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Risk management

Risk management involves several stages, including identifying what can go wrong, assessing the risks and categorising them by level of risk and the implementation of strategies to minimise or negate those risks. Given the constantly evolving nature of digital preservation, risk management should be an ongoing process, to be reviewed on a continuous basis.

Articles | Books | Events | Organisations and Websites | Online tutorial | Policies, Strategies & Guidelines | Projects and Case Studies | Bibliographies | Glossaries | Journals & Newsletters | Discussion Lists | Surveys | Tools | Evaluations

Articles

Safekept
Assessing the Durability of Formats in a Digital Preservation Environment : the INFORM Methodology
Stanescu, Andreas In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Nov 2004)
INFORM (INvestigation of FOrmats based on Risk Management) was developed at the OCLC (Online Compter Library Center) as a methodology to measure the durability of various digital formats. The methodology includes six classes of risk, including software, hardware, digital object formats, migration processes, digital archive and associated organisations. Specific risk factors are identified in each of these classes. The article also describes the methodology of the measuring process, and how formats may be compared or evaluated with respect to risks affecting their preservation.
10.1045/november2004-stanescu
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november04/stanescu/11stanescu.html
New Defining File Format Obsolescence : A Risky Journey
Pearson, David; Webb, Colin In: International Journal of Digital Curation (Date Created: Jul 2008) (Australia)
This paper describes the process of defining file format obsolescence at the National Library of Australia for the AONS II project which was undertaken in conjunction with the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories. File format obsolescence is a major risk for digital repositories. The project refined a software tool to help managers decide if preservation action is required.
http://www.ijdc.net/ijdc/article/view/76/78
KB e-Depot Digital Archiving Policy
Oltmans, Erik; van Wijngaarden, Hilde (Date Created: 2006) (Netherlands)
This paper discusses the Koninklijke Bibliotheek's policy and ambitions for digital archiving of electronic publications. It provides an overview of the KB's e-depot repository and the requirement and potential for collaboration.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/07378830610715464
Also available in PDF and from Library Hi Tech ISSN 0737-8831 ; Volume: 24 Issue: 4; 2006 pp. 604-613
Mitigating Risk of Data Loss in Preservation Environments
Chadduck, Robert ; JaJa, Joseph F. ; Moore, Reagan W. (Date Created: Apr 2005) (United States of America)
This paper describes approaches to minimise the risk of data loss and to preserve authenticity and integrity within a preservation environment. It describes Grid Bricks and Data Grids and uses the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) research prototype persistent archive as an example of how they are used.
http://www.storageconference.org/2005/papers/04_moorer_risk.pdf
Safekept
Preservation Risk Management for Web Resources: Virtual Remote Control in Cornell's Project Prism
Botticelli, Peter; Entlich, Richard; Kenney, Anne R; Lagoze, Carl; McGovern, Nancy Y; Payette, Sandra In: D-Lib magazine (Last Updated: 21 Jan 2002) (United States of America)
This article provides an overview of Project Prism at Cornell University, through which a non-custodial, distributed model for archiving is being explored. Among its aims is to use automated strategies to monitor and validate resource integrity, in a risk-based preservation management program.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january02/kenney/01kenney.html
D-Lib Magazine , Vol. 8, No. 1
Risk and the Preservation Management of Digital Collections
Clifton, Gerard (Date Created: Sep 2005) (Australia)
This article discusses the risks to digital materials and ways to reduce and manage these risks. The risk areas discussed include media degradation; data, files and formats issues; collection level factors, such as lack of metadata; organisational factors and external factors.
http://www.ifla.org/VI/4/news/ipnn36.pdf
International Preservation News No. 36, September 2005. pp. 21-23.
New Risk Carriers - The Risk Faced by Handheld Media
McLeod, Rory (Date Created: 01 Jul 2008) (United Kingdom)
This paper discusses risks related to physical carriers and risk assessment and approaches to dealing with the problems at the British Library by the Digital Preservation Team.
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/papers/084-McLeod-en.pdf
