Archives

July 2, 2024

Quarter 2 Report: MetaArchive Transformation Research Team

Executive Summary

The Transition Research Team, composed of leadership from the MetaArchive Community and Educopia, and the LOCKSS Program Team began planning and implementing necessary steps for MetaArchive’s sunset, preservation planning for members, and asset disposition. At the end of the 2nd quarter, planning activities and initial information sharing were completed through weekly meetings, one-on-one member interviews, exploration of new pathway options, and internal and external information sharing. MetaArchive is financially on track to meet the 2024 budget, continuing to inform the sunsetting process.


Major Activities

  1. Closed the Community Research Task Force (CRTF) in April to begin planning for MetaArchive’s transformation. For more information on the CRTF see the blog post MetaArchive’s Community Research Task Force is Planning for the Future of the Community.
  2. Instated the Transition Research Team (TRT), charged with bringing  together the expertise, perspectives, and efforts of all MetaArchive key stakeholder groups to determine clear, feasible merging/migration/sunsetting pathways for MA members so decisions can be made by the members at end of Q3 2024, and those decisions can be implemented beginning in January 2025.
  3. Identified initial pathways to explore, including a full MetaArchive merger, reforming MetaArchive, and individual member adoptions by other PLNs.
  4. Hosted Member 1:1s to engage with each member and their representatives to determine individual context, requirements, and potential pathways. Results from these discussions were synthesized and reported back to the MetaArchive community.
  5. Hosted open Office Hours for members to meet specifically with MetaArchive Leadership Team members to gain member-to-members insights, feedback, and concerns.


Deliverables

To support open and transparent communication about the processes and decisions from the TRT, we have issued deliverables targeted for member representatives, their supervisors and administrators, and the greater digital preservation and PLN community. 

For Members (internal to MetaArchive Members)

For Community


3rd Quarter Goals

  • Cluster Calls
    Based on the member 1:1s and the subsequent LOCKSS-recommended matrix for individual member adoption by other PLNs, the TRT is coordinating cluster calls with prospective adopters and adoptees. These calls will take place in July 2024 and synthesized results will be reported to the community. Anticipated Completion: August 2024.
  • Customized Content Transfer Plans
    The cluster calls will inform the actionable processes and plans for how each member will transfer content out of MetaArchive and to their chosen destination. These plans will be finalized in collaboration with each member and presented to the community. Anticipated Completion: September 10, 2024 Community Call.
  • Asset Disposition Mapping
    To ensure smooth transitions, the TRT is reviewing MetaArchive assets, including financial, documentation, platforms, technology, and other business documents, to determine retention, archive, and transfer plans for each asset. Anticipated Completion: August 2024.
  • Sunsetting Budget and Plan Revision
    Building on the long-term budget planning from the CRTF, the TRT is revising the sunsetting budget to ensure there are sufficient funds for a year-long sunset plan to better support member needs. Anticipated Completion: August 2024.

Additional questions and comments may be directed to the MetaArchive Leadership Team (ma_leadership@metaarchive.org) or the TRT (ma_trt@educopia.org).

May 30, 2024

MetaArchive Cooperative Transformation: Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

Context

1. What’s going on with MetaArchive?

MetaArchive Cooperative is undergoing an administrative and technical transformation, because by the end of 2025, MetaArchive will no longer be hosted by Educopia Institute. The Cooperative remains intact as a group, and the data held within its networks remains secure.

In March 2024, we completed the transfer of the technical infrastructure to the LOCKSS Program. LOCKSS will continue to provide technical support to the network and will be instrumental in the transformation process. The Cooperative is convening a Transformation Research Team to bring together the expertise, perspectives, and efforts of key stakeholder groups to determine clear, feasible pathways for MA members. These pathways might include merging with another LOCKSS network, forming one or more new PLNs with different administrative hosts, or migrating members’ content to a geographically/topically/financially relevant PLN of their choice.

2. Why is Educopia no longer hosting the MetaArchive Cooperative?

In March 2024, Educopia completed the first year of a 3-year operational funding investment from the Mellon Foundation.You can read more about Educopia’s Mellon-funded capacity building work here. Educopia is now in the process of making data-informed changes to its business model, changes that will both contribute to greater financial sustainability and respond to the lived experience of staff members that have worked part time on one or more member communities at the same time. 

Beginning January 2025, all member communities hosted by Educopia will have to support 1 Full-time Employee (rather than .5FTE). The impact of this new criteria is very different for each community, as they all have different trajectories– different foundings, activities, and staffing levels over time. For MetaArchive, this new criteria intersects with changes in the information landscape over the 20 years of the Cooperative’s existence, a dip in its Operational Reserve, and on-going questions regarding sustainability. 

