Determining costs of archiving data in IRs

A new report from JISC investigates the medium to long term costs to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of the preservation of research data and developed guidance for HEFCE and institutions on these issues.

The report, 'Keeping Research Data Safe', provides an essential methodological foundation on research data costs and will assist HEIs and funding bodies wishing to establish strategies and TRAC costings for longterm data management and archiving. The study provides a framework and guidance for determining costs consisting of:

• A list of key cost variables and potential units of record;
• An activity model divided into pre-archive, archive, and support services;
• A resources template including major cost categories in TRAC, divided into the major phases from the activity model and by duration of activity.

The report focus is on research data, though it is likely that some aspects of the guidance will also be relevant to repositories containing other materials. If you read the report and have any ideas about this, please do post them here!

RSP 2008 Summer School

Applications are now being taken for a place on the 2008 RSP Summer School, to be held in the delightful venue of Thornton Manor in the Wirral.

The RSP Summer School is an intensive three day residential course which aims to deliver a comprehensive programme to address the practical challenges and solutions to effective repository development. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in wide-ranging discussions about repositories and gain hands-on experience with a range of interactive seminars, practical workshops, lectures and panel sessions delivered by a range of expert practitioners.

This year's programme highlights include:

• Metadata & Interoperability
• Preservation
• Advocacy
• Legal issues
• Repository statistics

Further information is available from the RSP website. A limited number of places are available, but don't delay in applying - the deadline for applications is Monday May 26th.

The SUETr training programme

The SUETr training programme is currently under development. Notification of events and training opportunities will be posted here as and when the information becomes available. We expect the training programme will be developed by early June, and training opportunities to commence shortly afterwards.

These training opportunities will be developed and available primarily to staff currently working on SUE projects. A number of other initiatives provide training that is accessible to a wider audience, including the Repositories Support Project, a major JISC initiative to support the development and growth of the UK repositories network.

SUETr - a brief introduction

The SUETR project is developing a training programme for JISC funded 'Start up and Enhancement' (so-called SUE) projects. These projects are exploring a wide range of issues around the provision of repositories to support research, learning and teaching, and other activities. SUETR is developing and providing information about training that will help these projects and repositories to be successful and sustainable into the future.

This blog will be used to disseminate information about SUETR training opportunities and related project information, to SUE projects and anyone else who wants to read about them. We will also post information about new reports or developments in repositories that may impact on a given aspects of a repository's sustainability or success.

At some point, hopefully soon, I will figure out how to add an RSS feed...