World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council, Quebec, 10-14 Aug 2008
Risk Communication Tool
ERPANET (Electronic Resources Preservation and Access Network) (Date Created: Sep 2003)
This brief paper is an introduction to the concepts and principles of risk mangement within the context of digital preservation. It provides an overview to help identify which digital resources are at risk in an organisation and to identify, categorise and prioritise the associated risks, to enable communication about risk areas and to stimulate risk management strategy development. It includes an example of a matrix for risk evaluation.
http://www.erpanet.org/guidance/docs/ERPANETRiskTool.pdf
Safekept
Historical Risk Management for Web Resources : a Case Study on Southeast Asian Web Sites
Botticelli, Peter In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Feb 2003)
This contribution to Project Prism is a case study of 54 web sites of political and non-profit organisations in Southeast Asia. The sites were selected for their value as candidates for long term preservation. One year was spent identifying and studying risk management issues. The article discusses the problems encountered in monitoring the web sites, how the sites were monitored and the danger signs indicating content loss.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070511/viewer/file5
81.html#feature2
Risk Management Foundations for Digital Libraries: DRAMBORA (Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment)
Innocenti, Perla; McHugh, Andrew; Ross, Seamus; Ruusalepp, Raivo (Date Created: 20 Sep 2007)
This paper proposes the use of the DRAMBORA audit toolkit to ensure the digital preservation capabilities of digital libraries. The paper describes the development of the toolkit and considers its potential use in the context of digital libraries.
http://www.delos.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=597&It
emid=328#programOK
Risk Management Infokit
oint Information Systems Committee (JISC) (United Kingdom)
JISC infoNet has developed a risk management framework tailored to the needs of the education sector which, whilst primarily aimed at projects, can be adapted for any institutional need. infoKits are core resources, covering key frameworks and topics relating to planning and implementing information systems. These are complemented by applied infoKits which use the generic frameworks and apply them to specific types of implementation.
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/risk-management
Safekept
Historical Risk Management of Digital Information : A File Format Investigation
Arms, Caroline R. In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Jun 2000) (United States of America)
This article is a review of the CLIR sponsored Cornell University Library study of the same name. The study concentrated on migration as a digital preservation strategy. There were seen to be three different categories of risk related to the infrastructure, file format and conversion process. Different methods and tools were applied to assess risk included workbooks, reader software and test migrations. It was found that risk could be quantified and access to the original file format specifications was crucial to evaluating risks.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070513/viewer/file1
579.html#technical1
New Security of Digital Collections: The BnF Distributed Archiving & Preservation System (SPAR) Operating Safety & Reliability
Chilloh, Adoté (Date Created: Aug 2008) (France)
This article describes operating safety, reliability and risk management applied to SPAR, the distributed archiving and preservation system developed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).
http://www.ifla.org/VI/4/news/ipnn45.pdf
International Preservation News No. 45 August 2008 pp 21-24
Safekept
Virtual Remote Control : Building a Preservation Risk Management Toolbox for Web Resources
Buckley, Ellie; Entlich, Richard; Kehoe, William R.; Kenney, Anne R.; McGovern, Nancy Y. In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Apr 2004) (United States of America)
Importance of Internet archiving was brought to public attention after material archived by the Wayback Machine was accepted in the US court. Cultural institutions face legal as well as technical challenges when they attempt to archive the Internet and much of the content is therefore lost. Cornell University Library's Virtual Remote Control (VRC) initiative differs from most web archiving projects by its emphasise on monitoring websites over time, with capture being used only as a last resort. The process is envisaged to be fully automated in the future via a Toolbox software that is being developed, but at present considerable human input is necessary.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april04/mcgovern/04mcgovern.html

