Assessing Digital Preservation Capabilities Using a Checklist Assessment Method

Digital preservation is increasingly recognized as a need by organizations from diverse areas that have to manage information over time and make use of information systems for supporting the business. Methods for assessment of digital preservation compliance inside an organization have been introduced, such as the Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist. However, these methods are oriented towards repository-based scenarios and are not geared at assessing the real digital preservation capabilities of organizations whose information management processes are not compatible with the usage of a repository-based solution. In this paper we propose a checklist assessment method for digital preservation derived from a capability-based reference architecture for digital preservation. Based on the detailed description of digital preservation capabilities provided in the reference architecture, it becomes possible to assess concrete scenarios for the existence of capabilities using a checklist. We discuss the application of the method in two institutional scenarios dealing with the preservation of e-Science data, where clear gaps where identified concerning the logical preservation of data. The checklist assessment method proved to be a valuable tool for raising awareness of the digital preservation issues in those organizations.