NDSA:2014 National Agenda Outline

Draft Outline

Introduction

a. Description of the National Agenda for Digital Stewardship

i. What the document is

1. inspiration for the planning of digital preservation work

2. observations of the joint leadership group

3. evaluation of the state of digital preservation activity and key emerging issues for the year

ii. What the document is not intended to be

1. a directive to working groups

2. prescriptive

3. Not intended to replace any organizational efforts, planning, goals or opinions.

iii. Hoped for impact

b. Description of the NDSA and its goals

i. How the Agenda furthers NDSA goals

c. Intended audience

i. NDSA members

1. inform and inspire individual, working group, and organizational work plans

ii. Wider digital preservation community

d. Authored by the joint leadership group

Section topics

a. Trends in Digital Content i. Emerging content types, formats, or challenges that are of interest to the digital preservation community. Special focus on content themes as they address the interests and needs of the collecting organizations.

b. Research Priorities

  i. Research in a lab or test-bed environment, with a focus on methods to test research results and implement effective strategies from the research lab or test-bed. Frameworks that allow people to apply their specialized knowledge and skills to specific problems

  ii.Examples:

     • Methodologies for digital preservation research that can provide useful results with simulation of long time periods.

     • Methodologies for digital preservation research that provide reliable test plans.

     • Methodologies that combine aspects of different research areas (e.g., computer science, materials science

c. Infrastructure Development

i. Infrastructure can be generally defined as the set of interconnected structural elements that provide framework supporting an entire structure of development. This includes both physical and institutional elements.

  ii.Examples: 

     • Trends in data protection standards

     • Best practices for using cloud concepts within a digital preservation strategy

     • Cost-benefit analysis techniques for infrastructure planning

d. Organizational Roles, Policies, and Practices

  i. Preservation happens through the work of individuals and institutions. Just as it is critical to refine and develop infrastructure and basic research it is similarly critical to refine and develop workflows, practices, roles, and responsibilities both inside institutions and within networks of institutions to ensure long term access to digital content.

  ii.Examples:

     • Need for models for licensing old software for long term virtualization

     • Need for creation of more dedicated FTEs to staff digital preservation initiatives

     • Development for policies around crowdsourcing as part of digital preservation life cycle

     • Expanded use of machine readable licensing for data under long term preservation

Conclusion

a. Possible ways to engage with the topics and issues detailed in the agenda