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Books

Safekept
Historical Risk Management of Digital Information : A File Format Investigation
Gregory W. Lawrence, William R. Kehoe, Oya Y. Reiger, William H. Walters and Kenney R. Anne (Date Created: Jun 2000) (United States of America) Reviewed by: Risk Management of Digital Information : A File Format Investigation
This report is based on investigations by Cornell University Library with support from CLIR on the identification of risks to digital file formats during migration. A work book for risk assessment was developed, identifying risk categories, measuring risk using worksheets, matrixes and evaluation of conversion comparison software. Two migration case studies are also discussed: one for image files and one for numeric files.
ISBN: 1-887334-78-5
http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub93abst.html
Available on CLIR's website or paper copy for US $20.00

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Events

Building Trust in Digital Repositories Using the DRAMBORA Toolkit
27 Apr 2007 , British Library, London
Digital Curation Centre
(United Kingdom)
This tutorial sponsored by the Digital Curation Centre provided an overview of the need for an evidence-based evaluation of digital repositories and a demonstration of the use of the DRAMBORA toolkit to design, develop, evaluate, and refine new or existing trusted digital repository systems and workflows.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/drambora-london-2007/
Presentation slides available from web site.

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Organisations and Websites

DRAMBORA Interactive : Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment
Digital Curation Centre; DigitalPreservationEurope (Regularly Updated)
This website describes the DRAMBORA toolkit and allows download of the toolkit which was released by the Digital Curation Centre and DigitalPreservationEurope. The toolkit allows repository administrators to self assess their capabilities, identify weaknesses and strengths based on risk assessments. A flyer is available for download in JPEG or PDF formats.
http://www.repositoryaudit.eu/
Safekept
Virtual Remote Control
Cornell University
Virtual Remote Control (VRC) is an ongoing research initiative to develop a risk management approach to providing access to Web resources over time, including setting up a model, framework as well as identifying tools that can help institutions deal with the web material. VRC model can include the capturing of web sites, but that is not its essential component, since organisations using it may wish only to monitor web sites due to possible legal technical and other limitations. Site includes evaluations of available web tools. VRC emerged from Cornell University's participation in Project Prism.
http://irisresearch.library.cornell.edu/VRC/index.html

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Policies, Strategies & Guidelines

Risk Assessment 2007
McLeod, Rory; Bright, Peter; Wheatley, Paul (Date Created: Nov 2007) (United Kingdom)
This document was prepared by the British Library Digital Preservation Team to prioritise the British Library's digital content based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of risk. It will assist recognition of issues faced by legacy digital assets and trigger mitigation actions and develop prioritised plans to address them.
http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/stratpolprog/ccare/introduction/digital/riska
ssessment.pdf

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Projects and Case Studies

KB e-Depot Digital Archiving Policy
Oltmans, Erik; van Wijngaarden, Hilde (Date Created: 2006) (Netherlands)
This paper discusses the Koninklijke Bibliotheek's policy and ambitions for digital archiving of electronic publications. It provides an overview of the KB's e-depot repository and the requirement and potential for collaboration.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/07378830610715464
Also available in PDF and from Library Hi Tech ISSN 0737-8831 ; Volume: 24 Issue: 4; 2006 pp. 604-613
Safekept
Historical Risk Management of Digital Information : A File Format Investigation
Gregory W. Lawrence, William R. Kehoe, Oya Y. Reiger, William H. Walters and Kenney R. Anne (Date Created: Jun 2000) (United States of America) Reviewed by: Risk Management of Digital Information : A File Format Investigation
This report is based on investigations by Cornell University Library with support from CLIR on the identification of risks to digital file formats during migration. A work book for risk assessment was developed, identifying risk categories, measuring risk using worksheets, matrixes and evaluation of conversion comparison software. Two migration case studies are also discussed: one for image files and one for numeric files.
ISBN: 1-887334-78-5
http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub93abst.html
Available on CLIR's website or paper copy for US $20.00

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Bibliographies

Espida Bibliography
Espida (Last Updated: Jan 2007) (United Kingdom)
This bibliography was produced as part of the Espida (An Effective Strategic Model for the Preservation and Disposal of Institutional Assets) project. It has sections on cultural heritage & digital preservation, Economics, Knowledge management, risk, strategic & business management and value. The ESPIDA project was completed in January 2007.
http://www.gla.ac.uk/espida/documents/espida_bibliography.pdf
Risk Management Resources
Kenney, Anne R.; McGovern, Nancy Y. (Date Created: May 2002)
Part of Cornell University's Virtual Remote Control toolbox, this bibliography includes publications and websites containing information ranging from risk management generally to specific information on risk management for digital projects and resources.
http://irisresearch.library.cornell.edu/VRC/riskresources.html

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Tools

DRAMBORA Interactive : Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment
Digital Curation Centre; DigitalPreservationEurope (Regularly Updated)
This website describes the DRAMBORA toolkit and allows download of the toolkit which was released by the Digital Curation Centre and DigitalPreservationEurope. The toolkit allows repository administrators to self assess their capabilities, identify weaknesses and strengths based on risk assessments. A flyer is available for download in JPEG or PDF formats.
http://www.repositoryaudit.eu/

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Related Topics: Digital preservation policies

Broader Topic: Management

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