Abstract – As one of the first teams to conduct digital preservation work in China, NDPP is committed to implementing long-term preservation of commercial digital resources within the country, raising awareness of digital preservation among relevant institutions and the public, and improving digital preservation capabilities. To ensure the reliable implementation of NDPP's preservation work, NDPP is dedicated to building a learning-oriented team that can adapt to the evolving technical and skill requirements in digital preservation. Therefore, NDPP has established a comprehensive training framework encompassing six areas of knowledge content and ten different training activities. This framework is designed to provide targeted training for the NDPP work teams and to facilitate inter-institute communication and cooperation.
NDPP analyzed the team's capability requirements based on the business process to form a framework. Based on the survey of the capability backgrounds of team members and combined with practical needs, an NDPP digital preservation knowledge system covering six areas was built, which included the field of digital preservation knowledge, operational skills, technology and development, resource planning and preservation rights, communication and collaboration, and continuous learning.
The training methods include specialized courses for skills and knowledge enhancement, academic salons for scholarly discussion, practical simulations for hands-on experience, and issue discussions for problem-solving. NDPP also utilizes modern platforms such as a WeChat official account for information dissemination and a project website for resource sharing, which includes ongoing updates, training materials, and research findings. Bi-monthly bulletins and annual research reports are produced to keep the team informed of global advancements in the field. At the same time, nationwide academic conferences and open days promote broader cooperation and understanding of digital preservation. Educational handbooks and promotional materials are produced to increase public recognition of the importance of digital preservation.
Based on this framework, the NDPP has developed a plan for training activities in 2024, after which feedback will be collected and the framework improved. NDPP will continue to expand training for business management teams and strengthen alliance cooperation in digital preservation in China.
Keywords – digital preservation capability, staffing, training, NDPP
This article explores a framework for enhancing team capabilities suitable for the current and future development of the NDPP [1]. The NDPP is an acronym for Chinese National Digital Preservation Program for Scientific and Technology Literature. In 2013, with funding from the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL), the National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSLC) took the lead in establishing the NDPP based on preliminary studies and practices in digital preservation.
The NDPP is a cooperative system involving over 200 academic libraries and includes multiple preservation nodes at key institutions, supported by funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology. The main objectives of the NDPP are: (1) to explore compliant preservation of digital publications in China and participate in the preservation of global digital publications (NDPP was one of the earliest members of the Keepers Registry); (2) to serve as a backup for publisher services, ensuring Chinese users' access to subscribed resources.
The NDPP adopts a collaborative preservation model involving multiple institutions, establishing preservation nodes at major participating institutions. Each preservation institution undertakes negotiations for different resources, securing preservation rights based on their subscriptions and agreements with publishers, and ensuring compliant preservation practices. Within the framework of these preservation agreements, the NDPP explores mechanisms for mutual backup among nodes to more effectively guarantee data security. Currently, the NDPP has preserved various types of academic resources, including journal articles, e-books, dissertations, conference papers, laboratory manuals, software, and factual data.
In 2023, the NSTL Digital Preservation Center was officially established at NSLC, fully advancing the construction of the NDPP. Currently, three preservation nodes have been established in key institutions(NSLC since 2013, ISTIC since 2014, PKU library since 2015); three more are under construction with plans to undertake preservation work soon (started in 2022, with the preservation platform beginning construction in 2023). As the construction of the NDPP expands and deepens, more institutions and working teams are involved in digital preservation, and the demand for enhancing the understanding of the digital preservation-related conceptual framework, knowledge background, and technical capabilities, etc., as well as the need for community communications, is increasing. To better enhance team capabilities and build an energetic digital preservation community, the NDPP set out to design a digital preservation capability training framework suitable for the NDPP.
The NDPP has been dedicated to enhancing the awareness of digital preservation within China and advancing the associated efforts. In 2016 and 2017, NDPP hosted two nationwide digital preservation training courses(approximately 80-100 participants for each), and held two nationwide academic seminars in the field of digital preservation in 2018(120+ participants) and 2019(180+ participants).
The NDPP has developed a project website for promotional activities and academic resource sharing. In 2021, the NDPP launched a WeChat official account to push relevant news, cutting-edge developments, and resource recommendations to the digital preservation community and the public. Currently, the number of WeChat official account users has reached 840.