For the benefit of all parties involved, MetaArchive will no longer be hosted by Educopia Institute in 2025. Educopia will work closely with MetaArchive and LOCKSS Program staff in 2024 to map out its next phase, i.e., feasible future pathways, by:

  • Mapping clear pathways for members: Merging with another PLN; Forming one or more new PLNs with a different administrative host; Migrating member content to an existing private LOCKSS network
  • Gathering all of MetaArchive’s historical documentation since its inception
  • Ensuring ongoing facilitation and coordination network needs are being met in collaboration with membership and LOCKSS Program staff, until Jackson Huang returns in July
  • Consultation and project management while participating directly in the Transformation research (until the end of Q3 2024)
  • Communications planning and support to Leadership and the Membership & Outreach Committee: Community-wide informational resources as well as public communications
3. What will Educopia focus on next?

Educopia continues to mature, grow, and change guided by its new Vision and Mission Statements. With explicit descriptions of fiscal hosting criteria, services, and fees coming soon to our website, Educopia will continue to provide fiscal sponsorship to groups and projects focusing on knowledge production, knowledge preservation, and knowledge sharing. We hope to expand our fiscal sponsorship portfolio, centering projects and initiatives that reduce knowledge inequities. Educopia will also continue to grow its consulting portfolio and pursue collaborative research projects that inform field-level understanding in organizational development and cultivation of diverse knowledge communities; collaborative knowledge production and publishing; digital preservation and curation; and community-controlled infrastructure. 

4. What happened to the IMLS Implementation grant proposal?

The rationale behind the IMLS Implementation grant proposal was a one-time infusion of capital to cover the cost of a full time Community Facilitator that would work closely with members and the LOCKSS team to improve ingest workflows and the overall usability of the network as a prerequisite to new member recruitment. Additionally, the capital would subsidize service and storage costs associated with LOCKSS Program and Internet Archive partnerships—both of which aimed at lowering the barrier to entry for cultural organizations to participate in the network.

While the transition was initiated and grant writing continued, MetaArchive lost two additional members, bringing the projected 2024 operational reserve to $14,000 below the target, according to the community’s operational reserve policy.

After completing numerous detailed financial and member recruitment projections, the Task Force members determined that even with hoped-for grant funding ($250,000 over three years), there was a high probability that MetaArchive would have to sunset at some point during the grant project, due the projected drain of operational reserve funds.

While the Community Research Task Force named the need for 1FTE of central staffing support in 2023, in February 2024, Educopia announced criteria for all member communities to be able to support 1FTE by 2025. This requirement, combined with the dip in operational reserve, initiated the Transformation process. 

5. Will MetaArchive still be an Educopia Community?

Once members have been provided with all possible pathways (no later than the end of Q3 2024) so they can make an informed decision, implementation of said member decisions will begin by or before January 2025. Once all members have transitioned their data to their chosen digital preservation pathway, MetaArchive will no longer be affiliated with Educopia. 

The Community Research Task Force

1. What happened to the Community Research Task Force (CRTF)?

At the end of its second decade of operations, the Cooperative formed a Community Research Task Force with the intention of going beyond business-as-usual to “do things differently to get the long term success we are all working towards”. Convening weekly for over a year, the Task Force researched, documented, presented information, and made recommendations to broader membership, enabling them to make evidence-based decisions regarding MetaArchive’s strategic directions.

Starting April 10th, the Community Research Task Force wound down, as it had completed its original charge. This group was reformed as the Transformation Research Team, composed of Educopia staff, Stanford/LOCKSS Program staff, and MetaArchive Community members.

The Transformation Research Team

1. What is the Transformation Research Team (TRT)?

MetaArchive convened a Transformation Research Team to bring together the expertise, perspectives, and efforts of key stakeholder groups to determine clear, feasible pathways for MA members. The TRT is composed of Educopia staff (Brandon Locke, Jessica Meyerson, Aloma Antao, Jackson Huang), Stanford/LOCKSS Program staff (Clay Miller, Thib Guicherd-Callin, Snowden Becker), and MetaArchive Community members (Christine Wiseman, Reid Boehm, Hannah Pryor, Alex Kinneman, Zach Vowell, Shanna Smith). The charge of this Research Team will include:

  • Calls with PLNs on governance, costs, and potential partnerships
  • Mapping out cache-to-cache migration, including pathways, timelines, and costs
  • Calls and member office hours with members that may want to create a new PLN, providing pathways, timelines, and costs
  • Creating a clear migration plan and timeline for members that may want to migrate their content to an existing PLN or alternative bit-level digital preservation service in 2025
  • Providing all possible pathways to members no later than the end of Q3 2024 so they can make an informed decision
  • Implementation of member decisions begins January 2025

 

Future Pathways

Options

1. What are my options as a member?

The options available to members are a work-in-progress. As the work of the Transformation Research Team progresses (mapping MA members’ needs and their constraints to available LOCKSS alternatives, and documenting the timeline and resourcing needed to implement each option presented during the April 9th Community Call), we are narrowing the options and specifying the actions involved to implement them. Currently:

Off the table (as of 5/20/2024) due to variables including constraints of capacity and the timeframe for transformation:
A. Merging as a whole with an existing PLN
B. Reforming as a new PLN with a new admin host

Options that can be implemented within the specified timeframe for MA’s Transformation:
A. Some MA members are adopted by other LOCKSS PLNs
B. Some MA members identify a non-LOCKSS solution (If there are members that choose a non-LOCKSS-based solution and they currently have data stored in LOCKSS nodes hosted by other members, there will be technical assistance provided to ensure the relocation of all preserved content). The TRT is also going to compile a decisionmaking resource for members to evaluate non-LOCKSS digital preservation solutions.

