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Preservation Procedure Policy: Staffing |
Related Guidance Policy
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Organisation |
| Definition/ Description |
An organisation that undertakes the long term preservation of digital collections will need dedicated and qualified staff, either in house or contracted, to handle this.
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| Why |
The goals the organisation wants to achieve with respect to the long term accessibility of the digital collections can only be achieved if the digital material is handled by staff who have the professional skills and are aware of the risks. While digital preservation has long been an area of research, there is now consensus about the basic set of expertise that is needed and training programs and allocated budgets can help here. Explicit mentioning of the level of expertise the staff need to possess is part of the policy. Regular updates should be part of a training plan, or Career Development Plan, as the knowledge may become outdated quickly.
Staff are not restricted to IT staff, but must be seen in a broader sense, as all staff involved in the processes related to digital preservation, from the people that do the acquisition or creation (digitisation) of the material to the people involved in Ingest and Access.
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| Risks |
Inadequate staffing can pose a risk to the preservation of the digital collections as it might lead to poor decision making leading to damages to the collections in the repository.
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| Life cycle stage |
Description and Representation Information, Preservation Planning, Community Watch and Participation, Curate and Preserve ( as staff will be involved in all life cycles, the main Full Life cycle functions are mentioned here.
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| Stakeholder |
Management: All management levels have a responsibility in appointing staff with adequate expertise
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| Cross Reference |
Bit Preservation
Functional Preservation
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| Examples |
Yale University Library “The support of large scale storage is complicated and requires major investments in technology and staff” Source:http://www.library.yale.edu/iac/DPC/revpolicy2-19-07.pdf
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| Control Policy |
Staffing
- Running personnel costs MUST be less than 1M
- Staff MUST be qualified on <value> scheme
- Minimum Staff training MUST be 30 hours_ _
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| Questions to foster discussions |
- Does your organisation have a staffing strategy/plan for those responsible for preservation?
- Has your organisation formulated the requirements for the resources/ staff involved in preservation (staff level of knowledge)?
- Does your organisation have regular staff training plans and associated budget?
- Does your organisation have resourcing levels sufficient to meet the stated preservation goals?
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