation of the service provider industry which provides services to the archive industry; and assessment of the impact on archive and service provider industries alike of the shift in focus from broadcast customers to consumers. D20.3 Business models and plans for PrestoSpace Factories Intermediate and final scenarios according to different archives models. Also: D16.4 Delivery models (Report + Software) Analysis of B2B transaction models. Definition of a model for the management of the transactions between the Factory and its customers (open to CRM-systems) including the supported file formats and transcoding functionalities. top Using a Preservation Factory [To do. Requires outcomes from PrestoSpace Task Force on preservation factory business models. We have a SAM deliverable on SLA’s for storage, but we really need guidelines to collection managers on SLA’s for digitisation and other preservation services. The BBC has guidance prepared for a UNESCO advisory report on the Kuwait archive – but that was written by a service provider, not by the BBC. The service provider is not a PrestoSpace partner, but is in the User Group] References
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