NDIIPP Partner Perspectives on Economic Sustainability

This article presents results from the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) Digital Preservation Sustainability Working Group survey, conducted in 2007. The Library of Congress initiated the working group to gather information about significant issues relating to the economic sustainability of activities that support digital stewardship. The group decided the most useful method to collect information was through a series of structured telephone interviews involving several open-ended questions. Eleven NDIIPP partners were invited to participate. Interviews gathered qualitative information about a variety of economic sustainability issues, including developing business cases, implementing business models, measuring costs, and developing a stable economic basis for digital preservation programs. Survey results revealed a mix of consensus and division on various issues and shed interesting light upon the sustainability of preservation programs generally. The article provides an overview of the survey and its methodology, categorizes the responses, and draws some high-level conclusions. While the survey results should be viewed within the context of NDIIPP, they may be useful for archives, libraries, and other preservation institutions as they consider economic sustainability issues. Introduction The economic sustainability of digital preservation programs has been among the core concerns of the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) since the beginning of the program.1 When NDIIPP was established in 2000, the LiNDIIPP Partner Perspectives on Economic Sustainability