Digital Content Policies

Three distinct but related policies govern content selected, accepted, and managed by UC San Diego Library. The Digital Collections Development Policy covers digital collections and objects transferred to or created by the Library. The Research Data Collection Policy is a parallel policy governing research data collections generated by the UC San Diego research community and curated by the Research Data Curation Program. The Digital Preservation Policy governs preservation practices around digital collections stewarded by the Library, with the goal of ensuring access to authenticated content over time.

1. Digital Collections Development Policy
   • 1.1 Policy Summary
   • 1.2 Digital Collections Purpose
   • 1.3 Selection Criteria
   • 1.4 Donations, Deposits & Transfers of Digital Collections
   • 1.5 Reformatting
   • 1.6 Deaccessioning
2. Research Data Collection Policy
   • 2.1 Policy Summary
   • 2.2 Purpose
   • 2.3 Acceptance Criteria
   • 2.4 Rights Management
   • 2.5 Take Down Policy
3. Digital Preservation Policy
   • 3.1 Introduction
   • 3.2 Scope
   • 3.3 Principles
   • 3.4 Levels of Preservation
   • 3.5 Key characteristics of digital objects for preservation
   • 3.6 Partnerships and collaboration
   • 3.7 Roles and responsibilities
   • 3.8 Acknowledgements

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1. Digital Collections Development Policy

Document Status: Final

Prepared by: Laurel McPhee (Chair), Marlayna Christensen, Cristela Garcia-Spitz, Tori Maches, Scott McAvoy, Laura Schwartz, and Annelise Sklar

Reviewed by: Digital Collections Group, Digital Steering Committee and RDC Program with opportunity for public comment by all Library digital committees.

Approved by: Digital Steering Committee

Date Approved: December 2021

Revision Cycle: 3 years

Last reviewed: December 2021

Next Revision: December 2024

1.1 POLICY SUMMARY

This document describes the policies governing the selection, acquisition and curation of the UC San Diego Library's unique digital collections.

1.2 DIGITAL COLLECTIONS PURPOSE

The UC San Diego Library collects, describes, manages, preserves, and provides access to unique digital resources in support of its mission to support research and learning. This policy addresses the development and management of digital collections for which the UC San Diego Library is the primary custodian.

1.2.A SCOPE

For the purpose of this policy, a digital collection is defined as an aggregation of unique digital objects managed collectively and based on provenance, function, or subject that has been transferred to or created by the Library, regardless of carrier or format. This includes digital content found in or related to University or organizational archives, personal papers and manuscript collections, visual materials, exhibits and event documentation, reformatted content and transformations, audiovisual recordings, and web archives.

This policy excludes other types of electronic resources collected, preserved or disseminated by the Library, such as:

• Research data. The Library actively supports the life cycle of research data, including preservation and publication of research data, through a suite of services and expertise in the Research Data Curation Program (RDCP). RDCP maintains separate policies and deposit agreements for research data creators.

• Linked content where the Library provides access via commercial licensing contracts or agreements, such as databases or eBooks

• Non-unique material digitized for curricular support (i.e. course reserves).

1.2.B PRINCIPLES

Through its digital collections, the Library affirms the University's commitment to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in a facilitative, accessible, inclusive environment. Through its diverse digital collections, the UC San Diego Library seeks to:

• Provide equitable access to resources of significant value to the UC San Diego community and beyond

• Advocate for intellectual freedom and open access in support of diverse resources, communities, and content that can be digitally shared

• Enhance and widen access and use of the Library's rare and unique collections

• Respect intellectual property rights

• Promote discoverability and provide context for thoughtfully curated collections

1.2.C AUDIENCE

The UC San Diego Library digital collections serve a broad audience, including:

• The UC San Diego community (comprising students, faculty, staff, alumni, and administrators)

• Contributing partners, donors, and their constituents

• The larger academic community and researchers

• The general public throughout the world

1.3 SELECTION CRITERIA 🔼

The Library's unique digital collections are acquired, managed and preserved through the collaborative work of many librarians, staff, and programs in the Library. Individual expert subject, format, or service providers in the Library may utilize their expertise to make an initial recommendation to determine if content is in scope for collecting. The Digital Collections Group and the Digital Library Steering Committee are the collection development and management bodies, respectively, that approve acquisitions and oversee policies regarding collecting and preserving digital content.

