Hope for the best, plan for the worst: Reducing risks associated with repository cessation

Digital preservation entails the need to maintain the accessibility and usability of digital assets for the long term—potentially beyond the lifetime of the repository in which they were initially published. The reasons for repository cessation are manifold, including financial, technical, and organisational reasons. Sometimes, cessation is a planned event, for example, at the end of a funded project, or when the preserved data have fulfilled their purpose. Often though, funding cuts or similar causes for repository shutdown come as a surprise, and repositories may not have sufficient time and resources to find an organisation capable and willing to accept (parts of) the data collection and prepare the actual…

• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• BF
  Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung