KeepIt course 5: Trust

KeepIt course module 5, Northampton, 30 March 2010
Tools this module: TRAC, DRAMBORA
Tags Find out more about: this module KeepIt course 5, the full KeepIt course
Presentations and tutorial exercises course 5 (source files)

“Say what you do. Do what you say. Show that you do what you say.

“All of this leads to trust.”

Colati and Shreeves, Digital Repository Management Uncovered, Webwise 2010

We have reached the final lap of our recap of the KeepIt course on Digital Preservation Tools for Repository Managers. The aim of this recap is to pull together the different resources employed for the course to make it suitable for independent study and use.

As usual, this module introduces readily-available tools through presentations and practicals, and our primary presenter is a one of the developers of the main tool we shall be covering.

[slideshare id=3664501&doc=keepit-course5-intro-100408044938-phpapp01]

The topic for this session is trust, and in the context of the course this is last by design, but certainly not least. Colati and Shreeves reveal very succinctly why trust matters.

Most people want to be trusted, but trust takes time to establish. The same applies for repositories, and there is a cost attached. For new repositories, therefore, trust can be an over-emphasised virtue, at least initially. But with maturity comes responsibility, and trust becomes a feature a repository will wish to measure and demonstrate, especially in the context of digital preservation. Any repository manager who has completed and applied this course will want to demonstrate the results and benefits – they will want to be seen to be trusted.

Trust is also a two-way issue. A repository may want to be trusted by its users; it also want to be able to trust the tools and services it uses.

KeepIt course 5 covers two tools to manage and measure trust, and its counterpart, risk. TRAC, Trusted Repository Audit and Certification, is a checklist of criteria for assessing the degree of trust attained by a repository, and is introduced with a short group exercise. Our main tool in this module, DRAMBORA, is covered more extensively, again, with practical work to the fore.

This module, and the course, completes with a full-course revision session.