1.3.A GENERAL SELECTION CRITERIA

Selection is based on traditional academic collection development principles, including: relevance to research and learning; originality and uniqueness; authority; timeliness; breadth and/or depth of coverage; anticipated use, or current demand; and support of UC San Diego Library's established distinctive collections.

Managing digital materials and ensuring their accessibility over time is a highly collaborative and resource-intensive process. Accordingly, the Library's selection of digital materials may also be influenced by:

• Findings of pre-custodial appraisals or evaluations.

• The ability of creators or their agents to share all available contextual information about content, including files on media carriers.

• The ability of creators or their agents to provide required permissions, licensing, transfers, and/or login credentials (as necessary) to facilitate access, processing, and discovery.

• Availability of re-usable metadata or existing description. Creating accurate metadata to facilitate discovery is time-intensive, and the Library seeks partnerships with creators to build on existing inventories and object data.

• Restrictions or limitations on access. Materials that can be readily made available for research may be prioritized over content with restrictions. Special consideration may be given to content with clear limitations based on cultural sensitivity, or privacy of research subjects.

• Preservation risk (including condition of originals, or fragility of media carriers). The creation of digital surrogates allows for limited interaction with and optimal storage for at risk original content.

• Availability of Library resources (staffing, hardware and software, subject expertise, funding for reformatting, digital storage space) to undertake acquisition and subsequent processing. Exceptionally large collections (over 10 TB) may not be acquired due to size.

• Advancement of collaboration, partnerships or resource sharing.

1.3.B CURATORS AND SELECTORS

UC San Diego Library staff have varying degrees of responsibility for collecting and managing digital collections. "Curator" or "selector" is a role rather than a specific individual, and it is understood that, over time, different individuals will fulfill this role for specific collections and subject areas. They ensure sound stewardship of collections and appropriately manage these digital objects over the long-term through the following:

• Project documentation and participation in established workflows.

• Manage intellectual property rights:

  • Capture accurate rights information in object metadata.

  • Obtain appropriate legal clearances for the Library to make derivative copies and display or share objects with the public.

• Metadata:

  • Follow national standards and local guidelines developed by the Metadata Services program, to support the design and creation of appropriate descriptive, administrative, technical, and structural metadata for objects within collections for the Library's databases of record.

• Discovery and access:

  • Plan for dissemination, which includes either making the material widely accessible, or providing appropriate limited access via established protocols and access points (collection landing pages, catalog records, and publication).

1.3.C COLLECTING STRENGTHS

In accordance with stated selection criteria, the Library collects digital content to support learning and research through additions to distinctive areas of excellence, while also seeking content in diverse and emerging growth areas. The following subject areas reflect the Library's current collecting strengths and places where further development is particularly sought. Materials on other topics that meet the Library's selection criteria may also be considered.

• American poetry and poetics post-1945, with focus on avant-garde and experimental movements

• Baja California

• China - Contemporary China studies, Chinese film studies and modern Chinese history

• Culinary history of Mexico, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim

• History of science and technology

• Latin America and Mexico

• Melanesian anthropology

• Pacific Island Studies

• San Diego region - Communities, historical development, economy, and environment

• Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the history of oceanography

• Spanish Civil War

• UC San Diego history, academic programs, and people

• US-Mexican Border Studies

• Visual and performing arts: Experimental, regional, modern & contemporary

1.3.D COURSEWORK AND STUDENT WORK

The UC San Diego Library encourages robust participation in the California Digital Library's eScholarship® repository, which provides scholarly publishing and repository services that enable departments, research units, and individual scholars associated with the University of California to have direct control over the creation and dissemination of the full range of their scholarship. As an institutional repository, eScholarship provides open access to student research and scholarly works.

