Are You Ready? Assessing Whether Organisations are Prepared for Digital Preservation

In early 2009 the Planets project undertook a survey of national libraries, archives and other content-holding organisations in Europe to better understand the organisations’ digital preservation activities and needs and to ensure that Planets’ technology and services are designed to meet them. Over 200 responses were received including a cross-section of major libraries and archives especially in Europe. The results provide a snapshot of organisations’ readiness to preserve digital collections for the future. The survey revealed a high level of awareness of the challenges of digital preservation within organisations. Findings indicated that approximately half of those organisations surveyed have taken measures to develop digital preservation policies and to budget for it, while a majority have incorporated digital preservation into their organisational planning. Organisations predict that within a decade they will need to store large quantities of data in a wide range of formats from a variety of sources; three quarters of them are looking to invest in a solution within the next two years. However, the findings also point to varying degrees of readiness. Organisations with a digital preservation policy are significantly further advanced in their work to preserve digital collections for the long-term than others.