Trusted Digital Repository
Scholars Portal is in the process of developing a robust long-term preservation program for all its collections, beginning with the 23,000,000+ articles housed in its ejournals platform. Working from concepts set out in the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model and codified in the Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification (TRAC) checklist, Scholars Portal seeks to create a digital preservation system that can ensure the long-term integrity and usability of the objects in its care.
Our Commitment
We commit to ensure the Integrity, Authenticity and Usability of the materials in our collection now and in the future.
Integrity
The objects in our care are complete and uncorrupted copies of files that are known to be good.
Authenticity
We track the history of the object back to the time when it entered our care, and we have a record of any changes or processes that have acted on the file. In this way, we can verify that the digital objects in Scholars Portal are legitimate copies of the content deposited with us, and that no unauthorized action has been taken to change or obscure the content.
Usability
Recognizing that digital preservation means long-term access, our preservation practices are designed to ensure not only the integrity of the objects in Scholars Portal, but also their usability to the 21 OCUL member institutions. We ensure that the content we contain is in a format useful to our community, and we will strive to see that this continues to be the case, through active monitoring of file formats and the needs of our community.
Our Accountability
Scholars Portal is in the process of preparing for an audit by the Center for Research Libraries. Through this audit, we hope to become the first certified Trusted Digital Repository in Canada. This audit will follow the guidelines set forth in the TRAC checklist, and evaluates repositories on three main areas: Organizational Infrastructure, Digital Object Management, and Infrastructure and Security Risk Management.
Organizational Infrastructure includes:
* Governance & organizational viability
* Preservation policy framework
* Contracts, licenses, and liabilities
Digital Object Management Includes:
* Preservation practices around the ingest of new content
* Archival object preservation and handling
* Access management
Infrastructure and Security Risk Management includes:
* Technical infrastructure management
* Security policies and procedures.
Our Policies
The high-level policy framework describing Scholars Portal’s preservation mandate has been approved by the OCUL Directors as of 12 May, 2011. This policy is contained in the following documents:
Preservation Implementation Plan
For more information about the TDR project please contact Steve Marks, Digital Preservation Librarian: stephen@scholarsportal.info