In general, student work and coursework produced for classes and seminars should be deposited in eScholarship and will not be acquired by the Library. Exceptions may be granted for special curated collections, and must be approved by the Digital Collections Group.

Students responsible for research data are encouraged to contact the Research Data Curation Program for a full range of Library services and support, including deposits and preservation.

1.4 DONATIONS, DEPOSITS & TRANSFERS OF DIGITAL COLLECTIONS 🔼

The UC San Diego Library accepts donations of unique digital materials and records of enduring value in accordance with Library collection development policies. All digital gifts must follow the Library's gift policy. All digital gift material covered under the scope of this policy, regardless of format, will be evaluated by a subject specialist and the Digital Collections Group, and when necessary, a technologist.

Digital materials are often easy to copy, duplicate, and share. The Library discourages donations of material that fall into the categories below. Exceptions may be approved in consultation with the appropriate curator/selector and the Digital Collections Group.

• Digital content previously donated to other repositories

• Scanned or reformatted content where the original material is not the property of the donor (i.e. scans or captures of photographs where the donor is not the owner or creator of the original photographs)

• Content downloaded from other repositories or personal web pages where the donor is not the creator

Donations are accepted with the understanding that all materials become the property of The Regents of the University of California; deposits are subject to the terms of deposit agreements. Donors and depositors will be asked to document the transfer of materials with a signed agreement, or transfer form (for University Records). A deed of gift is a formal legal agreement between the donor and the Regents which transfers ownership of the materials. The Library will not attempt to process, preserve, or make available digital content if explicit authority to do so has not been transferred to the Library.

1.4.A ACQUISITION AND POST-ACQUISITION PROCESSING

The Library is currently equipped to do the following upon acquisition:

• Accept born-digital material via direct capture from original media or portable hard drives, or methods such as file transfer protocol, RDL share, Google Drive, or web archiving. Original media carriers may not be kept.

• Scan transferred files for personally identifiable information (PII) using automated scanning tools, to identify and flag potentially sensitive information.

• Conduct virus checks. Files with viruses will be deleted.

• Create normalized copies of some file types, as appropriate, to address software obsolescence.

• Appraise files to identify desirable content from content that should be deleted, such as duplicates, temporary files, system set-up files, or popularly available material. Such appraisal may be facilitated by automated tools. Due to the size of some digital collections, item-level review may not be possible.

• Provide access to most files, as current institutional capabilities and agreements allow, and provide secure storage according to current Library protocols. This may include ingest into the Library's Digital Asset Management System (DAMS), which is replicated and preserved in Chronopolis, a nationally-recognized digital preservation network.

The Library is committed to responsibly stewarding digital collections in its care and ensuring appropriate levels of preservation, description and access. The means of access to digital records are subject to change as tools for preservation and discovery evolve over time. Technological limitations and other dependencies that may prevent the Library from preserving or providing access to files include, but are not limited to:

• Hardware or software is required that the Library does not have, and cannot reasonably obtain

• Inability to obtain required permissions or credentials to access or modify files

• Files are corrupted or have otherwise deteriorated

• Media carriers have failed or are otherwise damaged

1.4.B RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

Rights management, licensing, and access provisions are essential elements of the acquisitions process for digital collections. Creators and their agents should consider not only what they are donating or transferring, but how users will discover and engage with the content, including open access and ability to download. The Library's digital collections are developed to support research, teaching, and learning, but openly available content may be used by anyone in the world.

Rights and Licenses

In many cases, digital content owners hold copyright to their material and this designation stays with the donor after the license agreement and/or deed of gift is signed. The standard license agreement allows the UC San Diego Library to display, reproduce, and sublicense the work to provide access and facilitate long-term preservation. In some cases, donors or content creators transfer ownership completely to the Regents of the University of California.

