When Do I Need to Act?
End of Life Considerations
Wise to the challenges of data migration and conversion, most digital preservation systems will typically assume that proprietary formats will not be accessible forever, and:
- Create a preservation-friendly copy of the data on ingestion at the same time the original data is ingested in its native format.
- Or, employ active and continuous automated “technology watch” to monitor formats at risk to identify when conversion to sustainable formats might be needed.
Where an organisation has no access to a digital preservation system and the originating system or format nears end-of-life status, it may be possible to follow the process illustrated in Fig1 to create certified (or true) copies of data. These will be sufficient to satisfy regulatory expectations.
Whether automated or manual, any data migrations or conversions will need to be subject to a set of pre-defined quality controls and ideally governed by a standard operating procedure that has been validated to provide assurance of certified (or true) copies status.
Any migration or conversion should minimise the risk of (un)intentional modification, manipulation or loss that might compromise the authenticity, integrity, reliability or trustworthiness of the data.
What to Archive?
Data is typically archived in accordance with a defined event e.g. after study closure.
However, other events might also impact negatively on the availability of data and accelerate migration or conversion to arrest loss and ensure continuing access and readability.
Such events might include:
- Personnel changes.
- Organisational restructuring.
- Reduction in availability of equipment storage capacity.
- End-of-life equipment retirement and decommissioning.
Among other things, laboratories can utilise digital preservation solutions to exchange raw data between themselves, contract research organizations and sponsors to overcome interoperability issues, especially where proprietary formats are used.
This potentially improves information sharing, collaboration and oversight.