Beginning in 2022, the NSTL prepared to establish a Digital Preservation Center. To efficiently raise the understanding of digital preservation and the specific work of the NDPP among the cooperative institutions, various specialized training sessions were conducted. The training content included: an understanding and awareness of the basic concepts of digital preservation, international standards, and regulations related to digital preservation, the current state of digital resource preservation and resource planning, knowledge related to rights management (policies and laws and regulations), skills for rights negotiation and communication, digital preservation technology and tools, technical development and operation and maintenance of preservation systems, functions and use of preservation systems, resource data analysis and preservation plan design, the concept of integrity auditing of preserved resources, and organization of workgroups, among others.
In 2023, with the establishment of the Digital Preservation Center, the NDPP began compiling a digital preservation capability development framework and a training curriculum that would be applicable to the needs of the NDPP (and the digital preservation community in China) for now and in the future. This effort is driven by two objectives: one is to more effectively enhance work capacity and efficiency of the team, and the other is to foster the development of competencies in subsequent personnel.
The NDPP team is structured with multiple layers, including the decision-making layer (responsible for reviewing and making decisions on important matters), the management layer (responsible for driving the implementation of preservation work, negotiating and solving issues that arise during work progression, communication between and within institutions, fulfilling tasks and requirements, participating in discussions and formulation of overall planning, annual plans, and work specifications), and the dedicated teams (responsible for the practical execution of preservation-related tasks at the operational level).
This article focuses on the operational level to discuss the capacity building of dedicated teams to ensure the effective implementation of preservation work.
The NDPP has established two dedicated teams at the operational level to handle the daily work of digital preservation, ensuring that resources are securely, intact, and reliably preserved, and providing emergency services when trigger events occur.
(1) Technology and Operations Team
This team is responsible for long-term preservation technical systems and archive management-related work, Including formulating long-term preservation technical procedures and archiving management specifications, responsible for resource archiving and quality control, responsible for the construction and operation management of long-term preservation systems and infrastructure, track and monitor the latest developments in long-term preservation technologies and systems, participate in the development of new preservation systems, responsible for implementing the activation and deactivation of emergency public service systems based on trigger events, responsible for the security management of archived data and storage systems and the implementation of disaster recovery plans. Team members come from all participating institutions.
(2) Resources and Rights Team
This team is responsible for work related to the management of long-term preservation rights and interests, including assisting in the formulation of preservation resource policies, responsible for the preparation of relevant specifications and management procedures for long-term preservation rights management, responsible for the negotiation, acquisition, and rights management of preservation resources, as well as assisting in resolving related issues within resource preservation archiving. Team members come from all participating institutions.
The NDPP team consists of over 90 individuals from six participating institutions (including three newly joined), of which about 80 are dedicated team members. Members of the dedicated team were primarily engaged in their respective institutions' resource development and technical operations before joining the digital preservation team, and they continued their original job roles while part-time participating in NDPP's digital resource preservation work.
We conducted a preliminary survey and collation of information on the academic background, professional skills, and digital preservation-related work undertaken by the current members of the NDPP dedicated teams.
Team | Major | Number of people |
---|---|---|
Technology and Operations Team | Computer and Software Engineering | 23 |
Network technology | 4 | |
Art Design | 1 | |
Resources and Rights Team | Library Science, Information Science | 45 |
Documentation resource construction | 5 | |
Business management | 2 | |
News | 1 | |
Jurisprudence | 1 |
The survey revealed that members of the Technology and Operational Team possess foundational information technology literacy and experience in IT and operational management. Members of the Resource and Rights Team are primarily engaged in resource development and have extensive contact and communication experience with publishers. Overall, they possess good work capabilities and experience.
Although the professional backgrounds of the NDPP staff are comprehensive overall, they are distributed across different institutions, where there are various degrees of skill mismatches internally; many team members have only been exposed to digital preservation for a short time and still have significant gaps in their knowledge and skills pertinent to digital preservation; even among those team members who have been involved in digital preservation work for some time, there are certain misconceptions and knowledge deficiencies; and there are also communication barriers among different institutions and team members. The specifics are as follows:
(1) There is some understanding of digital preservation, but there still exists confusion over certain concepts and principles.
(2) The grasp of international standards and norms related to digital preservation is either superficial or non-existent, necessitating further understanding and study.
(3) There is a lack of understanding and awareness of the technical tools and systems related to digital preservation.
(4) The content of negotiations related to digital preservation is different from that of normal commercial resource procurement, with different focal points.
