Working with the Libraries on preserving digital materials

Preservation of grant materials

If the grant you are proposing includes producing digital materials that should be preserved for the long-term by the Libraries, please follow the process below.

General information to review

Preservation vs Access

Understand that preservation and access are different. Most grants require both. For example, if materials are digitized, they are then made publicly available via a repository or website. The Libraries does not preserve the ways the files are being made accessible, we preserve the files that access is being granted to as the discovery platforms can change over time.

Grants with ASC Materials

  • Materials already held by ASC fall into the scope of materials that can be preserved by the Libraries.
  • Discussions should take place between the unit staff, Digital Preservation staff, ERMG, and DLS to discuss outputs to ensure adequate preservation storage is available as well as preservation ready formats.

Grants creating new materials

  • Grants run by Library staff that will create new digital outputs should understand their long-term preservation and access needs.
    • What types of outputs will the grant develop? Where will these be made accessible? Which of these should be preserved by the libraries?
  • Discussions should take place between the unit staff, Digital Preservation staff, ERMG, and DLS to discuss outputs to ensure adequate storage is available for the preservation files as well as preservation ready formats.
  • What are preservation files?
    • Most often these will be the final outputs that the Library wishes to preserve, not the working files or intermediate files used to create the final shared output.
    • In some cases additional files may be used to create the final outputs that will be preserved. These may or may not be appropriate to preserve in the preservation repository, as determined through conversations with Digital Preservation staff. original If not, these materials should be included in the grant project files and managed by the grant administrator.

Administrative Grant Project Files

  • It is the responsibility of the grant project administrators to manage and preserve the administrative grant project files. These will not be preserved by the digital preservation department.
  • Be aware of the requirements of the grant for the amount of time for which grant materials need to be kept. This time frame could range from 1-7 years or more.

Discuss your project with Digital Preservation and DLS

Contact Digital Preservation staff (lib-dp@umn.edu) to discuss your project and expected outcomes.

  • Follow the preferred file formats guide for preservation. If the format you expect to create/receive is different, this should be discussed when contacting Digital Preservation.
  • Discuss outputs including expected file formats and total size of materials to be preserved. [working on formulas to assist with some file types]
  • Discuss timeline of when the materials are expected to be completed and ready for preservation.

Contact DLS (dls@umn.edu)

  • DLS is often available for creating digitized images.  Contact DLS if you will be requesting them to assist in your project or looking for digitization guidance.

Contact Digital Preservation when the project is complete

  • Reach out to lib-dp@umn.edu as the project is wrapping up to determine the best pathway for sending the materials for preservation
Last Updated: Dec 1, 2023 8:41 AM