Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
in order to satisfy a preservation objective. In order to do this the definition of the
Designated Community must be:
•
clear, with sufficient detail to permit meaningful decisions to be made regarding
information requirements for effective re-use of the data.
•
realistic and stable in so far as there is reasonable confidence in the persistence
of the knowledge base and skill set.
In finding a workable solution for a data set there will possibly be compet-
ing strategies available, each with their own associated costs and risks. The
size and complexity of the networks for the competing strategies may differ.
The costs associated with any RepInfo Network solution should be analysed
according to:
•
costs to the archive, directly as well as the resources, knowledge and time of
archive staff to implement a new network or possibly extend and reuse an existing
network.
•
benefits to future users, which ease and facilitate re-use of data - there maybe
questions of how many data sets a network solution might cover or apply to?
•
risks - what are the risks inherent in the preservation strategies and are they
acceptable to the archive? What are the points of failure in the network? Are
there multiple paths in the network which would allow a consumer to use and
understand the data if one of the other paths fails? If for instance we lose some
part of the network through the understood threats to digital information, is it
possible to recover the information using another network path? This allows us
to illustrate some issues raised in
Chap. 8
.
The first phase of the analysis process described above is the focus of the next sec-
tion of this chapter and it is vital that the modelling is performed to identify the
complexity, scope, risks and overall cost of the resulting preservation network. Once
this analysis is complete the optimal plan can be selected and progressed to preser-
vation action. If no plans are deemed suitable then the process must begin again
with an adjustment to the preservation objective and/or the Designated Community
to be served. Once a preservation network model is deemed realistic and workable
it can be implemented as a Representation Information Network (RIN).
14.11 Network Modelling Approach
Through the work at STFC and the CASPAR project, there has been an effort to
utilise RIN enabled Archival Information Packages (AIPs).
By modelling the network it is possible to expose the risks, dependencies and tol-
erances within an Archival Information Package (AIP) allowing for the automation
of event driven or periodic review of archival holdings by knowledge manage-
ment technologies. By clearly defining all important relationships we can also
facilitate the identification of reusable solutions which can be deposited within
