Applying the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model
The documentary heritage and the scientific record are increasingly born digital. The UK based Digital Curation Centre supports institutions who store, manage and preserve such data to help ensure its enhancement and continuing long-term use. The DCC (Digital Curation Centre) Curation Lifecycle Model provides a generic graphical high-level overview of the stages required for successful curation and preservation of digital material from initial conceptualisation. The model can be used to plan curation and preservation activities, to ensure sustainability of digital material, within an organisation or consortium. It's application can help ensure that all necessary stages are undertaken, each in the correct sequence. The model is used by the DCC: as a curation training tool; an internal planning tool to ensure that information, services and advisory material cover all areas of the lifecycle; to contextualise standards within the DCC DIFFUSE Standards Project; and to structure advisory case-study work. Externally it has been adopted by a number of organisations as the framework for curation activities and to date has been used to conceptualise processes by the UK Research Data Service and some JISC initiatives. This paper will present the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model and highlight some of the current applications of it.