Options that may take longer than the specified timeframe for MA’s Transformation*:
A. MA splits into smaller networks [different admin host, different monetary/billing aspects, based on geography, common content needs, or ingest size (e.g., 100TB v. 1TB)]
B. Some MA members establish a new PLN among themselves and/or with partners not currently in MA

*While these options may take longer than the specified timeframe for MA’s Transformation, the TRT still plans to undertake research and documentation activities that will serve members who may want to pursue these longer-term options after MetaArchive’s Transformation is complete.

2. How much input and agency will the member institutions have to define and select options?

MA leadership, Educopia, and LOCKSS (TRT members) hold context regarding which options will be possible with available capacity in the specific timeframe for the Transformation. Given this, the TRT will provide a clear presentation of which options we think would best serve each member given their particular digital preservation needs (based on member 1:1s and follow-ups with individual members), thus enabling member organizations to make informed decisions. All members will ultimately determine for themselves whether the LOCKSS solutions recommended to them are the solution they want to pursue.

3. What if my institution cannot find an option that works?

In addition to matching current members’ digital preservation needs to existing or new LOCKSS-based solutions, the TRT is also going to compile a decisionmaking resource for members to evaluate non-LOCKSS digital preservation solutions. All members will ultimately determine for themselves whether the LOCKSS solutions recommended to them are the solution they want to pursue. There are likely to be one or more members that do not have a clear match with a current LOCKSS solution. Those members will have to determine whether they want to select a non-LOCKSS digital preservation solution, or to pause preservation activities until they select a new solution.

If there are members that choose a non-LOCKSS-based solution and they currently have data stored in LOCKSS nodes hosted by other members, there will be technical assistance provided to ensure the relocation of all preserved content.

4. When will we have a clearer picture of plans and options for 2025?

While members of the TRT will follow up with individual members and smaller groups of MA members that share the same digital preservation needs in order to gather additional information between now and September, the goal is for all MA members to have a clear picture of their plans for 2025 by the September Community Call.

 

For Members

Invoicing & Contracts

1. How will I be billed for 2024? And will fees change?

Invoicing will continue on your institution’s normal billing cycle.
All invoices from now until the end of 2024 will be the same amount as your previous invoice.

2. What about 2025?

Invoices in 2025 will be prorated so that you’ll only be paying through Dec 31, 2025.
We will send storage invoices in early 2025 (for 2024 storage) and late 2025 (for 2025 storage).

3. Why does MetaArchive encourage members to renew for 1 year??
  • The Transformation Process was triggered once MA dipped below the sunsetting budget reflected in the community-approved Operational Reserve Policy. The Operational Reserve Policy was approved and put in place in 2023 in anticipation of a potential sunsetting of the network at that time. While MA’s projected Operational Reserve at the end of 2024 is below the sunsetting budget, those funds are required to resource the Transformation and to pay for ongoing network services in the meantime (assuming members renew their membership agreement and pay their invoices through 2025).
  • The truth is that we do not know with certainty what the full costs of completing this process will be. In addition to the normal operating budget items like staff and overhead, we anticipate a number of unknown, one-time costs associated with the Transformation.
  • Thus, it’s crucial that we continue to have revenue in 2025 for the Transformation to be successful (appropriately resourced, well documented, thoughtfully implemented). If there are remaining funds when the process is completed in 2025, the community determines what they would like Educopia to do (e.g., transfer funds to new fiscal host; or donate remaining funds to a digipres conference scholarship fund).
4. Who do I contact with billing and invoicing questions?

Please feel free to contact either of MetaArchive’s Interim Community Facilitators:
Brandon Locke <brandon@educopia.org>
Jessica Meyerson <jessica@educopia.org>

5. Will ingests continue in 2024 and/or 2025?

Ingests will be on pause during Q2 of 2024. For Q3-Q4, members with functioning workflows and regular content ingests into MetaArchive may choose to continue ingests as usual. Members with broken plug-ins, older content, or other workflow issues may choose to focus on AU quality control and ideal packaging workflows. Upon their return in July, MA Community Facilitator Jackson Huang will work closely with each member to identify appropriate next steps for their specific needs.

Ingesting more content in the network, and storing one copy on the Stanford node, could help to ensure smoother cache-to-cache migration for members that are likely to move forward with a LOCKSS-based solution. However, if some members think they are likely to move ahead with a non-LOCKSS-based solution, it may not make sense to ingest additional content into the network.

Committees

1. I’m on a MetaArchive committee. How will this affect our work?

Committee work continues in 2024 as planned. Some of the activities described in the 2024 committee action plans have been re-oriented to support the Transformation process.

