Does the organization have a mandate and commitment to preserve digital assets within its worry radius? The answer determines the level of resources committed to the program and the manner in which the resources are applied.
A policy framework is a set of explicit statements that defines the organization’s level and nature of commitment and responsibility. This list describes the types of policies, procedures and other documents associated with each element of the merged model framework.
- OAIS compliance: an explicit statement that confirms the organization’s commitment to complying with the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) standard.
- Administrative responsibility: a high-level statement that demonstrates a commitment to track and comply with current and emerging standards embraced by the preservation community.
- Organizational viability: a mission statement and comprehensive policies that document and authorize the steps an organization undertakes to receive, store, preserve, and provide access to digital materials under its care, encompassing legal, fiscal, and ethical considerations and requirements.
- Financial sustainability: accounting and budget policies and procedures that are part of a business plan to define and protect requisite resources for the digital preservation program.
- Technological suitability: a set of principles, policies, and procedures that define the plan for developing and maintaining requisite hardware, software, expertise, and techniques to support and enable the digital preservation program, including adherence to relevant standards and industry best practice.
- System security: a set of policy statements and procedures that confirm the organization’s commitment to maintaining a constant and appropriate level of environmental and online protection; surveillance; and risk detection, response, and mitigation to safeguard the integrity of digital assets.
- Procedural accountability: a coherent and systematic means for documenting, sharing, and applying the set of policy statements and associated procedures and prevailing practice. These are often external to the organization itself.