Access to Digital Collections

The Library strives to make digital collections as openly available as possible, without restrictions. Digital collections managed in the Library's Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) with a public access setting can be found on the Digital Collections website. Digital collections may be ingested into the DAMS with more restrictive settings, as well, for example: limiting access to the UC San Diego community; displaying descriptive text only (downloading not permitted); or requiring users to register and request mediated access through the Library's Virtual Reading Room service. Materials with restrictions may not be viewed and downloaded by the general public (for example, as results in a Google search), but are still discoverable through catalog records and finding aids.

Publishing with Digital Collections

The Library's digital collections are intended to support research, teaching and private study under fair use. All items are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) unless they are in the public domain. The copyright status for objects on the Digital Collections website is displayed in the item record. To request permission to publish or obtain a reproduction of a particular item, contact us.

Commercial Licensing

The Library will evaluate all requests for commercial reuse of digital objects, and may extend permissions based on existing rights documentation. Digital objects found on the Digital Collections website are generally identified as being made available by the UC San Diego Library (a general designation), or one of two programs within the Library: Special Collections & Archives, and Research Data Curation. Requests for reuse can be directed to the program director of the unit responsible for curation of the object, with Scholarship Tools & Methods (STM) representing the broader unit of the UC San Diego Library. Questions may be escalated to the AUL for Scholarly Research Services (AUL-SRS).

1.5 REFORMATTING 🔼

The Library selectively plans and engages in digitization projects, creating digital surrogates of Library-owned materials via scanning or reformatting. Reformatting projects are subject to the same selection criteria as all digital collections. Project plans for digitization will reference all existing metadata and access points and identify strategies for enhanced description and discovery. These projects typically fall into one of the following categories:

• Digitization Projects: Scanning or reformatting of entire collections or other groupings of materials. These projects are proposed by library staff, frequently in cooperation with University faculty or other community stakeholders, and are assigned Library project managers and internal timelines. Digital Collections Group approval is required for all digitization projects. Digitization may occur in house or via vendors depending on resources and other considerations.

• Scan-on-Demand: Requests put forward by library staff, often on behalf of users, for single digital reproductions of library materials. These requests generally arise through routine work such as fulfilling patron requests, exhibit planning, and preservation surveys. Scan-on-Demand requests are submitted, using the appropriate internal forms, to the Scholarship Tools and Methods program for in-house reformatting.

• Grant-Based Digitization: Reformatting projects supported through one-time funding, typically awarded through a competitive proposal process. The project manager identified in the grant proposal has responsibility for the project, with active support from STM.

1.6 DEACCESSIONING

Deaccessioning is the process of formally removing an object from the inventory of a repository. This may be by returning it to the depositor, transferring the content to another repository, or by permanent deletion.

As a vital and growing component of the Library’s research collection, the Library’s digital collections are subject to active assessment and revaluation, which may result in deaccessioning. Library staff may recommend removal (deaccessioning) or suppression (restriction from public view) of content within the Library’s digital collections following a reappraisal process. Material may be deaccessioned for routine maintenance reasons (i.e., a digital object is discovered to be a duplicate, or a high-res scan is replacing a lower-quality object), or following a reassessment of the value of a collection in light of selection criteria. Reasons for the recommendation must be clearly stated in writing. Routine maintenance requests may be approved by Program Directors. Deaccession requests based on an intellectual reappraisal of content require review by the Digital Collections Group, with final approval required by the AUL for Scholarly Research Services (AUL-SRS). Full consideration will be given to retaining content, to provide the opportunity for future reevaluation.

Deaccessioned material will be treated in one of the following ways:

• Return to Donor or Depositor: If the donor initially indicated this option, library staff will coordinate the return of deaccessioned content. Library files will be deleted.

• Transfer: The Library may consider transferring digital collections to other institutions.