2. Who is my liaison to the TRT?

Alex Kinnaman is TRT liaison to the Outreach and Member Services Committee
Zach Vowell is the TRT liaison to the Technical Committee
Shanna Smith is the TRT liaison to the Documentation Committee
Christine Wiseman and Reid Boehm are liaisons to the Leadership Committee

Ongoing Support

1. Where do I go if I have questions?

Members have several resources for addressing their questions and concerns:

  • Email <ma_trt@educopia.org> If you have a question for the Transformation Research Team (which includes representatives from MA membership, Educopia, and the LOCKSS Program)
  • Email MA Leadership Chair, Christine Wiseman at <cwiseman@auctr.edu> or MA Leadership Chair Elect, Reid Boehm at <riboehm@purdue.edu> if you have a question specific to MA Leadership
  • Email MA Treasurer and Chair of Outreach & Member Services Committee, Alex Kinneman at <alexk93@vt.edu>, if you have questions about the MA Operating Budget or information sharing about the Transformation
  • Email Educopia Co-Director <jessica@educopia.org> if you have questions about Educopia’s changes to membership community fiscal hosting criteria or questions about Educopia more broadly.
  • Email MetaArchive’s Interim Community Facilitators, Brandon Locke at <brandon@educopia.org>and Jessica Meyerson at <jessica@educopia.org>
2. What technical support will I have?

The LOCKSS team and the Technical Committee are available to provide technical support throughout the Transformation process. When Jackson Huang, MetaArchive’s Community Facilitator, returns in July 2024, they will also be available to provide hands-on technical support to members.

Technical support from the LOCKSS Program staff may include node maintenance, AU quality control, transfer of content into a node and/or out to the Stanford node, migrating a node from the MetaArchive network to a different LOCKSS network, and more.

The LOCKSS technical support team can be contacted by emailing <lockss-support@lockss.org>

The MetaArchive Technical Committee can be contacted by emailing <ma_technical@metaarchive.org>.

3. Will Educopia still be involved in the process for any chosen option?

Yes, Educopia will be part of the process for members’ chosen options. The role Educopia plays in the process will depend on the option that each member selects.

As the fiscal host for MetaArchive since 2006, Educopia will work with membership to determine an archival repository for MetaArchive’s organizational records – the transfer of records to an archival repository would only take place after the Transformation process is completed in 2025. Educopia will also be involved in the disbursement or transfer of any funds remaining in the MetaArchive account after the Transformation process is completed.

Communication & Feedback Mechanisms

1. How will the community be updated about progress made?

There are several channels for information about MetaArchive’s Transformation process:

  • Monthly Community Calls
  • Member 1-pagers
  • The MetaArchive Blog
  • MA Member Office Hours
2. Where do I go if I have feedback?
  • Email <ma_trt@educopia.org> ff you have feedback for the Transformation Research Team (which includes representatives from MA membership, Educopia, and the LOCKSS Program)
  • Email MA Leadership Chair, Christine Wiseman at <cwiseman@auctr.edu> or MA Leadership Chair Elect, Reid Boehm at <riboehm@purdue.edu> if you have a feedback specific to MA Leadership
  • Email Chair of Outreach & Member Services Committee, Alex Kinneman at <alexk93@vt.edu>, if you have feedback about member communications
  • Email Educopia Co-Director <jessica@educopia.org> if you have feedback about Educopia’s changes to membership community fiscal hosting criteria or for Educopia more broadly.
  • Email MetaArchive’s Interim Community Facilitators, Brandon Locke at <brandon@educopia.org>and Jessica Meyerson at <jessica@educopia.org> if you have feedback about ongoing scheduling, coordination, and facilitation of the network.

 

For the Field

Impact

1. How might this impact other PLNs?

Other PLNs may be directly impacted by the transformation in the following ways:

  • Other PLNs may bring one or more of the current MA members on board as new members of their network.This will require migrating the data that is currently preserved in MA’s network and integrating it into the new network, a fairly straightforward process. For networks with similar structures for membership and storage fees, the net difference may be minimal for migrating MA members, and a modest gain for the other PLNs that bring them on board (which may also gain additional geographic and administrative diversity with new members).
  • If new PLNs arise as a result of the MA transformation, this may represent some opportunities for recruitment of new members to multiple PLNs (for example, a newly created regional network might offer pricing incentives for members that also are, or become, members of the GLN, CLOCKSS, USDocs, etc.)
  • Other PLNs may also be indirectly impacted in one or more ways. For instance, the factors that contributed to MA’s changing status may also affect similar communities, which is why MetaArchive is committed to regular community and public reporting on this transformation in the hopes that this documentation will serve as a valuable contribution to the ongoing evolution of the digital preservation services landscape.
April 15, 2024

MetaArchive Leads PLN Transformation

In Summary:

In 2025, MetaArchive will experience a major transition. No longer hosted by Educopia Institute beyond the coming year, the Cooperative will work with Educopia and LOCKSS to navigate administrative and technical transformation—a new phase for the long running PLN.

