Libraries as service-brokers for digital data curation: Practical insights from the DFG project DP4lib (Digital preservation for libraries
Introducing digital curation / preservation services into the portfolio of libraries requires a lot of general process know-how, technology and investment. Out-of the-box solutions for the technology offered by some market participants are hopefully easy to implement technically, but the challenge is to establish a sufficient and durable customer service based on them. Supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) the project Digital Preservation for libraries (DP4lib) pursued the goal of a cooperative service and organizational model for the provisional long-term archiving - understood as an organizational and financial framework to share costs and efforts for digital curation / preservation. In order to allow libraries and other participating institutions a systematic exchange of know-how and valuable services the project therefore processes mutual cooperation relations as an exchange of functional performance and working results into a service model. In addition to the technical implementation of the project it was necessary to develop a comprehensive and pragmatic cost model for service provision between participating organizations. The project is implemented as a generic process model for network-based services: On the one hand technical requirements and tool development to ensure quality controlled hand-over of digital objects including dedicated metadata-sets, on the other hand accounting procedures and processes, which allow partners to define the demanded quality level and correspond the costs and the financial consequences they have to expect.