Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment
Encyclopedia
The Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment (DRAMBORA) is a methodology and associated software-based toolkit
developed by Digital Curation Centre
(DCC) and DigitalPreservationEurope
(DPE) to support the assessment of digital repositories.
Digital preservation
is often defined as a risk management exercise where the aim is to convert the uncertainty about maintaining usability of authentic digital objects into quantifiable risks. The purpose of a digital repository or archive is to do everything it can to mitigate the risks that impede its ability to provide access to authentic digital information across space and time. The term ‘digital repository’ has a broad range of uses. Some use it for any collections of digital material. Many use it to refer to digital collections (often of ePrints) where the metadata
is shared with a particular protocol. A few apply it only to collections of digital material that are intended to survive in an understandable way for very long periods into the future. The measure of success of a repository’s work is the ‘quality’ of information it releases to its users. The DRAMBORA toolkit is intended to facilitate internal audit by providing repository administrators with a means to assess their capabilities, identify their weaknesses, and recognise their strengths.
Digital repositories are still in their infancy and this model is designed to be responsive to the rapidly developing landscape. The development of the toolkit follows a concentrated period of repository pilot audits undertaken by the DCC, conducted at a diverse range of organisations including national libraries, scientific data centres and cultural and heritage data archives. The construction of a toolkit of this kind is a dynamic process and this is the second stage in this process. The DRAMBORA toolkit represents the latest development in an ongoing international effort to conceive criteria, means and methodologies for audit and certification of digital repositories. The intention throughout its development was to build upon, extend and complement existing efforts. A key requirement has been to establish a toolkit that contributes towards a single process for repository assessment. The importance of international cooperation and collaboration, and the potential dangers associated with divergence were acknowledged very early on within the DCC and DPE's work in this area.
Perhaps the most notable efforts to date within this context are those invested within the RLG/NARA Task Force and the nestor working group to develop criteria for audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories. Further significant work was led by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL). The results of these efforts have been foremost within our considerations throughout the development of this toolkit, and in the DCC-led pilot audits that preceded it. The DCC/DPE working group has engaged with representatives of other groups to agree upon a set of principles, representing the fundamental, objective baseline criteria for preservation repositories, and these and their underlying concepts, are profoundly important within the toolkit. It is anticipated that self-audit based on DRAMBORA can be facilitated if undertaken in association with one or both of the check-lists, and vice versa. The risk-based approach assists efforts to match a repository against these lists of requirements. Only with a clear view of an organisation's business context and its implicit risks can an auditor effectively utilise these requirements. The toolkit contextualises these lists so they can be more effectively applied. In addition to these resources, we have also sought to incorporate and adapt ideas and concepts from an additional, diverse range of sources, including a wide range of international information standards, many with their basis in the risk management industry aiming to broaden ever further the perspectives that our international colleagues have already established.
Toolkit
A toolkit is an assembly of tools; set of basic building units for graphical user interfaces.Things called toolkits include:* Abstract Window Toolkit* Accessibility Toolkit* Adventure Game Toolkit* B-Toolkit* Battlefield Mod Development Toolkit...
developed by Digital Curation Centre
Digital Curation Centre
- Purpose :The Digital Curation Centre was established to help solve the extensive challenges of digital preservation and digital curation and to lead research, development, advice, and support services for higher education institutions in the United Kingdom...
(DCC) and DigitalPreservationEurope
Digital Preservation Europe
DigitalPreservationEurope is a European Union research project aimed at digital preservation coordination and dissemination activities within Europe. It was founded by the Sixth Framework Programme . DPE ranks among EU "Digital Libraries" priority called "i2010".DPE together with CASPAR and...
(DPE) to support the assessment of digital repositories.
Digital preservation
Digital preservation
Digital preservation is the set of processes, activities and management of digital information over time to ensure its long term accessibility. The goal of digital preservation is to preserve materials resulting from digital reformatting, and particularly information that is born-digital with no...
is often defined as a risk management exercise where the aim is to convert the uncertainty about maintaining usability of authentic digital objects into quantifiable risks. The purpose of a digital repository or archive is to do everything it can to mitigate the risks that impede its ability to provide access to authentic digital information across space and time. The term ‘digital repository’ has a broad range of uses. Some use it for any collections of digital material. Many use it to refer to digital collections (often of ePrints) where the metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
is shared with a particular protocol. A few apply it only to collections of digital material that are intended to survive in an understandable way for very long periods into the future. The measure of success of a repository’s work is the ‘quality’ of information it releases to its users. The DRAMBORA toolkit is intended to facilitate internal audit by providing repository administrators with a means to assess their capabilities, identify their weaknesses, and recognise their strengths.
Digital repositories are still in their infancy and this model is designed to be responsive to the rapidly developing landscape. The development of the toolkit follows a concentrated period of repository pilot audits undertaken by the DCC, conducted at a diverse range of organisations including national libraries, scientific data centres and cultural and heritage data archives. The construction of a toolkit of this kind is a dynamic process and this is the second stage in this process. The DRAMBORA toolkit represents the latest development in an ongoing international effort to conceive criteria, means and methodologies for audit and certification of digital repositories. The intention throughout its development was to build upon, extend and complement existing efforts. A key requirement has been to establish a toolkit that contributes towards a single process for repository assessment. The importance of international cooperation and collaboration, and the potential dangers associated with divergence were acknowledged very early on within the DCC and DPE's work in this area.
Perhaps the most notable efforts to date within this context are those invested within the RLG/NARA Task Force and the nestor working group to develop criteria for audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories. Further significant work was led by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL). The results of these efforts have been foremost within our considerations throughout the development of this toolkit, and in the DCC-led pilot audits that preceded it. The DCC/DPE working group has engaged with representatives of other groups to agree upon a set of principles, representing the fundamental, objective baseline criteria for preservation repositories, and these and their underlying concepts, are profoundly important within the toolkit. It is anticipated that self-audit based on DRAMBORA can be facilitated if undertaken in association with one or both of the check-lists, and vice versa. The risk-based approach assists efforts to match a repository against these lists of requirements. Only with a clear view of an organisation's business context and its implicit risks can an auditor effectively utilise these requirements. The toolkit contextualises these lists so they can be more effectively applied. In addition to these resources, we have also sought to incorporate and adapt ideas and concepts from an additional, diverse range of sources, including a wide range of international information standards, many with their basis in the risk management industry aiming to broaden ever further the perspectives that our international colleagues have already established.
See also
- Digital curationDigital curationDigital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital assets.Digital curation is generally referred to the process of establishing and developing long term repositories of digital assets for current and future reference by researchers, scientists,...
- Digital obsolescenceDigital obsolescenceDigital obsolescence is a situation where a digital resource is no longer readable because the physical media, the reader required to read the media, the hardware, or the software that runs on it, is no longer available. A prime example of this is the BBC Domesday Project...
- Digital libraryDigital libraryA digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks...
- Electronic Resource Preservation and Access Network
- Humanities Advanced Technology and Information InstituteHumanities Advanced Technology and Information InstituteThe Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute is a research and teaching institute at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. HATII undertakes innovative research in Information, Communication, and Technology in the cultural heritage and arts and humanities sectors...
- Research Libraries GroupResearch Libraries GroupThe Research Libraries Group was a U.S.-based library consortium which developed the Eureka interlibrary search engine, the RedLightGreen database of bibliographic descriptions and ArchiveGrid, a database containing descriptions of archival collections...
- RiskRiskRisk is the potential that a chosen action or activity will lead to a loss . The notion implies that a choice having an influence on the outcome exists . Potential losses themselves may also be called "risks"...