State IT. The whole thing.

[Lotte-W]

At my government archive, the state IT is so concerned with hacking and information leaks that they have tied my hands in all of the ways. All. Of. The. Ways. I can't install software, and the process for getting software approved takes a lot of effort. I've taken to finding portable programs to do as much as I can. Can't use any command line programs. They get upset with the amount of data we store, and limit how far back they'll keep back ups for some collections. They offer solutions and then can't follow through, but won't provide me the admin access so I could get it done myself. This is definitely a general digipres headache and maybe should have been multiple complaints, but it all boils down to IT not understanding what we do and why it's important, and them throwing up roadblocks for anything beyond the basics.

[jacobtakema]

This is a really recognizable issue! I've experience this myself at different governmental employers.

Throwing up roadblocks is the main method used by IT to manage the IT infrastructure within an organization, and it's a hard one to deal with.

My 0.20 cents on solution directions:

1. Keep working around the limitations with portable apps. Or even with own laptops/pc's could be a start to get your work done. Offcourse it's not preferabele because of security threat's and dataleaks. But then there is a great reason for IT to have a good dialog/discussion with you!

2. Befriend your IT collegues, the unofficial route. Good relations makes it easier ro explain, educate and create a support base in the IT department. Drink regular coffee with the right persons in the IT dep, create understanding. Short lines of communications can help speed up support and dialog.

3. Preservation and safekeeping of data is your job, and it's important. Get your role acknowledged by (IT) management, in policies, mission statements. If storage and backups is an issue, maybe work on storage policies for your collections. Even better work on them with the IT dep. Try to formalize things.

4. Make clear you're not an average Joe on IT needs. You need more than the basics to do your job. Working with large collections fo data is what you do, so you have corresponding needs!

5. Find common ground on solutions. Admin rights on the general network and pc's scare most IT people off. For example: common ground may be to get admin on a dedicated (virtual) server to run your tools on collections. They can manage the server, you can install your tools. Make arrangements which tools you install. Make a 'you break it, you fix it' deal on the installed tools, so you take potential work out of there hands.

[Asbjoedt]

I agree with Jacob on his points. Especially on the good idea of getting IT to make a virtual machine for your DP needs, where you can install any software you need and log into and use whenever you need it (I had this for my former workplace).

Alternatively, get IT to buy you a highend, vanilla "developer laptop" that is free of any kind of IT security and policies, which you can use for the same purposes (I have this for my current workplace).

Having close relationship/friendship with IT is very beneficial. Usually they are easy to befriend, because you share a similar interest in IT and they understand the purposes of data preservation.

[kuldaraas]

Adding here, that the issue of (state) IT is relevant in two contexts:

• the IT of the archival institution to support the digital archives with the availability and maintenance of archival software needed for ingest (incl. content quality assessment, validation, etc), storage, preservation, and reuse;
• the IT of the submitting institution to support the submitter (archivist, records manager, ..) in preparing content for submission/transfer.

In my experience, the second can be even harder to handle, good communication materials and clear messages about what and why you want the submitter (IT) to do is key. The submitting archivist is often not capable of explaining things sufficiently to their IT!

[jacobtakema]

A good starting point fro using digital preservation tools in a virtual environment is the virtual digital preservation research environment from the DDHN: https://github.com/openpreserve/ddhn-forge