(5) Team members come from 6 different institutions, and communication barriers to some extent exist, leading to less fluid information sharing and dialogue.
In terms of research on the digital preservation competency framework, DPC has done a lot of work and designed a comprehensive digital preservation competency framework, which contains 28 skill elements in 5 competency areas [2] . DPC also provides an assessment tool [3], a series of description samples [4] , which provides an effective tool for assessing the teams' digital preservation capabilities. Reference to the DPC Competency Framework and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) survey of digital preservation practitioners [5], along with the NDPP's digital preservation workflows and business needs, allows for a comparative analysis of the current status and improvement needs of the NDPP team members' abilities.
The NDPP teams’ personnel originally focused primarily on resource development and technical operations. There are varying degrees of lacking in knowledge and skills related to digital preservation. By combining the team’s responsibilities, NDPP's digital preservation workflows, the DPC's digital preservation capability framework, and the NDSA survey, an analysis of capability requirements for each team can be performed.
Based on an analysis of the capability needs of the preservation workflow and integrating it with the core business at various stages of the NDPP business process, analysis, and integration of the core competencies and skill requirements of the work team are carried out to form a business capability requirements framework.
Team | Responsibilities | Capability Requirements |
---|---|---|
Resources and Rights Team | Resource Planning and Task Allocation | Risk analysis, resource management, planning and decision-making, digital preservation |
Agreement Negotiation and Signing | communication (with publishers ), teamwork, laws and regulations | |
Rights Management and Implementation | communication (with publishers ), teamwork, laws and regulations | |
Technology and Operations Team | Data Analysis and Development | communication (with publishers ), team collaboration, programming development, relevant standards and specifications |
Data Archiving and Backup | Standards and specifications related to communication, team collaboration, workflow implementation, infrastructure, and digital preservation | |
Archive Quality Control | Communication, team collaboration, workflow implementation, relevant standards and specifications | |
Emergency Services and Management | Communication, teamwork, laws and regulations, | |
System Construction and Operation and Maintenance | Communication, team collaboration, programming development, workflow development and implementation, infrastructure, digital preservation related standards and specifications |
NDPP team members have a certain background in relevant knowledge, but there is a lack of understanding and some misconceptions about digital preservation and related work. Most NDPP team members are part-time digital preservationists, undertaking a multitude of other tasks, and therefore have limited time available for training. This necessitates the selection and design of efficient, targeted core skills training that balances foundational knowledge with practical skills, as well as knowledge updating and sustainable development. The focus of the training should be on enhancing capabilities.
The capability development goals for the NDPP team are to enhance skills relevant to digital preservation work; to improve the standardization of team operations, ensuring efficiency in archiving tasks and the quality of archived data; to ensure operational compliance with relevant laws, regulations, and international standards; to secure the trustworthiness and sustainability of digital preservation; and to keep abreast of cutting-edge and new technologies, ensuring the team's knowledge is up to date and continuously advancing.
Combining the NDPP's digital preservation workflows and practical requirements, a digital preservation knowledge system encompassing six domains was developed for the NDPP. The DigCurV Curriculum Framework [6] was also referenced during the design process.
Training on foundational knowledge of digital preservation for all team members, including the basic principles and concepts of digital preservation, relevant international standards, and specifications, as well as strategies and methods for the preservation of digital resources. Through the learning of knowledge in the field of digital preservation, the team's knowledge and understanding of digital preservation will be enhanced and the awareness of digital preservation will be consolidated.
The learning of operational skills is mainly for Technical and Operations Team members. It covers aspects such as the functional modules and usage workflows of the NDPP digital preservation system, audit system functions and usage, data analysis and the use of template tools, as well as service system functions and usage. Through training in operational skills, it is ensured that data archiving personnel can proficiently use all functions of the NDPP digital preservation system, guaranteeing the quality of data archiving, and ensuring the quality and effectiveness of services.
Technology and development training is primarily for Technology and Operations Team members. This includes the technical development and maintenance of the NDPP digital preservation system, the development of data processing tools and plugins, digital preservation technologies and tools, data format risks, data migration, and format conversion, etc. Through technology and development training, the practical abilities of team members in technical development and operational maintenance will be enhanced, which will provide technical support for the continuous and stable operation of the NDPP digital preservation system.
