iPres 2009: Wheatley on LIFE3

Paul reviews the two earlier phases of LIFE; LIFE3 is UCL, BL & HATII [disclosure: DCC partner; disclosure, I’m also an “expert” on LIFE panels etc] at Glasgow University. Defined a lifecycle approach to costing, creating a generic model of digital preservation lifecycle. LIFE3 is now trying to create a costing tool based on costing models based on stages of the digital lifecycle. Will use previous LIFE data, also Keeping Research data Safe project.

Tool inputs: content profile, organisational profile and context. Lifecycle stages are creation/purchase, acquisition, ingest, bit-stream preservation, content preservation, and access. Where possible, exploit existing work, eg PLANETS work building on DROID, also FITS tool (?), also looking at DRAMBORA & DAF, plus PLANETS tool PLATO.

A template approach lowers the barrier for non-digital preservation people.

Context: still very much a hybrid world; analogue as well as digital. Non-digital not dying, but usage increasing. Also greater variety of digital content, eg video etc. Resources are currently 20:1 on preservation of non-digital to digital, but will need to move more towards 1:1. Need to think about the risk elements as well as cost elements.

LIFE is also expected in the BL to support preservation planning, eg in purchase/acquire/digitise, and in selecting appropriate preservation strategies. Finally, need to budget for resulting costing [CR: the feedback from prediction versus actual could be very interesting!]

Challenges and request for help: had a simple categorisation of content type & complexity. This has been criticised but without a better example. Hlpe, please. Also need more costing data. Finally, will be trialling models, and we’d like to hear from anyone who might want to participate in this.