Explore the Digital Repository Service with the latest Annual Report!

The HLPS Digital Preservation Services (DPS) team is excited to share the Digital Repository Service FY23 Annual Report, which contains our annual snapshot of data, statistics, analysis and reflections on the digital collections preserved in Harvard Library’s Digital Repository Service (DRS). Now in its 23rd year of operation, the DRS is Harvard Library’s preservation repository, forming a core component of the Library’s efforts for the effective digital stewardship of ever-expanding collections of scholarly resources and institutional records. The deep, broad, and often unique digital materials preserved in the DRS have been deemed critical to the success of the University’s research, teaching and learning mission and administrative recordkeeping. With preservation management of the DRS as one of our principal services, DPS seeks to provide these detailed annual reports to make transparent the types and sizes of digital objects in our care, as well as the trends in growth and future planning for the service.

Scope Notes

What makes up the DRS and what can you find in the report? First, the report is solely about the core DRS system, which means it does not include information related to access such as cataloging (e.g., HOLLIS), discovery (e.g., CURIOsity, Digital Collections), or delivery services (e.g., Page Delivery Service), as indicated in the figure below. Because it’s about the DRS, it also does not discuss other preservation initiatives that are part of the DPS’s service portfolio.

Diagram showing DRS core system in the middle of depositing and accessing systems
Figure 1. Diagram of the core DRS (bordered in blue) and surrounding systems.

 

The report contains stimulating data points and features aesthetically pleasing visualizations. Some facts to entice readers include: 

  • At the close of FY23, the DRS contained over 10.7 million unique digital objects. 
  • These objects are represented by more than 228 million unique files. 
  • When accounting for DRS’s file-level replication strategy (preservation good practice to ensure the integrity of its content) the DRS manages 910 million files. 
  • That’s 1.8 petabytes (1,800,000,000,000,000 bytes) in size – equivalent to over 68 years of non-stop, 24-hour viewing of high-definition digital TV (1 hour of HDTV is approximately 3 GB).  
  • There are 16 current content models, with several associated formats, which can be visualized with the impressive swirl of bubbles, below. 

Looking back, looking forward

The report also includes analysis of trends that can be seen from DRS data, from how its footprint has changed over time, how costs have decreased as storage has increased, and the frequency of deposits over the years. This also includes an examination of how the pandemic impacted the anticipated growth trajectory of deposits. 

Additional sections include: 

  • New workflows to streamline the ingest of email (e.g. ePADD), research data (e.g. Harvard Dataverse), and open access publications (e.g DASH) and other new types of content. 
  • The new DRS Curator Guide published by DPS to assist Harvard curators (or librarians, archivists, collection managers, etc.) tasked with intellectual stewardship of digital objects find relevant information to assist with appraisal, submission, storage options, and pricing (includes a handy glossary!). 
  • Overviews of ongoing and future DRS-related work, including updates about the DRS Futures infrastructure replacement project; information about a new Digital Accessions Support service to be offered to enable curators to better appraise and ingest digital objects; and extensive notes about what types of formats are on DPS’s preservation remediation watchlist.

Bubble chart showing the variety of formats within DRS content models
Figure 2. A beautiful bubble graph showing the number of files per format within content models. Please visit the DPS wiki to see an interactive version of this graphic with mouse-over access to the individual format types.

 

Final thoughts, and how to learn more

As the report summarizes, the DRS continues to support the Library’s Multi-Year Goals and Objectives not just by preserving digital assets but by enabling sustained, long-term access to these valuable collections well into the future.  As stated in the report: 

“For the Library, the primary preservation imperative is not just persistence of authentic digital information objects, but also that of legitimate information experiences.  In other words, digital preservation is fundamentally a human communicative concern, not merely a technical managerial one.  The DRS has provided a robust, effective, and sustainable platform for these purposes for 23 years.” 

By sharing the analysis of trends in the DRS, we hope to engage creators, curators and end-users in that human communicative practice, so we can all be aware of and celebrate these resources annually (and for many, many years to come!). And stay tuned for individual reports that will be circulating to DRS contacts in the coming weeks—these will feature in-depth analysis of each units’ repository content, to aid in understanding local trends and inventories.  

Links to learn more: 

 

 

 

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