• Disposal: The Library will delete digital content, its related metadata, and securely destroy original media.

Note that the Library’s Digital Collection Takedown Policy governs process and policy for outside requests received to remove or suppress access to content.

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2. Research Data Collection Policy

Document Status: Final

Prepared by: Ho Jung Yoo, David Minor, Sibyl Schaefer

Reviewed by: Digital Collections Group, Digital Steering Committee and RDC Program

Approved by: Digital Steering Committee

Date Approved: February 2022

Revision Cycle: 3 years

Last reviewed: February 2022

Next Revision: February 2025

2.1 POLICY SUMMARY

This document describes the policies governing the acceptance and management of the UC San Diego Library's research data collections.

2.2 PURPOSE

The UC San Diego Library collects, describes, manages, preserves, and provides access to digital resources in support of its mission to support research and learning. This policy addresses the development and management of research data collections for which the UC San Diego Library is a primary custodian.

2.2.A SCOPE

For the purpose of this policy, a research data collection is defined as an aggregation of digital materials that has been curated by the Research Data Curation Program, regardless of carrier or format. This includes research datasets, software, visual materials, audiovisual recordings, documents, and other research output generated by the UC San Diego research community or sponsored by UC San Diego.

This policy governs research data collections curated by the Research Data Curation Program. For policy covering other digital materials transferred to or created by the Library, refer to the Digital Collections Development Policy. UC San Diego researchers also have the option of depositing content to Dryad through services maintained by the California Digital Library (CDL). Content deposited to Dryad is governed by policies set by the CDL.

2.2.B PRINCIPLES

The Library affirms the University's commitment to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in a facilitative, accessible, inclusive environment. Through its research data collections, the UC San Diego Library seeks to provide research data curation services to the UC San Diego community to enable long term stewardship, access, and preservation for research outputs. The Library aims to:

• help researchers meet funder and publisher requirements for data publishing;
• enable discovery and reuse for future research, while respecting intellectual property rights;
• promote transparency and reproducibility in research;
• provide open and equitable access to research data;
• increase the impact of UC San Diego research data;
• preserve the University’s research investment.

2.3 ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

The Library provides a repository service for campus and considers all research data generated by UC San Diego affiliates or funded through awards sponsored by UC San Diego to be eligible for deposit. Beyond this requirement, acceptance will largely depend on the size of storage needed, i.e., larger collections will require greater discussion about value for reuse than will smaller collections, due to their impact on resources. The Library is permitted to store data under University of California Protection Levels 1 or 2 (see UC Protection Level Classification Guide), but not under Protection Levels 3 or 4. 

2.4 RIGHTS MANAGEMENT 🔼

The research data collections are intended to support research, teaching and private study under fair use. All collection items are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) unless they are in the public domain. Copyright assignment to submitted material complies with guidelines set by the University of California Policy on Copyright ownership. This content is typically licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The copyright status and license (reuse permissions) for collection items are displayed in item records.

2.4.A DEPOSIT TERMS

Research data submissions are subject to the Deposit Terms of Agreement, which depositors will be required to sign. The Deposit Terms of Agreement allows UC San Diego to display, reproduce, and license the work to provide access and facilitate long-term preservation. The Library will not attempt to process, preserve, or make available digital content if explicit authority to do so has not been transferred to the Library.

2.4.B ACCESS TO RESEARCH DATA COLLECTIONS

The Library strives to make research data collections as openly available as possible, without restrictions. Research data collections managed in the Library’s Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) with a public access setting can be found on the Digital Collections website. Under limited circumstances, research data collections may be ingested with more restrictive settings.

2.5 TAKEDOWN POLICY

The Library’s Digital Collection Takedown Policy governs process and policy for requests received to remove or suppress access to content.

