Roles and Responsibilities

At ICPSR, digital preservation is carried out as a distributed function that is integrated into operations across the organization:

• The Metadata and Preservation unit is responsible for developing and promulgating good practice to align ICPSR with the digital preservation community.
• Curation staff at ICPSR ensure that core preservation activities are completed and documented, as data and associated files are acquired, processed, and prepared for release.
• The Information and Technology unit at ICPSR supports digital preservation by ensuring and enforcing data security, overseeing the development of automated tools and workflows for processing and preserving data and its associated content, and coordinating the creation and secure management of copies of files over time.
• The Director and the Associate Director of ICPSR, the Data Stewardship Policy Committee, the Strategy Group, archive directors, and archive managers all participate in digital preservation at ICPSR through decision-making and other contributions that inform policies and practice.
• The ICPSR Council, an elected advisory board, evaluates high-level policy documents and reviews programmatic plans and progress.