Prioritizing use over perfection: a risk management approach to digital preservation

For many institutions, preservation and user needs compete for scarce resources, leaving planners in the unenviable position of having to choose between investing enough in preservation to meet best practice standards, or investing in current user needs. This tension is made more acute when the underlying models between preservation and user support planning diverge. Traditionally, many institutions follow standards-based approaches to digital preservation, which emphasize meeting certain benchmarks or thresholds, and enhancement-based models for user experience and usability planning. George Washington University Libraries has adopted a risk management approach to digital preservation planning, in which we assess risk profiles, gauge resources, review commitments, and use this information to undertake projects enhance our risk mitigation services. By adopting such an enhancement-based approach, we find that we are better able to focus on supporting current user needs, while still making purpose-driven investments in digital preservation and improving the transparency of our stakeholder commitments. In this talk, we will present a frank "under the hood" look at GW's digital preservation strategies and services (including our Simple Audit Tool & the role of Hyrax as an access environment) and the risk management model that informed these decisions