The Digital Curation Centre has released Digital Curation and Preservation Policies in Scottish HEIs: Survey Results.
Here's an excerpt:
The survey showed that repositories are still relatively young, and that preservation is not yet the highest priority for them. The situation with preservation policies also reflects the early stage of repository development, where the need to apply explicit curation policies is only beginning to be acknowledged.
The survey did not identify any institution level preservation policies, but given the heterogeneity of digital information across any higher education institution, it is not surprising that institution-wide preservation policies have yet to be formulated. Repository level policies were found to be in place at four institutions that also reported to be offering preservation services.
The survey reported a very low level of awareness of both existing preservation policies and digital preservation issues in general, especially amongst administrative and research staff. Enforcing preservation policies and making them effective are challenges that all HEIs face; at the same time, this formative period could be considered an opportunity for the ERIS project to develop supporting tools and guidance, especially since the prospect of additional guidance and the possibility of centralised services for preservation were welcomed by the respondents.
