The Big Picture Model of digital preservation. How preservation policy, cost and infrastructure together shape long-term digital accessibility

As more and more collections curated by archives, libraries, media, museums and research centres are made available on-line in digital form, there is a growing need for ensuring that they remain accessible in the long term. This is a big ask for the responsible heritage organisations, which need not just expertise, but a combination of crucial factors such as qualified staff, infrastructure and budgets. The Dutch Digital Heritage Network (NDE) has designed a model that can help curators of digital collections get to grips with all the important aspects in decision making related to digital preservation. This model is called the Big Picture Model of digital preservation.

The Big Picture Model is the result of three separate NDE projects. Firstly, preservation policy has long been a special field of interest for the NDE. This has fuelled the development of a tool known as the ‘Guide to Preservation Policy’. 

Secondly, the NDE performs a great deal of research into the use of infrastructural solitions by heritage organisations. And research into the way in which heritage organisations implement digital archival systems and other tools for ensuring that digital information remains accessible in the long term. 

Important factors in this research are are whether opportunities exist for sharing infrastructure and tools and, if so, how this can be done. Finally, the NDE has devised a cost model for calculating the cost of preserving digital information. The new Big Picture model now brings together these three separate 

strands, i.e. policy, infrastructural solutions and cost. 

The NDE’s dream is to foster collaboration among heritage organisations. The network was established in order to enable the heritage industry to develop a system of national facilities and services for improving the visibility, usability and preservability of the country’s digital heritage. An important aim is to develop facilities and tools that can help heritage organisations do their work even better. 

We hope that, armed with the Big Picture Model, heritage organisations will now find it easier to make smart choices. It’s not a matter of telling other people what to do; it’s all about members of the network helping each other.