Supported by the National Science Foundation, CRL is working to identify practices and strategies that contribute to the successful long-term maintenance of digital collections and archives.  The project will create a base of information and resources to guide investment in digital repositories by funders, universities, consortia, and other organizations.

Purpose of the roundtables:  The four roundtables will acquaint funding agency administrators and policy-makers, program officers and other appropriate staff with preliminary findings of the CRL Long-Lived Digital Collections project.  CRL will use the roundtables to gain input on the tools and templates produced by the project in order to improve their usefulness and value, and will seek ideas from funders on potential subjects for future case studies. 

The roundtable format will combine formal presentation and open discussion to promote the free exchange of information and ideas. 

Who should attend?   Program officers for research, preservation, and museum, archive and library programs, senior administrators and policymakers, financial officers, information resources, and legal counsel;  each half-day roundtable will be limited to 12 to 25 attendees.

Agendas & Background Documents:

Roundtable 1 (Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010)
Roundtable 2 (Wednesday, Jan 27, 2010)
Roundtable 3 (Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010)
Roundtable 4 (Wednesday, Feb 10, 2010)

 Roundtable 1--Introduction to the Case Studies and Case Study Repositories
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
1:00  - 4:00 PM

1: 00 Repositories : The first roundtable will introduce the case studies project and profile the repositories that were subjects of those studies. The session will examine how the repositories differ from traditional "memory institutions" in managing humanities and social science material and evidence.

2:00 Content : What types of digital content are managed by the repositories? How have they adapted to changes in the way those materials are produced and fluctuations in the value of digital content over time?

2:45 Break

3:00 Stakeholders : Who are the various communities with vested interests in the preservation of digital content, and what are their needs?

Background Documents
AP_Profile, NORC General Social Survey Profile, UMI Profile,
OAIS Reference Model, Continuity Factors
Trustworthy Repository Audit Checklist (TRAC)

Roundtable 2--Repositories and their Environments
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
9:30 AM - Noon

9:30 Environments: Roundtable 2 will examine how the legal, economic and technical environments in which the repositories and other stakeholders operate impact the longevity and integrity of the digital humanities collections they hold.

10:30 Break

10:45 Costs and Benefits: What factors drive the costs of digital repositories? What kinds of benefits, monetary and non-monetary, do such repositories generate?

Background Documents
Agreements : UMI_dissertation_publishing_agreement ;  IDEALS_Deposit agreement
OAIS Reference Model
Trustworthy Repository Audit Checklist (TRAC)

Roundtable 3-- Repository Operations: Organizational Strategies, Policies and Activities
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
1:00  - 3:30 PM

1: 00 Organizations: Roundtable 3 will explore how particular organizational structures and ways in which repositories organize and distribute their activities promote or hamper, the acquisition and preservation of digital content; and to what extent centralization of activities such as ingest, hosting, and processing of digital content, and the geographic concentration of specialized capabilities and expertise, foster the preservation of digital content.

1:45 Diversity and Complexity: What effect do the number and diversity of its sources of digital content have on a repository's ability to acquire and manage that content? To what extent does the variety and complexity of digital content archived by a repository affect its ability to maintain that content?

2:30 Break

2:45 Services: how do different types of services and outputs, such as tools, accessibility, interoperability, and discoverability enhance an archive's ability to attract content and support?

Background Documents
Organizational Charts :   NCAR (EOS) Org chart ; USGS (EOS) Org_chart
Policies: USGS Records Management Plan; IDEALS Preservation Policy; ICPSR Preservation Plan; ProQuest_Preservation_Policy 2008
OAIS Reference Model
Trustworthy Repository Audit Checklist (TRAC)

Roundtable 4 -- Assessing Digital preservation and Sustainability Plans
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
9:30 AM-12:15 PM

9:30 Tools, Templates and Terms: Roundtable 4 will being with presentation of the models of digital repositories, the risk management and assurance matrix, and other tools and information for funders and practitioners developed through the case studies. Attendees will then critique and comment on the features and potential usefulness of those tools.

10:30 Break

10:45 Requirements for Sustainability Plans: What types of information can funding applicants provide to support their case for the sustainability of their data management plans?

11:45 Reporting Requirements and Accountability Structures: What reporting and disclosure requirements can funders impose to promote the longevity and integrity of digital collections they support? How can accountability mechanisms lead to the better management of digital collections and archives?

Background Documents
Risk Assessment and Assurance Matrix
Repository Reference Model