  • MetaArchive Cooperative is undergoing an administrative and technical transformation, because by the end of 2025, MetaArchive will no longer be hosted by Educopia Institute.
  • In March 2024, we completed the transfer of the technical infrastructure to the LOCKSS Program. LOCKSS will continue to provide technical support to the network and will be instrumental in the transformation process.
  • The Cooperative remains intact as a group, and the data held within its networks remains secure. 
  • The Cooperative is convening a Transformation Research Team to bring together the expertise, perspectives, and efforts of key stakeholder groups to determine clear, feasible pathways for MA members.
  • Emergent strategies and lessons learned during MetaArchive’s evaluation and evidence-based decision making processes will be shared transparently with the broader PLN community, so that they may serve as a learning resource for peer organizations striving for sustainable digital preservation through community collaboration.

Founded in 2004, the MetaArchive Cooperative has been consistently defining what it entails to be a digital preservation network created and hosted by and for memory organizations. As a member-governed cooperative, it has also been discovering and documenting what it takes to sustain a decentralized, risk-mitigating digital preservation storage network. 

A lot has changed in the 20 years of MetaArchive’s existence—in the broader economic environment, in the knowledge landscape and digital preservation field, and within the Cooperative itself. As a result, the Cooperative is facing challenges to sustainability that necessitate a change for the network from its current form.

Now that the network has dipped below the draft sunsetting budget outlined in its Operational Reserve Policy(1), MetaArchive will work closely with Educopia and LOCKSS Program staff in 2024 to map out its next phase, i.e., feasible future pathways. These pathways might include merging with another LOCKSS network, forming one or more new PLNs with different administrative hosts, or migrating members’ content to a geographically/topically/financially relevant PLN of their choice.

Just as MetaArchive was the first and longest running Private LOCKSS Network, it will continue to build on its legacy of field-level leadership in the digital preservation space by completing an intentional and well-coordinated transformation that is mindful, efficient, and done with integrity—demonstrating to all digital preservation stakeholders that endings should be handled with the same attention, investment, and care as beginnings.  


Links to mitigation strategies: SuperNode Pilot Project, Change for Continuing Impact, Project Mycelium, Launching CRTF and LOCKSS Transition

Considerations and Conclusions: Recent Mitigation Efforts 




At the end of its second decade of operations, the Cooperative formed a Community Research Task Force with the intention of going beyond business-as-usual to “do things differently to get the long term success we are all working towards”. Convening weekly for over a year, the Task Force researched, documented, presented information, and made recommendations to broader membership, enabling them to make evidence-based decisions regarding MetaArchive’s strategic directions. These recommendations resulted in several major community decisions:

  • Approving the Operational Reserve policy and sunsetting budget
  • Voting to remain an independent network while pursuing a partnership for technical infrastructure support
  • Voted to partner with the LOCKSS Program at Stanford, transitioning much of the network’s technical infrastructure to Stanford

In a joint statement from CRTF members Christine Wiseman, Reid Boehm, Shanna Smith, Zach Vowell, and Alex Kinnaman earlier this week:

“The work undertaken by the CRTF (May 2023 – April 2024) resulted in a clearer understanding of specific areas of technical improvement, peer network contingency planning, and the unique positioning of MetaArchive in the broader digital preservation landscape. Our changing partnership with Educopia and subsequent infrastructure changes coupled with our new collaboration with the LOCKSS Program illuminated the need for change, guiding MetaArchive into a period of transformation.”


Planning a Deliberative Transformation:
Appropriately Resourced, Well Documented, Thoughtfully Implemented


The technical transition to the LOCKSS Program has involved an important investment of staff and member time, as it is essential to ensure the success of any merger or migration of member content. While the migration to LOCKSS begins to address MetaArchive’s technical needs, the partnership has also underscored the need for specific technical improvements that needed to support a sustainable, functioning digital preservation infrastructure, including a streamlined ingest process, community staging alternative for members, consistent processes for cache upgrades, cache monitoring and recovery, AU quality control, and AU reporting and clean-up.

“The fact that, over the last six months, the transition of MetaArchive technical services to the LOCKSS Program contributed to the acceleration of a need for MetaArchive to restructure, is a feature, not a bug,” Thib Guicherd-Callin, Program Manager of the LOCKSS Program, said on Monday. “Taking stock of MetaArchive’s collective needs and interpolating them with the digital preservation landscape at individual MetaArchive institutions richly informs the future partnerships that will emerge as MetaArchive goes through a transformation 20 years in the making.”