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3. Digital Preservation Policy

Document Status: Final

Prepared by: Sibyl Schaefer (Chair), Tori Maches, Laurel McPhee, Jack Neves, Ho Jung Yoo

Reviewed by: Digital Preservation Committee, Digital Collections Group, Digital Products Group, Digital Steering Committee

Approved by: Digital Steering Committee

Date Approved: November, 2021

Revision Cycle: 3 years

Last reviewed: November, 2021

Next Revision: November, 2024

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The UC San Diego Library’s Digital Preservation Policy supports sustainable access to and use of select digital collection content for the foreseeable future. This document is intended for users of the UC San Diego Library, for all librarians and staff that manage and work with digital collections, and for those who donate or deposit material to the Library. The purpose of this policy is to:

• Define the scope of digital preservation activities;
• Articulate the library’s principles governing digital preservation;
• Describe properties of digital materials essential for long term preservation;
• Outline the roles and responsibilities of those involved in digital preservation;
• Set reasonable expectations about limitations impacting digital preservation.

For the purposes of this policy, “digital preservation” is defined as the combination of policies, strategies and actions to ensure access to reformatted and born digital content regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change. The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time.(1)

The UC San Diego Library follows a practice of active preservation with the aim of ensuring the authenticity, reliability, and integrity of the digital collection assets entrusted to and under their care, while attempting to provide usable versions for research, teaching, and learning. The digital preservation of items in the UC San Diego Library’s care is key to the Library's mission "to advance the University’s educational, research, and public service objectives by providing the UC San Diego community the world-class information resources and services it needs – expertly managed and expediently delivered."(2)

Digital preservation is a constantly evolving practice due to new and emerging technologies. Therefore, this policy is subject to change.

3.2 SCOPE

UC San Diego Library’s digital preservation activities are intended to preserve the digital collections of the Library. This includes content that originated in digital form (born digital) and content that has been converted to digital form through digitization. UC San Diego Library is responsible for acquiring, providing the means to preserve, and ensuring long-term access to the Library’s digital collections. Not all of the digital content the Library acquires or creates can be preserved, due to technical dependencies or limited resources. Long-term preservation is subject to the Library’s selection criteria and archival appraisal of the content for long-term retention. For more information about content that the Library may acquire, please refer to the Digital Collections Development Policy and the Research Data Collection Policy.

3.3 PRINCIPLES

Preservation activities at the Library adhere to the following principles:

• Long term access is the primary goal. Access to digital collections will be supported to the best of our ability given available technology and resources.
• Full compliance with intellectual property, copyright, and ownership rights of creators while ensuring preservation of and access to all content.
• Observance of appropriate standards and recommendations related to the creation, maintenance, storage, and delivery of digital objects(3) and metadata, as determined by international, national, and consortial communities of practice.
• Digital preservation activities will be planned and implemented in ways that best manage current resources and can be sustained into the future.
• Digital preservation policies, procedures, and practices will be documented and reviewed openly, transparently, and consistently.

3.4 LEVELS OF PRESERVATION 🔼

The Library has outlined levels of commitment to preserving different categories of materials, with the understanding that digital preservation is a complex, ongoing, and resource-intensive task.

1 - Born-digital material: Rigorous effort will be made to ensure continued access to born-digital material selected for long-term preservation.

Note: Some born-digital material collected by the Library is stored on obsolete media, encoded on obsolete systems or formats, or is otherwise difficult or impossible to access. Appropriate efforts will be made to recover and evaluate this material for preservation, with the understanding that recovery may not be possible due to the condition of the materials, or technical or resource limitations.

2 - Digitized material (no analog available): Every reasonable effort will be made to preserve digitized material where no analog versions exist, or where re-digitization is not feasible. This also includes digitized materials with value-added features that would make them difficult or impossible to recreate, and digitized audiovisual materials.

3 - Digitized material (analog available): In many cases, the analog version will be considered the preservation copy. Appropriate steps will be taken to preserve digitized material where an analog version is available, weighing the cost of re-digitization against the cost of long-term preservation. Digitized materials will be created in file formats conducive to long-term preservation.

