Component Business Model for Digital Repositories: A Framework for Analysis

Digital preservation is too big a challenge for any institution or solution supplier to confront on its own. The success of any long-term digital repository will depend upon multiple “open” services provided by a wide range of service providers. No company or organisation in the world is able to provide the preservation solution for all known formats, object types, or policies. Viable approaches are likely to span organizational, institutional and national boundaries. In 2003 the KB, National Library of the Netherlands, in cooperation with IBM, developed the e-Depot as their solution for long-term preservation of digital publications. The core of the e-Depot is IBM’s Digital Information Archiving System (DIAS). This article will discuss the exercise of the KB/IBM Research Group to apply IBM’s Component Business Modelling (CBM) in a digital preservation environment. The CBM map is used by a process called Goal Service Modelling (GSM) to identify candidate services for future versions of the e-Depot. Heat maps are used for impact analysis – to discuss organisational structures, existing hardware and software solutions and business processes in the context of the CBM map. The approach is suggested as a way for other repositories to manage and coordinate their activities, as well complimenting current repository audit and certification activities.