Next Steps

Starting April 10th, the Community Research Task Force will wind down, as it has completed its original charge. This group will reform as a Transformation Research Team composed of Educopia staff, Stanford/LOCKSS Program staff, and MetaArchive Community members. The charge of this Research Team will include:

  • Calls with PLNs on governance, costs, and potential partnerships
  • Mapping out cache-to-cache migration, including pathways, timelines, and costs
  • Calls with members that may want to create a new PLN, providing pathways, timelines, and costs
  • Creating a clear migration plan and timeline for members that may want to migrate their content to an existing PLN or alternative bit-level digital preservation service in 2025 
  • Providing all possible pathways to members no later than the end of Q3 2024 so they can make an informed decision
  • Implementation of member decisions begins January 2025 

Roles and responsibilities for members of the Transformation Research Team are as follows:

1. Community Members (Christine Wiseman, Reid Boehm, Hannah Pryor, Alex Kinneman, Zach Vowell, Shanna Smith)

  • Ensuring that member needs are being met and questions are being answered
  • Holding member “office hours” every other week (starting May) to discuss questions as they arise 
  • Working closely with Educopia and LOCKSS Program staff on clear pathways for members:
    • Merging with another PLN
    • Forming one or more new PLNs with a different administrative host
    • Migrating member content to an existing private LOCKSS network

2. Educopia Staff (Brandon Locke, Jessica Meyerson, Aloma Antao, Jackson Huang)

  • Gathering all of MetaArchive’s historical documentation since its inception
  • Ensuring ongoing facilitation and coordination network needs are being met in collaboration with membership and LOCKSS Program staff, until Jackson Huang returns in July
  • Now–end of Q3: Consultation and project management while participating directly in the Transformation research  
  • Communications planning and support to Leadership and the Membership & Outreach Committee: Community-wide informational resources as well as public communications

3. LOCKSS Program Staff (Clay Miller, Thib Guicherd-Callin, Snowden Becker)

  • Participating in research on clear pathways for members:
    • Merging with another PLN
    • Forming one or more new PLNs with a different administrative host
    • Migrating member content to an existing private LOCKSS network
  • Guidance and advice on technical aspects of the Transformation
  • Ongoing 1:1 member technical support for those who are:
    • Testing their ingest workflows
    • Completing server upgrades to prevent cache losses
    • Engaged in AU troubleshooting and migration
    • Performing assessment and clean-up of existing content for quality control and ease of migration

If you have questions regarding this transformation, you can reach the MetaArchive Transformation Research Team at ma_trt@educopia.org, or you can submit anonymized questions to this form. All members of the Transformation Research team will be notified when new questions are submitted, and these questions will be addressed to the best of our ability in monthly MetaArchive Community Calls.

Responses to relevant questions may also be added to an evolving FAQ, which will be hosted on the MetaArchive website. These FAQs will serve both as a reference for members of our network, as well as a learning resource for peer organizations in the field. The Transformation Research Team is committed to regular community and public reporting on this transformation in the hopes that this documentation will serve as a valuable contribution to the ongoing evolution of the digital preservation services landscape.

(1) MetaArchive’s operational reserve policy is based on looking at current annual expenditures combined with projected one-time costs to facilitate a deliberative and graceful transformation (be that merging with another network or migrating individual member content to other services of their choosing).

February 27, 2019

New Steering Committee Chair – Carly Dearborn

Below is a message from Carly Dearborn, Digital Preservation and Electronic Records Archivist at Purdue University Libraries, who became Chair of the MetaArchive Steering Committee in January 2019.

When Purdue University joined the MetaArchive Cooperative in 2013, I was not aware of how  valuable to my professional life this community and its members would be. At its core, the MetaArchive is a distributed digital preservation network. But at its heart it is a dynamic community of practice – a community I have consulted many times in the last six years and one I am now excited to serve as Chair of the Steering Committee.

As the digital preservation and electronic records archivist at Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies, my work, by nature, is pragmatic. I hope to bring that pragmatism to the Steering Committee during my time as chair. The broad digital preservation principles and theory can seem far removed from practitioners who face the daily challenges of limited technical support, resources, time, and staffing. MetaArchive has has done well addressing these issues in the past and I hope to continue that work.

I am excited to work with the MetaArchive membership, committees, and community partners as we collectively pivot to meet emerging digital preservation challenges – both technical and organizational. MetaArchive initiatives like the Super Node Pilot Project address the digital preservation needs of small and large institutions alike, with a focus on sustainability and cost effective approaches to digital preservation. This project represents the very best of MetaArchive membership – collaboration of like-minded institutions and individuals around issues of shared importance. The lessons learned from the Super Node project, as with previous projects, will be shared with the larger digital preservation community, furthering the Cooperative’s commitment to transparency. I look forward to working with the Steering Committee to continue to redefine what transparency looks like in the digital preservation field and build on past efforts to critique the costs of digital preservation services.

2019 will be another exciting year for the MetaArchive Cooperative as we build on many of the same principles the community was founded on in 2004. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments at cdearbor@purdue.edu.

February 1, 2019

Washington Research Library Consortium

The Washington Research Library Consortium is excited to work with the MetaArchive Cooperative to protect our partners’ valuable and diverse digital collections. In an assessment of the current state of digital preservation practices and services we conducted in 2017, a gap common to most partners was a lack of redundant geographically distributed data storage. MetaArchive membership will allow us to meet that need while improving our overall preservation processes and workflows with the help of a supportive and experienced community.

