Evaluating Your Digital Archive: Using ISO 16363 As A Self-Assessment Planning Tool

Audiovisual preservation today is a combination of physical and electronic activities, coupled with institutional stability, intentional management, and continuous planning. Because most preservation actions require digitization of audiovisual content, and because almost all contemporary audiovisual media is born-digital, the importance of a trusted digital environment for preservation cannot be overlooked.
The American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress will share outcomes of its digital archives self-assessment using the criteria for trustworthy digital repositories (ISO 16363) as a framework. The assessment focused on AFC archival program's organizational infrastructure and digital object management within the larger ecosystem of the Library of Congress.
AFC is home to one of the largest ethnographic collections in the world, which includes more than 500,000 born-digital holdings of multimedia documentation. Among its largest collection is one of the Library's earliest born-digital collections, StoryCorps, a large-scale oral history project regularly featured on National Public Radio in the US.
Since hiring its first full-time digital assets manager in 2009, the digital collection has matured and formal practices have been established to ensure the same level of preservation to digital collections as has always been provided to AFC’s physical collections. AFC is using ISO 16363 to understand its strengths, identify gaps, and plan for continued improvement to its digital audiovisual preservation activities.
The assessment process challenged AFC staff to articulate the administration, staffing, financial and legal aspects of its digital program as well as how it handles digital objects from ingest to access. The process encourages ongoing monitoring and evaluation, and will enable AFC to make accurate claims about its program's performance. Presenters will discuss assessment results, how they are addressing key findings, and insights for other audiovisual archivists interested in self-assessment.