4 - Licensed or commercially available material: The Library is not responsible for preserving licensed or commercially available material. However, preserving content included in the scope of this policy may involve maintaining copies of commercial material such as proprietary software.

5 - Other material: No steps will be taken to preserve material created by the Library for short-term use (i.e. scans for digital delivery), material that is not selected for preservation, and material not included in the scope of this policy.

3.5 KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF DIGITAL OBJECTS FOR PRESERVATION

In order to ensure long-term access to digital collections that UC San Diego Library stewards and/or owns, the Library prioritizes key characteristics of digital objects for preservation. These characteristics must be preserved over time in order to ensure continued accessibility, usability, and meaning. The key characteristics of digital objects are:

• The intellectual content of the object. This is the distinct intellectual work or artistic creation that is considered relevant by the creator, depositor, and/or Library for preservation. This may include related materials and the relationship between those materials, as can be determined from metadata or other context at the time of ingest into the Library’s repository.
• The metadata associated with the object. All materials considered for preservation must have sufficient metadata for discoverability and identification.
• The copyright and license status of the object. The Library should determine, to the best of its ability, the copyright status of the object and whether any contracts, agreements or licenses, such as a Creative Commons license, Deed of Gift, or other permissions, govern the use and distribution of the physical, born digital, or digitized copy of the object. The digitization, preservation, and distribution of objects should abide by U.S. Copyright Law and any relevant license or contract terms. These characteristics are used to control access to the digital object, and ensure future generations can determine how the digital object can be accessed and re-used.
• Representation: A representation is the set of files, including structural metadata, needed for a complete rendition of the intellectual content of the object.(4) The binary data of digital objects alone is insufficient to make it interpretable to humans. Additional information must be collected about the digital object’s representation, including the relationships between the parts of itself, to re-create the digital object’s structure. Information that relates the digital object to other objects within the repository, or other digital objects within the collections, should be included at the time of ingest.
• Event tracking: The history of the digital object, including transformations or changes to it, should be preserved. Documenting the history of the digital object supports the object’s integrity and authenticity for future generations.
• Fixity: Fixity checking, also known as integrity checking, is a key element of digital preservation and is defined as the practice of reviewing digital content to ensure that it remains unchanged over time. Regular monitoring and reporting on the fixity of digital objects ensures that files are not altered or corrupted. UC San Diego Library maintains sufficient fixity information on digital objects to ensure objects remain complete and uncorrupted.

3.6 PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATION 🔼

Many digital preservation activities and projects involve partnerships and collaborations. The UC San Diego Library is committed to collaborating within the Library, across campus, within the University of California, nationally, and internationally in order to: lead the advancement and practice of digital preservation, advance the development of the Library’s digital preservation capabilities and offer sustainable preservation services through Chronopolis.

3.7 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Digital preservation reaches across different functional areas of the Library, and directly includes content creators and their representatives, depositors and researchers.

3.7.A CONTENT CREATORS AND DEPOSITORS

Campus faculty, departments, and offices, and other members of the campus community; other content creators; and representatives or heirs of content creators who are licensed to act on their behalf; and vendors (such as booksellers).

• Share all available contextual information about content and any media carriers.
• Provide required permissions and login credentials, or disable passwords and encryption systems, if any, to allow access to the materials.
• Identify and appraise files prior to transferring them, where possible, to avoid duplication; avoid sending previously shared files. Remove PII and out-of-scope material prior to transfer to the Library.
• Discuss expectations and commitments regarding processing, discovery and access with library staff prior to and during transfer.

3.7.B LIBRARY PROGRAMS AND STAFF

Programs and employees responsible for acquiring, preserving, and/or providing access to digital materials.