December 11, 2018

Message from the Steering Committee on DPN Sunset Announcement

Digital preservation is all about the long game. For the institutions and individuals working to ensure long-term access to our collective digital scholarly and cultural record, there is a shared understanding that our efforts today are part of a continuum that will continue well beyond our current contributions and participation. But understanding and recognition of this reality are only starting points. The way we go about this work, the structures we build, the strategies and approaches we implement, the relationships we foster and strengthen are all integral elements that impact our collective ability to be successful in this digital preservation endeavor. Technology is going to continue to change rapidly and the tools, infrastructure, and mechanisms we develop and implement in response will inevitably change, or disappear. Some technologies will fail quickly, others may work for a time but then wither because they are no longer relevant, or resources are no longer available to maintain and improve them.

The announcement of sunsetting of the Digital Preservation Network (DPN) represents a significant moment in the digital preservation community. It is one that we are saddened by, and recognize that many institutions will be affected by this event, including DPN members, partners, and collaborators. When such an organization ceases operations, those that have connections to it may feel an undercurrent of instability moving through the digital preservation community. In this case, though, our hope is that the closure instead amplifies the stability that we, as a library, archives, and museum community, are fostering through our deliberate collaborations across digital preservation communities.

Specifically, in anticipation (as we must anticipate!) that not all services or communities will last “forever,” a number of digital preservation communities and organizations began to gather together in 2009 with the Library of Congress to discuss how best to bridge our efforts to attain our overarching goal of protecting the digital heritage entrusted to each of us. This work ebbed and flowed over the last decade, most recently culminating in the development of the Digital Preservation Declaration of Shared Values. Issued by representatives of Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust), Chronopolis, CLOCKSS, Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), Digital Preservation Network (DPN), DuraSpace, Educopia/MetaArchive Cooperative, HathiTrust, Stanford University – LOCKSS, Texas Digital Library (TDL), Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL), the Digital Preservation Declaration of Shared Values represents the efforts of these organizations to formulate a set of shared foundational values that can serve as a basis for continued collaboration and support. While the sunsetting of DPN as an organization may illustrate the aspirational nature of these values, it also emphasizes the importance of the collective approach to their creation, where multiple digital preservation services providers came together to establish a foundation upon which to base future collaborations as well as peer-to-peer assessment and accountability. There is a spirit of cooperation that permeates throughout the digital preservation community, and we will continue to be stronger and more successful if we build upon this through increased collaboration.

All that said this is a useful moment for reflecting and taking stock of the reality that all of us are doing our work in risk-filled environments. Organizational structures are very important. The organizational environment in which digital preservation technical infrastructure, tools, and systems are developed, tested, implemented, and retired have a direct impact on their longevity and sustainability. Recognizing the risk of a single point of failure phenomenon, the distributed digital preservation approach seeks to harness the collective efforts of multiple institutions to work together and take responsibility for preserving each other’s digital content. But distributing copies of the bits is the easy (relatively) part. Establishing and evolving the apparatus of community governance, wherein multiple institutions commit to active participation in shared ownership and strategic decision-making is challenging, but absolutely necessary to weathering the technological storms of the future.

For the MetaArchive Cooperative, while setting up a distributed digital preservation storage network using the LOCKSS software took a good amount of time, effort, and funding, creating the policies and procedures for community governance required significantly more resources and years of time investment. The result of this effort is a healthy, stable community whose principles are embedded within it’s regular technical and administrative operations. At the top of the list of these principles is transparency. All MetaArchive documentation, from committee meeting minutes to financial reports and budgets are openly available to members and can be requested by non-members. All members have an opportunity to provide input in strategic decisions, including structural changes such as membership fees. Transparency is always a work-in-progress, requiring continual effort and attention, but is essential for ensuring accountability and fostering an environment of community ownership and participation. This embrace of transparency led to the creation of the “Getting to the Bottom Line: 20 Cost Questions for Digital Preservation” by the MetaArchive Outreach Committee in 2015. This resource received very positive feedback from the larger digital preservation community, and remains a useful starting place for institutions evaluating digital preservation service / solution providers.

MetaArchive is itself in the midst of a transition to evolve its infrastructure in response to the changes in institutional needs and practices. We are committed to sharing what we learn during this process with the larger community, and collaborating with our peer community-based digital preservation service providers, in alignment with the recent messages from DPN and Duraspace on discussing lessons learned and strategies for increasing sustainability within and across our organizations.

We welcome any questions or feedback.

December 4, 2018

MetaArchive Quarterly Newsletter Launch!

The MetaArchive Cooperative is delighted to announce and share our first quarterly newsletter! In it, you’ll find a wealth of information on our most recent activities, including an brief overview of our SuperNode Pilot Project, plus member snapshots and new publications from community members.

If you’d like to receive future editions of the newsletter and other community announcements, please be sure to subscribe here. For those of you who may not be familiar, the MetaArchive Cooperative is member-owned and governed community that operates a geographically distributed digital preservation storage network, that currently includes 15 secure, closed-access preservation nodes and more than 200TB of content. More than just a storage solution, MetaArchive is a community of practice that provides support for members who are developing local digital preservation workflows, policies, and best practices.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at sam@educopia.org.

