Digital Preservation Coalition

Reports > UK Needs Assessment > Mind the Gap

Mind the Gap: Assessing Digital Preservation Needs in the UK

The UK Needs Assessment, undertaken by the DPC, aimed to gather and collate a picture of the status quo in the UK with regard to digital preservation; to assess and develop a clear way forward; and, last but not least, to communicate that message to a wide and diverse audience, including those who may not have considered that digital preservation was part of their remit. This needs assessment culminated three years later in a report, Mind the Gap: assessing digital preservation needs in the UK. The report was launched at the Houses of Parliament on 15 February 2006 by Andrew Stott, Deputy Chief Information Officer & Head of Service Transformation, E-Government Unit.

An interesting feature of the Mind the Gap report is its analysis of how different sectors approach digital preservation. For example, gaining funding for digital preservation for the commercial sector appears not to be a major issue providing there is a sufficiently strong business case. In contrast, the public sector often struggles for funding, even where there is a business case. Another area of interest is the regulated industries sector. Due to regulatory inspection, companies in the financial, pharmaceutical and food sectors have had to ensure long-term preservation of digital data by creating effective methodologies. For competition reasons many of these solutions are confidential and consequently not in the public domain.

The following needs and recommendations were highlighted in the report:

Organisations should continue to raise awareness of the impact of digital preservation beyond the current core of informed individuals and institutions.
Organisations should create long-term proactive information/knowledge management plans and assign responsibility for dealing with digital preservation issues. Regular audits should also be performed to assess and address digital preservation needs.
Training in digital preservation should be encouraged and programmes should be integrated into the training of professionals such as conservators, librarians and archivists.
Awareness of digital preservation issues should be raised at government level, both nationally and internationally, in order to influence relevant policy making.
An international collaborative 'market' for digital preservation tools should be created. Such a market should encourage the use of open file formats and standards and consider the long-term preservation needs of digital information.

Mind the Gap is intended to win the hearts and minds of a much wider audience and to encourage all who are involved in creating and acquiring digital information, to seize the opportunity to develop a practical, coherent strategy for responsible management of the vast quantities of digital information being created and used in the UK today. As the DPC Chair Lynne Brindley noted at the launch of Mind the Gap ' ... many of the needs identified in the report are not "rocket science", they rely on little more than common sense and good management to implement, but there is nevertheless a significant gap between where we are now and where we need to be...'. Mind the Gap poses a challenge to all organisations to take steps to manage their digital materials according to good practice so that it will be simpler and more cost-effective for others to continue to manage them for the future.

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