ISSN 1093-5371
Editor's Interview
National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
Laura Campbell
Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives
Library of Congress
Editors’ Note
In January Congress approved the Library of Congress’s Plan for
the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program
(NDIIPP), which will enable the Library to launch the initial phase of
building a national infrastructure for the collection and long-term preservation
of digital content. With this approval Congress also released $35 million
for the next phase of NDIIPP, of which $15 million will be matched dollar-for-dollar
from nonfederal sources. Following is an interview with Laura Campbell,
the Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives, who is directing the
work of this next phase of NDIIPP. Queries may be addressed to her special
assistant, George Coulbourne.
It’s wonderful that Congress has authorized and financially supported the next phase of NDIIPP, but how will the funds be committed? What percentage of funding will be spent on research, planning, implementation, evaluation, and other core areas?
The majority of the funds will be used for testing various models that support the capture and preservation of content. The projects will focus on the preservation of a variety of digital media: e-books and e-journals, digital film, audio, and television. We will be working with other repositories as well as rights holders to test approaches that support a distributed digital preservation infrastructure for collecting and preserving content. This infrastructure will consist of a network of committed partners with defined roles and responsibilities working through a preservation architecture.
Other projects will test and help define the digital preservation architecture spelled out in the NDIIPP report. Approximately ten percent of the funds will support basic digital preservation research to help build solutions that are flexible and sustainable for the long term.
How will proposals be solicited and accepted?
Through our Web site we anticipate making calls for proposals in late summer.
What outcomes do you expect from this phase, and how will you measure success in meeting your goals and objectives?
Outcomes expected from this phase include establishing the groundwork for what we call the "digital preservation infrastructure," which has two components.
- The first is the "digital preservation network," which will comprise a group of partners committed to collecting and preserving digital information.
- The second component is the "digital preservation architecture," or the technology that will support long-term preservation in a distributed environment. This phase will conclude with an advanced design for the architecture.
Copyright and the intellectual property issues associated with digital information will also be a focus of this phase. We will work closely with the U.S. Copyright Office, which is part of the Library of Congress, and many stakeholders in the broader community to address issues that advance or impede preservation of content.
Communication is a key component of NDIIPP. It is critical to convey information about the program to the stakeholders in digital preservation as well as to the general public. Currently, content creators and distributors understand to varying degrees what digital preservation is, why it is needed, and what their role in preservation should be. Unlike in the analog world, where preservation decisions may be made long after the content is created, in the digital world preservation decisions often need to be made coincident with creation. Think of all the Web sites, for example, that are no longer available.
We also know from experience that the success of any new technology requires support--and understanding--from the general public. That was the case when the Library began its National Digital Library Program. A large part of the success of that public-private partnership ($15 million from Congress; more than $45 million from private donors) was the result of the public’s awareness of the importance of having remote access to the riches of the Library of Congress’s high-quality educational content. The more Library materials we made available, the more the public wanted. From such a base of support came private sector support. We believe that as the public increases its awareness of the importance of digital preservation, support for the program will grow.
The metrics to measure success will vary according to the component we are examining. For example, at a base level we can measure the success of the preservation architecture the way any design program is evaluated--by testing it. Does the architecture support long-term preservation? Is it flexible enough to change as technology changes? Can users and donors of content rely on its integrity?
The success of the preservation network must be judged in more-qualitative terms. We know that we cannot capture and preserve all digital information, nor is it desirable to do so. Partners will have to make decisions on what to keep and who should keep it. In many ways this is no different than the decisions that are made every day by the selecting officials at the Library of Congress. The Library retains for its collections only about 7,000 of the approximately 20,000 items it receives each business day. Other repositories make these same decisions. The hope is that, as with analog materials, we are collecting and preserving the information that will be most useful to the U.S. Congress, researchers, and lifelong learners for generations to come. It is the generations of tomorrow who will judge the success of the decisions we make today.
As far as communication is concerned, we will know we have succeeded when there is a national conversation about the importance of digital preservation such that the public and private sectors support the goals of NDIIPP.
Who are the key stakeholders for LC in this effort, and how will you involve them? What about the National Library of Medicine and the National Agriculture Library? Research libraries? Others?
In the broadest terms, anyone who creates or uses digital information is a stakeholder in NDIIPP. NLM and NAL are key stakeholders, as are all the libraries and other repositories in this nation and around the world. We formed the National Digital Strategy Advisory Board with the idea that its members are representatives for the various stakeholder communities. The NDIIPP legislation mandates that “the overall plan should set forth a strategy for the Library of Congress, in collaboration with other Federal and non-Federal entities, to identify a national network of libraries and other organizations with responsibilities for collecting digital materials that will provide access to and maintain those materials.”
How can other institutions participate in NDIIPP?
We are interested in hearing from institutions and organizations who are collecting and preserving digital content and are interested in becoming involved in the preservation network of committed partners. They can send inquiries to http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndiipp/contact.html.
How will cultural repositories—large and small—benefit from NDIIPP?
We hope to set forth, in collaboration with others, a national approach to sharing the responsibility for the collection and preservation of digital content, leveraging what any one institution can do alone.
Desirable benefits of NDIIPP include
- shared responsibility for collection and selection development
- standards and best practices for managing content
- business models to support preservation and the shared responsibility for collection and selection development (no. 1 above)
- intellectual property agreements for use of rights-protected content
- a technical framework within which to work together
Ultimately there will be an operational environment that allows many institutions, big and small, to be part of a network that collects, preserves, and provides rights-protected access to digital content.
Digital preservation doesn’t stop at the border. Would you describe your plans for international collaboration?
With its core mission to make information available and useful and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity, regardless of format, for current and future generations of Congress and the American people, the Library of Congress has a long history as a trusted convener that is able to facilitate the development of standards and best practices in librarianship across the country and internationally.
The NDIIPP plan represents the fruits of intensive consultations with a wide range of American and international innovators, creators, and high-level managers of digital information in the private and public sectors. We achieved this through surveying national and international initiatives (Appendix 5 of the report ) and during several stakeholder meetings with international participation. This was accompanied by ongoing interviews and consultation with a broad group of experts.
There is nothing comparable to the congressional action taken and funding provided in behalf of digital preservation abroad; however, areas of potential collaboration with the United States include
- technical research
- standards development
- collection development
- development of shared services needed by repositories
The Web site you have established is very helpful in conveying information on NDIIPP. How else will you keep individuals and organizations informed?
NDIIPP has already received broad coverage from the media in more than fifty publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Their articles have been the direct result of our communications efforts. We will continue to work with major media—both general-interest as well as trade press—to keep NDIIPP in the public eye as it progresses in meeting its goals. We will also continue to participate in public presentations and forums, such as at the Library’s exhibit booth during the American Library Association meeting and in other appropriate venues.
Publishing Information
RLG DigiNews (ISSN 1093-5371) is a Web-based newsletter conceived by the RLG preservation community and developed to serve a broad readership around the world. It is produced by staff in the Department of Research, Cornell University Library, in consultation with RLG and is published six times a year at www.rlg.org.
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Please send comments and questions about this or other issues to the RLG DigiNews editors.
Co-Editors: Anne R. Kenney and Nancy Y. McGovern; Associate Editor: Robin Dale (RLG); Technical Researcher: Richard Entlich; Contributor: Erica Olsen; Copy Editor: Martha Crowe; Production Coordinator: Carla DeMello; Assistant: Valerie Jacoski.
All links in this issue were confirmed accurate as of June 13, 2003.
