The first Thursday of each November is World Digital Preservation Day - a point in the year where curators, digital preservationists, collection managers, technologists, and more unite to recognize all the great work our community engages in to ensure the longevity, sustainability, integrity, authenticity, and usability of our cultural memory. This year’s theme is ‘Data For All, For Good, Forever,’ and Harvard’s Digital Preservation Services team wants to highlight (just a few of) their recent projects and updates that are “helping digits flourish.”

Launching the DRS Futures Project

In partnership with Library Technology Services, we were awarded approximately $5.5 million through the Harvard University IT Capital Review Board (ITCRB) for a three-year initiative to reimagine and modernize Harvard’s Digital Repository Service (DRS). Though the DRS has been in production for over two decades (and has not lost a bit!), this project is a much needed generational modernization of the repository and will position it as the foundation to meet the Library’s ever-evolving objectives and aspirations. The project team is established, and a consultant - who will begin engaging with stakeholders across Harvard University - will soon be announced. In the meantime, visit the DRS Futures website to read the project charter, see monthly project updates, and contact the team with any questions.

Reconfiguring DRS Storage and Cutting DRS Costs

As of September 2022, the DRS now accommodates dynamic disposition of all managed digital files to various storage locations according to storage classification, as designated by curators. This is a culmination of over two years of work with Library Technology Services on a storage refresh for the repository.  These storage updates facilitate effective and affordable curatorial and operational management of digital collections in the repository and support a drastic reduction in DRS storage costs by an average of 46% over previous pricing.

Wrapping up the ePADD+ Collaboration

Since January 2021, Harvard has partnered with the University of Manchester and Stanford University to enhance the open-source email archiving tool, ePADD, with preservation packaging functionality. Grant funding for this effort was generously awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered through the University of Illinois’s Email Archives: Building Capacity and Community (EA:BCC) regrant program. With two months left in their grant, the team is wrapping up development work and pulling together outreach materials. At Harvard, DPS is working with LTS to decommission EAS, create deposit pipelines from ePADD to the DRS, and compose documentation to help current EAS users transition smoothly to ePADD and to help new curatorial programs begin using the new ePADD tool. This marks another foray into adopting and contributing to community-supported projects, and DPS looks forward to presenting the end results and new workflows early in 2023. 

Expanding the DPS team

This past August, our team grew by 50%! Julianna Barrera-Gomez joined Harvard Library as a Digital Preservation Analyst - the first team expansion since the Digital Preservation Services unit was established in 2018. Julianna joined Harvard from the University of Texas in San Antonio, where she was the Head of Digital Stewardship and Preservation. She has already become a cornerstone of the program, expanding the capacity of the team, learning the ropes, and taking leadership in DRS and web archiving service areas. We are happy to be a team of three now and look forward to welcoming a fourth member in 2023!

Exploring Internet Archive’s ‘Vault’

In 2021, a Harvard Library Web Archiving Preservation Policy Task Force made recommendations for Harvard’s web archives collections to be preserved in an appropriate repository. While the Library’s web archives are collected and accessed through the Internet Archive’s Archive-It service, there is currently no further preservation management of these significant collections. In an effort to explore other innovative preservation solutions outside of the institutional repository, Harvard Library is piloting the beta version of the Vault, the Internet Archive’s new digital preservation repository service. The DPS team is testing workflows and analyzing costs and resources to determine if Vault is a viable and compelling solution to the Task Force’s recommendations. 

Joining DPC

Finally, we are excited to announce that Harvard Library will soon be joining the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC)!  THe DPC is a preeminent international membership organization supporting important initiatives in resources, best practice and standards development, training, advocacy, and research into topics of common interest and concern.  We are happy to join the DPC as a public demonstration of Harvard’s leadership investment and commitment in advancing the field of digital preservation.

These are just some of the exciting things going on in Digital Preservation Services that we are happy to celebrate on World Digital Preservation Day this year. To keep up with our other projects, events, presentations, and news, visit the Digital Preservation Services wiki or reach out to Stephen Abrams (Head of Digital Preservation), Julianna Barrera-Gomez (Digital Preservation Analyst), or Tricia Patterson (Senior Digital Preservation Specialist).