Reconnaissance: Durable data storage requires action

A lot of work is still to be done to convince the government sector, academia and the cultural heritage sector of the importance of durable data storage, and of the risks of neglecting it. That is what it says in a preliminary report published this week by the Netherlands Coalition for Digital Preservation (NCDD).

The NCDD was established in 2007 by a number of important institutions active in the area of data management, such as the data center of the three technical universities, KNAW and NWO, the National Library of the Netherlands, Netherlands Statistics and DANS. The coalition rapidly began preparations for the National Survey Digital Durability, the study of which the preliminary results are now reported. The report can be downloaded from the site of the NCDD. Objective of the project was to map the importance of digital information for the functioning of the public sector and how that information is managed. The reconnaissance was carried out for the sectors science, government/archives and cultural heritage.

As points of attention for the future, the reports mentions among other things the need for a national network for storage and durable data management and, at smaller organizations, for data management services and tools. Also, structural financing is required; the report suggests the establishment of a fund with contributions from digitization and research projects as one possibility.

Finally, the report signals an urgent need for upgrading the existing selection mechanisms for digital data. The conclusion is that preservation can only remain affordable if selection is done properly.