New NARA trustworthy digital repositories guidance

I've made it back to Albany and am wading through piles of mail and other stuff that either accumulated in my absence or simply wasn't dealt with before I left town. Included in that pile are a few nuggets of information that I wanted to pass on to you, and over the next few days, I'm going to do just that.

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration has just released Establishing Trustworthy Digital Repositories: A Discussion Guide Based on the ISO Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Standard Reference Model. It contains a brief overview of the six core business processes -- ingest, archival storage, data management, administration, preservation planning, and access -- outlined in the OAIS Reference Model and a series of nicely thought-out questions that enable agencies to assess how well their current high-level policies, practices, and procedures support each of the six processes and to identify needed improvements.

As might be expected, this publication is directed at federal agency CIO's, program managers, and records officers. However, anyone charged with developing and implementing policies, procedures, and processes that support the long-term preservation of college/university, local or state government, or corporate digital materials should examine it closely. It's only twelve pages long and refreshingly free of jargon, which means that non-archivists and non-records managers may actually read it, and almost all of the questions it asks are broadly applicable. Strongly recommended.