Special Collections & Archives Program

• Conduct pre-custodial appraisal to determine whether materials align with established Library collection development policies.
• Inform creators about Library policies and what can/will be done with digital content.
• Document and adhere to commitments in deeds of gift and other transfer documentation; capture contextual information provided by creators.
• Facilitate processing and description of materials. Ensure digital preservation standards are followed.
• Ensure appropriate access to digital materials in manuscript and archival collections.

Research Data Curation Program

• Determine whether submitted research materials align with established Library collection development policies.
• Provide metadata, repository, and long-term preservation services for complex research data.
• Collaborate with campus and consortial groups to steward research data.
• Ensure digital preservation standards are followed.

Scholarship Tools and Methods Program

• Provide appropriate metadata, repository, reformatting, and preservation services for born-digital and digitized materials.
• Provide appropriate metadata and repository services for archived web content.
• Create digital surrogates of physical materials as appropriate.
• Support strategy development for digital assets and initiatives.
• Ensure digital preservation standards are followed.

Metadata Services Program

• Create and manage metadata for tangible resources and digital objects, with special attention to materials unique to UC San Diego, its interests, and its context.
• Provide metadata services (for both digital and tangible objects), database management, maintenance, and synchronization, and system-wide collection services.

Subject Specialists

• Conduct pre-custodial appraisal to determine whether materials align with established Library collection development policies.
• Inform creators about Library policies and what can/will be done with digital content.
• Document and adhere to commitments in deeds of gift and other transfer documentation; document contextual information provided by creators.

Technology and Digital Experience Program

• Provide technical and logistical support for digital collecting, preservation systems, and access.
• Maintain necessary infrastructure for digital materials, including security.
• Test, develop and deploy emerging technologies and software tools for managing digital assets.
• Interface with Campus ITS as needed.

AULs and Program Directors

• Support programs in carrying out digital preservation responsibilities. This may include providing oversight, allocating resources, and making decisions related to standards and practices.
• Facilitate responsible acquisition of born-digital materials and digitization of physical materials as appropriate.

Committees

• The Digital Preservation Committee standardizes acquisition, curation, and long-term preservation processes for digital materials
• The Digital Library Steering Committee provides oversight of the Digital Preservation Committee and is available as an escalation path for any questions or concerns on the application of this policy.
• The Digital Collections Group develops digital collections strategy for the library, and advises the Digital Library Steering Committee on priorities for digitization projects, acquisition of born-digital materials, and preservation and access strategies for digital content.
• The Digital Library Products Group oversees updates to the Library’s Digital Asset Management System, and reviews and prioritizes work to support digital collections, exhibits, and preservation.

3.8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The UC San Diego Library consulted a variety of digital preservation policies and would like to acknowledge the following:

• Emory Libraries. Digital Collections Steering Committee Policy Suitehttps://guides.libraries.emory.edu/ld.php?content_id=40741514
• National Archives and Records Administration. Significant Properties.https://www.archives.gov/files/era/acera/pdf/significant-properties.pdf
• Northwestern University Library. Digital Preservation Policy.https://www.library.northwestern.edu/about/administration/policies/digital-preservation-policy.html
• The Ohio State University Libraries. Digital Preservation Policy Framework.https://library.osu.edu/documents/SDIWG/Digital_Preservation_Policy_Framework.pdf
• Rockefeller Archive Center. Digital Preservation Policyhttps://github.com/RockefellerArchiveCenter/digital-preservation-policy

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(1) Definition from the ALCTS Preservation and Reformatting Section, Working Group on Defining Digital Preservation, https://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/preserv/defdigpres0408.

(2) Mission statement from The Library, UC San Diego 2015-18 Strategic Plan

(3) A digital object is defined as: “An entity in which one or more content files and their corresponding metadata are united, physically and/or logically, through the use of a digital wrapper. See also complex digital object, simple digital object.” California Digital Library. Glossary of Digital Library Terms. https://cdlib.org/resources/technologists/glossary-of-digital-library-terms/#D

(4) PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata, v3.0. June 2015, revised November 2015. https://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/

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