Digital life cycle management at the National Library of Scotland

Simon Bains, Digital Library Manager

August 2005

What is digital life cycle management?

“It is one of those phrases that seems to have as many interpretations and meanings as ‘digital library’”[Helen Shenton, Life cycle collection management]“actively to manage the resource at each stage of its life-cycle and to recognise the inter-dependencies between each stage and commence preservation activities as early as practicable”[Digital Preservation Coalition]“Life cycle collection management is evidence-based stewardship that documents the relationship between all the stages in a collection item’s existence over time”[Helen Shenton, Life cycle collection management]

Why use it?

Economic reasons• Best value; resource allocation; benchmarking

Strategic reasons• Integrated policies and strategies; context for new areas

Access• Internal and external interoperability

Infrastructure• Digital Repositories: “collections management policies

should cover: selection, acquisition, organisation, storage, access, de-selection, and preservation”

[QA Focus Briefing Document, UKOLN]

Format-neutral collection management• Unified approach to care of hybrid library collections

The British Library

Application of approach used for paper-based materials to digital objects

Identifying the costs of each stage

Demonstrating the long-term consequences of decisions at the start of the cycle

Digitised masters:• €77 per object over 10 years

Purchased born digital:• €128 year 1 costs for a digital monograph• €51 year 1 costs for a traditional monograph

Unable to make long-term or complete costings at this stage

The British Library

BL formula for the lifecycle of digital masters:

K(t)=s+ipr+cons+r+cap+q+m+acs(t)+p(t)

K(t) total cost over period of t yearss selection costipr cost of checking IPRcons conservation checkr retrieval and reshelvingcap capture of master

q quality assurance/derivatives m metadata creationacs(t) access cost over timep(t) preservation/storage over time

Helen Shenton (2003), Life Cycle Collection Management, Liber 13(3/4)http://liber.library.uu.nl/publish/articles/000033/article.pdf

Why use it at the NLS?

Growing quantity and complexity of digital collections:• Increased digitisation• Increased purchase of born digital resources• John Murray Archive• Hosted services (IRIScotland)• Legal deposit of digital publications (including web

archiving)

Strategic commitment to collaborate/interoperate• Selection informed by stakeholders• Ability to provide multiple access points and experiences• LTScotland; Public libraries; BBC etc.

Why use it at the NLS?

Legal and cultural imperatives to establish a ‘Trusted Digital Repository’:

• Scottish Executive digital media strategy• Cultural Commission report• Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003

Which will:• Be interoperable• Avoid duplication• Be usable and accessible

In order to:• Become a component of the Scottish Distributed Digital

Library• Become a component of a shared legal deposit libraries

infrastructure

Digital life cycle model (digitisation)

Selection

Indexing Capture

Indexing

DeliveryStorage

Access/preservation

Access/preservation

Selection

NLS strategy to widen access

NLS strategy to expand digitisation

How do we know what non-users want?

Thinking bigger (3 years)• No limit on proposals• No limit on project scope

Unknown quantities• John Murray Archive• Funding

Selection

Prioritised projects

Selection panel

Project proposals

Curator consultation

Stakeholder consultation

Market research Cost

Indexing

Digital Images Database (DID)

Microsoft Access (migrating to SQLServer)

Dublin Core and RLG schemas, plus local fields

Bibliographic information (e.g. book)

Component information (e.g. page; image)

Additional indexing terms (e.g. people, places, keywords)

Image metadata (e.g. file format, size, colour palette, ppi, compression etc.)

IndexingD

ID Basic record Image metadata & image

Complete record

1. Record creator 2. Digital camera operator 3. DID Indexer

4. Database Administrator

1. Desc. Metadata; rights; indexing terms

2. Image creation; match image files to DID records; Image metadata

3. Add authority controlled indexing terms; QA and sign off

4. Manage RDMS; export/import, design, backups

IndexingD

ID Basic record Image metadata & image

Complete record

Screengrab of DID record creation window

Delivery

Web features

Workflow bottleneck

Word on the Street• Exposed to Google• Version of DID

Aim to deliver generic infrastructure based on DID

DID migration

NLW Digital Mirror

Market research and selection supports:• Maps, treasures, photographs, treasures

DID Basic record Image metadata

& imageComplete record

Delivery

Descriptive metadata is keyCreate once, use many timesJMA strategy – access content from:

• Web pages• Interactive exhibition kiosks• Timelines• Topic maps• Teaching aids

“The strategy to maximise digital access…will mean the NLS investing at least 40% of the available funds for digitisation in descriptive metadata”[A Digital Access Strategy for the John Murray

Archive at the National Library of Scotland]

I sat back in my chair, dumbstruck. I punched the air with both arms and shouted "Yahoo!" It was there, recorded in the National Library of Scotland's web site. As I read it, line after line came flooding back, familiar once more

I had been looking for the full lyrics to this song for ten years…No one else had ever heard of it. You've got the only copy of the lyrics in print that I've been able to find. Thanks!!!!

Storage

Data storage on network servers• 19.5TB NAS storage servers

Incremental backups and complete snapshots to magnetic tapeIncreasing data – lengthier backupsAutomation, e.g. robotic tape systemIssues

• File corruption – filesize and modification date no good; checksums too slow

• Gap between creation and backup – risk of file loss; replication servers reduce gap but double the cost

• BL DOM – replicating server architecture removes tape backup from the equation

Planning for a resilient and scalable mass storage system using a Storage Area Network (SAN)

Digital preservation planning

Work ongoing in a number of areas:• Back-up strategy• Implementation of unique IDs• File integrity (SHA1 checksum)• Automated metadata extraction (JHOVE/DAITSS)

Strategic commitment to develop a Trusted Digital Repository

Part of Legal Deposit Library planning to develop a digital infrastructure for non-print legal deposit materials

Digital Library Strategy

Holistic approach• Digitised and born digital• Analogue and digital

Coherent integrated set of policies and strategies• Selection• Management• Preservation• Delivery

Trusted Digital Repository

Digital communities

The NLS is part of the Scottish Distributed Digital LibraryThe NLS is part of the Scottish digital culture communityThe NLS has a UK-wide responsibility as a legal deposit libraryThe NLS welcomes collaborative approaches to all elements of the digital lifecycle

• Selection• Delivery• Preservation• Standards

Simon BainsDigital Library Managers.bains@nls.uk0131 623 3770