The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) and Jisc are asking organisations and individuals to anonymously share key information about the costs relating to data loss, in a new call for case studies which launches today and runs until Wednesday 27 April.

The information gathered during that time will be used to undertake quantitative and qualitative research and produce an anonymised report, which is aimed at senior managers within organisations of all types and sectors and is planned for release to coincide with the iPres 2022 conference in Glasgow in September.

“Digital preservation is about mitigating risk and mitigations cost money,” explains Paul Stokes of Jisc. “It is hard to justify spending that money without a firm grasp of the magnitude of the sums of money involved and the likelihood of loss. So, this is where the digital preservation community comes in!”

Contributors to the report will be asked where and when the data loss occurred, as well as the magnitude and estimated value of loss.

"As a community the DPC has worked on and produced a number of resources which have proved invaluable for those seeking to advocate for digital preservation," says Sarah Middleton, Head of Advocacy and Community Engagement for the DPC. "This report will be another opportunity for DPC members and digital preservation practitioners around the world to share their experiences to help others move forward with this incredibly important work."

With the aim of helping the entire digital preservation community make a stronger case for robust digital preservation, case studies shared by individuals for the report will remain entirely anonymous and information will also be aggregated to further maintain anonymity.

The report administrators aim to gather a first tranche of information to form the basis of a workshop at the IDCC 2022 conference in June, so the initial call for case studies will remain open until April. If the project is sufficiently successful, then the survey will be left open indefinitely and the research will be repeated at appropriate intervals and subsequent reports published.

The information gathered during that time will be used to undertake quantitative and qualitative research and produce an anonymised report, which is aimed at senior managers within organisations of all types and sectors and is planned for release to coincide with the iPres 2022 conference in Glasgow in September. “Digital preservation is about mitigating risk and mitigations cost money,” explains Paul Stokes of Jisc. “It is hard to justify spending that money without a firm grasp of the magnitude of the sums of money involved and the likelihood of loss. So, this is where the digital preservation community comes in!” Contributors to the report will be asked where and when the data loss occurred, as well as the magnitude and estimated value of loss." as a community the dpc has worked on and produced number of resources which have proved invaluable for those seeking to advocate digital preservation says sarah middleton head advocacy engagement this report will be another opportunity members practitioners around world share their experiences help others move forward with incredibly important work aim helping entire make stronger case robust studies shared by individuals remain entirely anonymous information also aggregated further maintain anonymity administrators gather first tranche form basis workshop at idcc 2022 conference in june so initial call open until april if project is sufficiently successful then survey left indefinitely research repeated appropriate intervals subsequent reports published you data loss study please us or any questions about contact dpconline org apologies cross-posting she her communications coalition 37 tanner row york yo1 6wp. you have a data loss case study, please share this with us

Or, if you have any questions about the report and/or the call for case study information, please contact sarah.middleton@dpconline.org 

https://www.dpconline.org/