Sustainability

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In the context of digital content, ‘sustainability’ can be defined as having a mechanism in place for generating, or gaining access to, the economic resources necessary to keep the intellectual property or the service available on an ongoing basis. It is the means to keep a digital collection online after its initial funding has ended.

The sustainability of digital content must be included as part of the overall business planning process for the work. Right from the start, ways must be found which will provide the means (technical, financial, organisational) to keep content not only on a permanent basis, but also make sure it becomes part of the organisation's collection development plans.

Key principles

There are no hard and fast rules for success. Every project has its own set of circumstances and there is no 'one size fits all' model, but at the heart of a good sustainability plan are a number of key principles.

1. Plan early

There are a number of practical aspects which need to be thought through as part of the business plan. These include the kind of financial models which will provide the necessary budget to keep things going and being clear about what tasks are needed to sustain the content and develop it. It is not enough to cover operating costs; projects need to generate capital for ongoing reinvestment in their content and/or technology if they are to grow and thrive.It is essential to think ahead to the future uses of the resource: will the collection be simply maintained or will it continue to be developed? Might it be integrated into another resource or repurposed, perhaps to meet the needs of a new audience?

2. Understand your audience

Time spent at the outset of a project to define and understand the audience who will use the content and what their needs are is time well spent as it will help focus long-term planning on what users value rather than on the values of the organisation.

3. Select and develop a viable business model

Choosing a revenue model or models is crucial to keeping content online once the core funding has come to an end. Options may include subscriptions, advertising, sponsorship, licensing, sales or a combination of these.

4. Use appropriate standards

Being flexible and imaginative during the content creation process whilst always using appropriate technical standards will help to make sure that options for the future are kept open and that content can safely be preserved and re-used with confidence. To assist in future data migration, resources should be designed so that their individual components are distinct and detachable. In other words, each component can be updated, altered or removed without interfering with another part of the system.

5. Maintain documentation

Careful documentation of all aspects of the project (systems and processes, workflow methodology, standards, schemas, formats, other technical details) is fundamental and enables different project teams to maintain the resource much more easily.

6. Experiment

Most projects will arrive at the right business model, the right pricing model, or the right ‘sales’ pitch only after multiple attempts. Flexibility, willingness to experiment and an entrepreneurial spirit on the part of the project team is crucial. Engaging in a recurring process of trying new things and adapting plans to fit lessons learned is critical to longer-term success.

Sources of advice and guidance

JISC Digital Media

JISC Digital Media is a JISC Advisory Service, which provides advice, guidance and training to the UK's Further and Higher Education community on creating and managing digital media resources specifically still images, moving images and sound resources. This includes sustainability of digital collections a helpful advice sheet offering an overview of different approaches to sustainability and practical steps projects can take to finance a digital collection beyond the life of the project.

Ithaka Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Resources

The Ithaka suite of products providing advice and guidance on sustainability prepared for the Strategic Content Alliance includes a range of materials.

Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Resources is an initial report that takes a broad look the issues surrounding the mechanisms for pursuing sustainability in not-for-profit projects. It focuses on ‘online academic resources’ (OARs), which are projects whose primary aim is to make content and scholarly discourse available on the web for research, collaboration, and teaching. This includes scholarly journals and monographs as well as digital collections of primary source materials, datasets, and audio-visual materials that universities, libraries, museums, archives and other cultural and educational institutions are putting online. The report is an introductory assessment of the relevant literature focused on not-for-profit sustainability, and it compares the processes pursued in the not-for-profit and education sectors with those pursued by commercial organisations, specifically in the newspaper industry. As well as outlining a range of revenue models, the report also sets out Ithaka's own 'Framework for Sustainable Not-For-Profit Innovation' and tackles the importance of influencing the mindset of those leading the projects.

Two peer review workshops were held to discuss the Ithaka report on Sustainability. A blog report is available that details the discussions from the London event, while Kevin Guthrie's notes from Ithaka's New York session include a list of next steps that were identified for research or concrete measures that would advance sustainability.

In March 2009, a workshop exploring business models and Sustainability (case studies) was held in London. As more materials become available, they will be announced via the Strategic Content Alliance blog.

JISC Sustainability Handbook

The draft JISC Sustainability Handbook provides advice and guidance to all JISC-funded projects and programmes on how it is expected that they will approach sustainability both for individual projects and across JISC programmes. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the synthesis of outcomes across programmes so that all may benefit from the lessons learned, and on the path from development to service.

Reproduction charging models & rights policy for digital images in American art museums

One particular revenue model – online sales of images by museums – is looked at in depth in this 2004 Mellon-funded study produced by KDCS. It explores the cost and policy models adapted by US arts museums in arriving at pricing structures for delivering imaging and rights services, and examines the new market realities and opportunities cultural institutions face due to the transition to digital collections.