Guidance Policy Audit and Certification
There is general consensus in the Digital Preservation community that audit and certification is welcome and there are many organisations who expressed in their policies the intention that they want to be certified within the next few years. For audit and certification in Europe there is the European Framework for Audit and Certification, which starts with obtaining the Data Seal of Approval (basic), then do a self-audit against the ISO 16363 (extended) and if everything is compliant with the standard, then go for the external audit of ISO 16363 or DIN 31644 (full).
In this chapter the elements are related to the organizational intention to be audited and certified. However, the audit will concern the current practice of an organisation and is related to the processes and activities the organisation will develop in order to preserve the digital collections in a professional way. As such the policies related to audit and certification will not require specific policies, as the aim to get audited are not likely to lead to implementation of new processes.
Further Reading
Literature on the topics in this chapter can be found at