We hope to see you on our newsletter list!

September 25, 2018

Announcing the SuperNode Pilot Project

Since its inception, the MetaArchive Cooperative has been a community of practice built on a foundation of individuals and institutions collaborating to empower and enable each other to accomplish digital preservation goals. This structure of this collaboration is embedded within the implementation of the LOCKSS software, where member institutions store copies of each others content, achieving geographic distribution to protect against various types of risks and loss. Now going 12 years strong, this award-winning service has proved to be a trustworthy, durable solution for digital preservation storage and a community of support for practitioners.

At the same time a lot has changed in the digital preservation landscape over the last decade. More and more academic institutions are moving to cloud-based IT services, including for storage of digital content. Institutions can choose from multiple repository software platforms to integrate into their digital curation and preservation workflows.

While much has changed, what has lingered is who has been left out of this advancement in digital preservation progress. Small institutions, including public libraries, small museums, art galleries, community organizations, still struggle to implement basic digital preservation activities, due to limited IT support, cost of current solutions, and lack of time. Recognizing this continued need, the MetaArchive has focused its efforts on transitioning its technical network infrastructure to simplify the ingest process, making it easier for all member institutions, especially smaller organizations to start preserving their important cultural and scholarly materials.  

The SuperNode Pilot Project, which kicked off in June 2018, is conducting additional testing to determine the feasibility and specific requirements for evolving the technical infrastructure. This includes testing multiple transfer tools (such as AVPreserve’s Exactly), and options for utilizing cloud-based services to “stage” content for ingest to storage nodes hosted at member institutions. A significant aspect of this work will be measuring and analyzing the costs associated with the different “flavors” or versions of a SuperNode network to support a primary driver of continuing to provide an affordable digital preservation storage solution, and if possible, even lower current membership fees.

Set to move into implementation and production in 2019, the SuperNode Pilot Project is positioning the MetaArchive community to stay true to its founding principles while adapting to the changing landscape and responding to the digital preservation needs of small organizations with limited resources.

September 24, 2018

MetaArchive Members and Staff at iPRES 2018

The premiere international digital preservation conference is happening in Boston this year and of course there are going to be multiple MetaArchive members attending! If you are curious to learn more about MetaArchive one of the best ways is to chat up our current members, so if you are also planning to attend iPRES 2018 keep an eye out for local folks Paige Walker from Boston University, David Mathews from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, as well as Deanna Ulvestad from the Greene County Public Library. Also, Nathan Tallman will be presenting a paper titled, “Approaching Appraisal: Framing criteria for selecting digital content for preservation” with Lauren Work from the University of Virginia at session 308 on Wednesday.

Our Community Manager, Sam Meister , is also attending and moderating Session 202 on Digging into the Digital Preservation Declaration of Shared Values with representatives from DPN, APTrust, TDL, and COPPUL. He is happy to chat at any time during the event!

July 19, 2018

Member Deanna Ulvestad to present at CONTENTdm Users Group Meeting 2018

Deanna Ulvestad, archivist at member institution Greene County Public Library, will be presenting during a panel on “Digital Preservation: Case Studies in Preserving Master Files” at this years’ CONTENTdm Users Group Meeting in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, August 2nd. Deanna will share her successes implementing workflows to preserve master files with MetaArchive from the perspective of a small institution. If you are planning to attend, and curious to hear more about MetaArchive from a member’s perspective, please stop by and say hello to Deanna!

August 29, 2017

New member-authored article on digital preservation and failure

We are excited to announce the forthcoming publication of a new article co-authored by Carly Dearborn (Purdue University) and Sam Meister (Educopia/MetaArchive) titled “Failure as process: Interrogating disaster, loss, and recovery in digital preservation”. This article will be published in the upcoming special digital preservation focused issue of Alexandria: The Journal of National and International Library and Information Issues.  In advance of the official release of the article, you can download and read an author accepted version of this article via the Purdue e-pubs repository here.  The authors hope that the article stimulates discussion amongst digital preservation practitioners and welcome any feedback!

July 5, 2017

Celebrating over 10 Years of Community-based Digital Preservation

Since 2007, the MetaArchive Cooperative has preserved the digital collections of more than 60 archives, museums, public libraries, and library consortia in Europe, South America, and across the United States. It has done so in a network run by members, for members.

In celebration of our first decade milestone as a membership organization, our community wants to help more organizations – including smaller and under-resourced libraries, archives, and museums – to preserve their content. To further lower the barriers to entry in our community of practice, our members have designed and launched the following:

  • A new option (in 2017) to pay a technology fee rather than operating a server node within our preservation network.
  • A Collaborative Membership Level that allows many organizations to band together and share their membership costs (see e.g., InDiPres).
  • A simplified and streamlined ingest process using BagIt.

For more details, including how to join the MetaArchive Cooperative, please visit our new and improved website at metaarchive.org or contact sam@educopia.org!