NDSA has released Levels of Digital Preservation v2.0

Of interest to our Ohio electronic records community, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) has released Levels of Digital Preservation v2.0!

Originally minted in 2013 (original Matrix at NDSA’s OSF site), the Levels of Digital Preservation provide a matrix by which to assess and guide one’s digital preservation program from a technological point of view. In early 2018, the NDSA sent out a call to the larger digital preservation community asking for interest in updating the Levels of Preservation.  Response was high – 125 individuals responded from across North America and beyond! NDSA then convened the Levels of Preservation Working group, which divided up into subgroups to tackle the many areas the community wanted to see addressed in a Levels Reboot. These subgroups included:

  • Revisions: charged with updating the Levels Matrix, including the normalization of language across the functional areas and levels.
  • Implementation: surveyed the community to see how the Levels had been used in the past and what people did and did not liked about its structure and content.  This information (survey results at NDSA’s OSF site) was one of the sources used to assist with the revisions.  This subgroup collaborated with the Revisions subgroup on an implementation guide Using the Levels of Digital Preservation: an overview for V2.0.
  • Assessment: explored how the Levels had been used to assess digital preservation efforts (report at NDSA’s OSF site), and have developed an Assessment Tool based on the updated Levels Matrix. 
  • Curatorial: charged with identifying and crafting the basis of a series of discussion and decision points around how collections materials can be mapped to the Levels and other elements within an organizations’ preservation strategy.  

The next steps will be to create a subgroup to address the development of strategy and additional materials to support the Levels of Digital Preservation v2.0 educational and advocacy efforts. Please contact Bradley Daigle at ndsa.digipres [at] gmail [dot] com if you are interested in working on this or being added to the Levels of Preservation Google Group.

What is Information Governance? New OhioERC Guideline Page Available

Information Governance, also promoted as “the principles”, is an information management framework developed by ARMA International that has generated much discussion over the last several years. Some frequent questions include, “How is IG different from traditional records management?”, “What is it?”, and “Is IG something worth considering for our agency?”. With these questions in mind, the OhioERC has developed a new resource page with information and links to assist our constituents in Ohio public agencies. To learn more about IG and its potential applications, see our new IG page here.

Ohio History Connection partners with Preservica to safeguard permanent digital records

Sharing this press release about OHC’s new partnership with Preservica to preserve digital records

For more than 50 years, the Ohio History Connection has worked with state and local government agencies to preserve the history of Ohio and its citizens. The state archives and the official memory of Ohio’s government are recorded through public records, documents and images. The mission of the Ohio History Connection is to spark discovery of Ohio’s stories by embracing the present, sharing the past, and transforming the future. In addition to operating the State Archives, the organization manages museums and historic sites, along with exhibits, and events.

“We applaud the Ohio History Connection in advancing its mission to safeguard long-term state electronic records, as well as providing citizen access to the rich history of Ohio,” said Mike Quinn, CEO at Preservica. “We are proud to partner with the Ohio History Connection and to see Preservica entrusted with a growing number of state archives across the U.S. We also work closely with the Council of State Archives (CoSA) and are thrilled that Preservica’s platform has the ability to serve the needs of the state archives community.”

In addition, the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) and Preservica share a commitment to digital preservation and broad access to government records. Preservica has been a proud corporate sponsor of CoSA since 2015, providing support for the State Electronic Records Initiative (SERI), CoSA’s flagship education and training program. This year, the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) and Preservica are collaborating to conduct survey research that will examine practices and gaps associated with interagency transfer of permanent electronic state government records.


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