2006 Awards for Excellence

Citation

(2006), "2006 Awards for Excellence", OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, Vol. 22 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/oclc.2006.16422daa.002

2006 Awards for Excellence

The following article was selected for this year’s Outstanding Paper Award for OCLC Systems Services: International digital library perspectives

‘‘Assessing the durability of formats in a digital preservation environment: the INFORM methodology’’

Andreas Stanescu OCLC, Online Computer Library Center, Inc., Dublin, Ohio, USA

Purpose – To describe INFORM, a new methodology for investigating and measuring the risk factors of digital formats and providing guidelines for preservation action plans.Design/methodology/approach – Construction of a model which aims to discover specific threats to preservation and measure their possible impact on preservation decisions. The methodology defines: risk categories of digital formats and their dependencies; risk factors for each category; scales to measure probability of occurrence and impact; and methods to collect, report and interpret the results.Findings – While individuals are biased and subjective in their aversion to risk, collating the assessments of many individuals should generate group-consensus or group-averaged objective results. Hence, preservation plans can be based on objective analysis of risk trends instead of individuals’ opinions developed in the relative isolation of their institutions. The methodology takes into consideration individuals’ aversion to risk, therefore refraining from imposing specific courses of action, but simply making suggestions of possible actions.Research limitations/implications – A comprehensive approach to the format assessment must also consider, in addition to the risk factors, two other considerations, reflecting the quality of the digital format specification: significant properties of the format under consideration; the features of the format as defined in the format specification. These two aspects will be defined at a later time.Practical implications – Digital archives, institutional repositories and digital libraries can take advantage of the measurements offered by the INFORM method to select digital formats most apt for long-term viability. Moreover, by repeating the process, involved parties can detect changes in the threat model over time, to which digital collections managers can act accordingly.Originality/value – Risk management has been previously used to detect the potential of loss of web resources and has been inspirational to this author. However, this method is the first to use risk factors to measure digital preservation viability of digital formats. The results of the measurements described here can be used by: content creators and publishers, to suggest best formats to use; content curators, to restrict what is collected; content managers, to know in advance how difficult to handle a certain collection may be; and preservation planners, to define and implement preservation plans, in the form of either, migration strategies or short-term emulation solutions.

Keywords: Archives management, Digital storage, Measurement, Risk assessment, Risk managementwww.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/10650750510578163

This article originally appeared in Volume 21 Number 1, 2005, OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives

The following articles were selected for this year’s Highly Commended Award

‘‘Practical quality control procedures for digital imaging projects’’ Jenn RileyKurt Whitsel

This article originally appeared in Volume 21 Number 1, 2005, OCLC Systems Services: International digital library perspectives

‘‘The flight plan of a digital initiatives project: providing remote access to aerial photographs of Colorado’’ Christopher CroninKathryn LageHolley Long

This article originally appeared in Volume 21 Number 2, 2005, OCLC Systems Services: International digital library perspectives

‘‘Library homepage deign at medium-sized universities: a comparison to commercial homepages via Nielsen and Tahir’’Pamela Harpel-Burke

This article originally appeared in Volume 21 Number 3, 2005, OCLC Systems Services: International digital library perspectives www.emeraldinsight.com/authors