Help
Frequently asked questions:
- How can I see what others spend on digital curation?
- What is digital curation?
- What qualifies as costs of digital curation?
- I don’t want others to see my cost data right now.
- How do I start?
- Why are our curation costs lower/ higher than in other organisations?
- What happens to my data?
1. How can I see what others spend on digital curation?
After you submit 1) a little profile information about your organisation, 2) cost data about (a part of) your organisation, and 3) share this data with other registered users, you can compare your cost data to theirs. The tool offers two kinds of comparison with others: you either compare your costs to the average costs of a group of organisations, or one-to-one with a single peer organisation.
Please note that you and others can submit these data anonymously, even when you decide to contact another organisation to discuss differences in spending and curation practices.
2. What is digital curation?
Digital curation is a series of repository activities including ingest, data management, (archival) storage, preservation planning, access, common services, repository administration, as well as pre-repository (production and pre-ingest - appraisal, selection, preparation, rights), post-repository and management activities.
3. What qualifies as costs of digital curation?
The tool assumes the widest possible definition of digital curation from the point a digital object is conceived through various changes and storage systems, which may range from a researcher’s laptop to a national library or archive, through to its discovery and use. This implies that different organisations might submit different types of costs to the tool.
4. I don’t want others to see my cost data right now.
That’s fine. You can use the tool for a self-assessment: it can provide a high level overview of your current spending in digital curation, which may be used as evidence to inform your strategic decisions.
In your organisation profile you can select the sharing options that suit you. You can choose to submit your cost data anonymously. For all three kinds of cost comparison - with a peer organisation, with a group of organisations, or as a self-assessment - the cost data must be switched from “Draft” to “Final”. However, you can return them to “Draft” mode, should you want to do so.
5. How do I start?
When you already know the costs of digital curation in (a part of) your organisation, … > video and steps
When you want to know how you can model your costs, … > understand your costs.
6. Why are our curation costs lower/ higher than in other organisations?
That is a crucial question, but one that tools cannot answer. The budget spent on digital curation is related to the mission and ambition of an organisation, as well as on the value that the digital assets have for this organisation. “Value” is one of several indirect, intangible, cost drivers. Read more about indirect cost drivers.
Nevertheless, the Curation Costs Exchange helps you to gain insights from experiences of others and pinpoint challenges, which you then can discuss with colleagues or other stakeholders. You can use the e-mail option in the tool to contact other users.
7. What happens to my data?
All data that you submit to the tool will be used solely for the purposes of building up aggregated data sets for comparison. You may edit personal information at any time and no personally identifiable information will be published without the express permission of the individual or organisation concerned. Read the privacy policy.
Contact us
Send us an email with your comments or questions.
Report a problem
Send a report to our developer team.