Resource planning and preservation rights training are mainly for members of the Resources and Rights Team. The training includes topics such as digital resource risk assessment, digital resource preservation strategies and planning, relevant legal and regulatory matters, rights management, and commercial negotiations for rights and interests. The aim of this training is to ensure a unified understanding of resource planning and allocation among the team members, enhance the team's communication and negotiation skills with resource partners, and ensure that both parties can effectively communicate and reach a consensus on the digital preservation of rights and interests.
The development of communication and collaboration skills is open to all team members. Effective communication and team collaboration are the foundational guarantees for the efficient progression of work. The training includes aspects such as communication skills, team collaboration, and sharing domain knowledge. It should be noted that different teams have different priorities for communication needs. For example, the Resources and Rights Team may focus on communication with resource providers (e.g. publishers), while the Technology and Operations Team emphasizes internal communication among the members of various institutions within the team.
Continuous learning ability is crucial for maintaining team vitality and ensuring the sustainability of digital preservation work. Training in this area includes the learning and application of new technologies and tracking of cutting-edge trends. By organizing lectures, discussions, and knowledge-sharing sessions on the latest developments and new technologies in the field ensure the team's knowledge is kept up-to-date and their abilities are enhanced.
NDPP has planned and implemented ten types of activities according to the training content and target audience. The first four types are aimed at the NDPP team, while the latter ones extend to external institutions and the general public within the community.
Specialized training sessions are organized regularly based on specific operational work requirements for the NDPP teams. These sessions cover particular topics such as knowledge of digital preservation, operational skills, technology and development, resource planning, etc.
Academic salons are organized periodically on topics related to digital preservation, where external experts are invited to share knowledge and experiences. Team members are also arranged to conduct research and report on specific subjects to promote proactive learning, such as new systems and tools, new technological developments and applications, trends in industry development, etc.
Small-scale online meetings are held on an ad hoc basis for specific tasks and issues encountered during operational work. Team members exchange experiences, lessons, and discoveries from their work, especially using brainstorming to collectively explore potential solutions to problems.
For topics that require specific operational skills, practical simulation exercises are conducted. Examples include mock negotiations, data analysis simulations, technology development competitions, emergency service drills, and so on.
Information can be pushed to subscribers through the WeChat official account. Current sections include research updates, reading shares, and news updates. Regular sharing related to the field's knowledge, tracking of field trends, and so forth is provided.
The NDPP project website has several sections for resource sharing and information dissemination, including dynamic tracking information for the public, as well as training materials, research findings, and work reports for member services.
Team members are organized to track domestic and foreign research developments. A bulletin is formed regularly (currently bi-monthly) and shared on the project website. An annual research report is also compiled for internal team sharing.
An annual nationwide academic conference is held, inviting field experts to give keynote speeches, and related research and teams to present on topics, sharing the latest research findings. Discussions on technological innovations are held, as well as training and discussion sessions, to promote communication and cooperation in the field of digital preservation across the country.
Open Days are events that last one or a half-day and are targeted at partner institutions and data resource providers (e.g. publishers). The objective is to facilitate a better understanding of digital preservation among all participants and to foster broader collaboration with the NDPP.
Outreach materials targeting the public are designed to spread knowledge about digital preservation and raise awareness of digital preservation across all sectors of society.
To ensure that the training achieves the expected purpose, the NDPP evaluates the effectiveness of the training in several ways.
1) Instant feedback
Based on the training or workshop content, feedback questionnaires are designed and administered immediately after the session. This allows for a timely assessment of the participants' understanding of the material covered, thereby evaluating the effectiveness of the training.
2) Work performance inspection
This primarily involves evaluating whether work efficiency has improved post-training. For example, the performance of participants is observed in their actual work environment or during practical simulations.
3) Participants’ Evaluation and Continuous Improvement
Participants evaluate the effectiveness of the training and provide suggestions for improvements as well as further training needs.
As new technologies continuously emerge, the need for digital preservation-related technology and skills is constantly evolving. Building a learning-oriented team, and maintaining knowledge and skill updates, is a vital aspect of sustainable digital preservation.
NDPP has currently established a training framework that includes knowledge content across six areas and ten types of activities and has formulated an implementation plan for the year 2024. Subsequent related training activities will be gradually carried out, and we look forward to achieving desirable results. NDPP will also continue to refine the training framework based on the effectiveness of the training and feedback from team members and will further expand the training for business management teams.
In the future, NDPP will also enhance the alliance cooperation within China for digital preservation, increase the promotion of NDPP, strengthen the advocacy of digital preservation and knowledge popularization training, and expand the reach of knowledge sharing.