VRC: Preservation Risk Management for Web Resources

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VRC Preservation Risk Management for Web
Resources Nancy Y. McGovern, Archiving Web
Resources 2004
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VRC Funding

• Part of a 4(5)-year NSF-funded project
• supported by the Digital Libraries Initiative,
  Phase 2 (Grant No. IIS-9905955, the Prism
  Project)
• Also partially funded by a grant from
  The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• Political Communications Web Archiving
  http//www.crl.edu/content/PolitWeb.htm

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Current Team

• Anne R. Kenney, Research Advisor
• Nancy Y. McGovern, Project Manager
• Richard Entlich, Sr. Researcher
• William R. Kehoe, Technology Coordinator
• Ellie Buckley, Digital Research Specialist

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Research

• "Preservation Risk Management for Web Resources
  Virtual Remote Control in Cornell's Project
  Prism"
• by Kenney, McGovern, et al, in DLib Magazine,
  January 2002
• http//www.dlib.org/dlib/january02/kenney/01kenney
  .html
• "Virtual Remote Control
• Building a Preservation Risk Management Toolbox
  for Web Resources"
• by McGovern, Kenney, et al, in DLib Magazine,
  April 2004
• http//www.dlib.org/dlib/april04/mcgovern/04mcgove
  rn.html

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Virtual

• because VRC develops models
• to represent essential features of selected Web
  sites
• that enable ongoing monitoring over time
• to identify, respond to, and mitigate potential
  risks to the site integrity and longevity

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Remote

• because VRC is intended for use by cultural
  heritage institutions interested in the longevity
  of Web resources
• that reside on remote servers
• not owned or managed by the monitoring
  institution

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Control

• because at the most proactive end of the VRC
  approach, a monitoring organization may act to
  protect another organization's resources
• by agreement or implicit consent
• through notification and/or action

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Types of Web Resources

• Two types of initiatives for monitoring and/or
  capture of
• Web-based publications Web site as a means
• All (or a subset) of a Web site consisting of
  pages within a boundary defined by a URL - or a
  portion of one Web site as an end (VRC)

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Risk Factors

• Organizational Context
• Combination of indicators
• Monitoring (change/loss over time)
• Triggers (events, organizational, upgrades)
• Degradation of site management indicators

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VRC Stages

• Identification
• Analysis
• Appraisal
• Strategy
• Detection
• Response

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Human Tool Scenario

• 1. Identification
• Human identify Web resources of interest
• Toolbox verify list, expand list
• 2. Analysis
• Toolbox crawl sites, generate characterizations
• Human accept/revise characterizations
• 3. Appraisal
• Human define/review attributes of value
• Toolbox support appraisal, capture results

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Human Tool Scenario

• 4. Strategy
• Human develop/review strategies
• Toolbox plot appraisals, compile strategies
• 5. Detection
• Human define risk parameters
• Toolbox identify/assess risks propose responses
• 6. Response
• Toolbox propose risk response based on rules
  automatic response for some risk categories
• Human monitor automated responses select
  response based on recommended actions

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Risk Display Grid
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Monitoring Layers
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Web Crawling

• traversing Web sites via links
• a capability common to most tools, but with
  different purposes and results
• the VRC toolkit needs more than just Web crawlers

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VRC Toolbox

• Identify tools for each stage (adopt, adapt,
  define, devise)
• Leverage existing apply to longevity
• Analyze steps - automated and manual
• Formalize protocol
• Provide a framework to map existing, plug gaps
  with developments

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VRC Toolkit

• Development steps
• extensive literature review
• development of tool categories
• definition of categories and test protocols
• survey existing tools for evaluation
• select representative for testing
• highlight findings in category summaries

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Tool Categories

• Link checkers
• Site monitors
• Web crawlers
• Site managers
• Change Detectors
• Site Mappers (includes visualization)
• HTML Validators

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VRC and Other Approaches

• Risk Management Records Management
• Passive (monitor) ? active (capture)
• Lifecycle support selection to capture
• Human (curator) tool interaction
• Structural and change models of resources
• Promulgate preservation practices
• Understand Web resources and risks

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Characteristics Benefits

• Comprehensive tracking that include archival and
  non-archival
• Management of pre-agreement interests
• Leverage tools beyond crawlers
• Value of resource models for access
  preservation
• Overkill for simple capture

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Access

• is not the focus of the research, but
• Presumes OAIS environment
• Treats pages and sites as objects
• View instances over time, related topical
  resources over time
• Safety net of last best version

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Preservation

• Capture as active option
• Records management-like control monitor change
  at varying levels
• Incremental capture deconstruction
• Format-level and page-type management

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For more info on VRC

• nm84_at_cornell.edu
• http//irisresearch.library.cornell.edu/VRC/