Jisc has funded several projects focused on training for digital curation. There is high demand for training from organizations taking on responsibility for digital assets, but current supply does not meet this demand. Economic theory suggests organizations are reluctant to fund general training that employees could use elsewhere. However, studies show younger and more educated employees participate more in training due to feelings of reciprocity with their employers. To better address the supply and demand imbalance for digital curation training, more research is needed on the origin of demand and effective course design at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels focused on productivity gains. Fostering trust and reciprocity between organizations and employees could also encourage greater uptake of available training opportunities.

1. Balancing the Books
The Economics of Digital Curation Training
Neil Grindley
Digital Preservation & Curation Programme
Jisc
London, UK
n.grindley@jisc.ac.uk
DigCurV International Conference
6th-7th May 2013
Florence, Italy

2. Jisc Managing Research Data Training Projects
• Curating Artistic Research Output (CAiRO)
• DataTrain
• Research data management training for health studies (DATUM for Health)
• Postgraduate training for research data management in the psychological sciences (DMTpsych)
• Research Data MANTRA
• Data Management Skills and Support Initiative – Assessment, Benchmarking and Classification (DaMSSI-ABC)
• RDMRose
• Research Data Management Training for the whole project lifecycle in Physics & Astronomy research (RDMTPA)
• Sound Data Management Training (SoDaMaT)
• Training for Data Management at UEL (TraD)
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/mrd/rdmtrain.aspx
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/di_researchmanagement/managingresearchdata/research-data-management-training/
Jisc’s contribution to training initiatives
Jisc Digital Preservation Programme (Enhancing Capability within Institutions)
• DataSafe
• Digital Communications Enhancement (DICE)
• Preservation: Promoting Awareness to Researchers (PrePARe)
• Preservation of Historical Research Data (SHARD)
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/preservation/12-11projectlist.aspx
Closing the Digital
Curation Gap (CDCG)
International Digital
Curation Education
Action Group (IDEA)
ICE Forum
Simon Hodson
Jisc MRD
Programme

3. But now let’s go in a slightly different direction ...
A brief look at digital curation training from a costs & economics perspective
A. I hope it makes an original contribution to the conference
B. It’s a good fit for an organisation like Jisc to be interested in ‘the money’ side of things
C. It aligns well with work that has just started which is looking very closely at issues to do with the
costs and economics of digital curation
4C will help organisations across Europe to invest more effectively in digital
curation and preservation. Past research in the area has tended to
emphasize the cost and complexity of the task. 4C reminds us that the
point of this investment is to realise a benefit, so our research must
encompass related concepts such as risk, value, quality and sustainability.
Organizations that understand this will be more able to effectively control
and manage their digital assets over time, but they may also be able to
create new cost-effective solutions and services for others.
http://www.4CProject.eu

4. 4C will help organisations across Europe to invest more effectively in digital
curation and preservation. Past research in the area has tended to
emphasize the cost and complexity of the task. 4C reminds us that the
point of this investment is to realise a benefit, so our research must
encompass related concepts such as risk, value, quality and sustainability.
Organizations that understand this will be more able to effectively control
and manage their digital assets over time, but they may also be able to
create new cost-effective solutions and services for others.
http://www.4CProject.eu
But now let’s go in a slightly different direction ...
A brief look at digital curation training from a costs & economics perspective
A. I hope it makes an original contribution to the conference
B. It’s a good fit for an organisation like Jisc to be interested in ‘the money’ side of things
C. It aligns well with work that has just started which is looking very closely at issues to do with the
costs and economics of digital curation

5. Training as an investment ...
The skills and capabilities that personnel acquire via training have to realise a benefit to
that individual. Sponsorship of training by organisations is all part of the complex
financial equation that ensures that the digital assets owned by that organisation remain
safe and accessible.
The purpose is to look at training through an economic lens to see whether new insights
emerge

6. Current evidence and indications of DEMAND for digital curation training
19 out of every 20 individuals surveyed [by DigCurV] declared that their organisation
either already had, or was going to have, responsibility for the long term care of digital
assets
Well over half of them (57.3%) said that their organisations did not intend to recruit
new staff to deal with this issue
Over a third (35.4%) of respondents said that training would be provided for staff who
had no previous experience. Just under a third (31.4%) said that staff who already had
some expertise would receive further training.

7. There is a great demand for training from staff already engaged in library and
archive settings, and in particular for accessible introductory material.
APARSEN Project
Participants [...] have shown willingness, even urgency, to make pragmatic progress
in the preservation of digital collections. They favour small parcels of practical
advice which is ‘good enough’ over comprehensive theoretical overviews and
inaccessible research questions.
APARSEN Project
Survey carried out for Jisc by Charles Beagrie Ltd. (2013)

8. But what is the actual nature of the demand for training ...?
Who is demanding training? An individual ... an organisation ... a project?
From the economist’s point of view, the issue is not so much about the identity of
the customer when it comes to training, it’s about the relationship (or the
transaction) between the person who would benefit from being trained, and the
person (representing the interests of the organisation as a whole) who can make a
decision whether to sponsor that training or not.
In the real world, people tackle this is many different ways, and use all their
ingenuity, communication and interpersonal skills to get what they want ...
The world of economic theory is rather more mechanistic ...

9. According to standard economic theory ...
Training is a human capital investment decision
Organisations will not invest in general training for their employees and will
under-invest in specific training
General Training
Training that will make the employee
equally useful to many different
organisations
Specific Training
Training that makes the employee useful
within the sponsoring organisation and has
no effect on the productivity of that person
in alternative employment
The ‘perfect market’ = full and open competition between organisations in their
search for human capital; where all training is general; where all organisations train;
all workers are trained; everyone is purely motivated by financial gain

10. Where does this lead us?
Organisations won’t sponsor training because they don’t trust their employees to stay
in post once they have acquired new skills.
No wonder they call it the dismal science!
To be fair, however ... the concept of reciprocity is acknowledged as mitigating some
of the more excessive focus on mechanistic and theory-driven outcomes
Reciprocity = A mutual or cooperative interchange of favours or privileges

11. Reciprocity Study
• Older respondents are less inclined to return a favour in response to someone doing
something that is beneficial to them
• Younger employees are more reciprocal and participate more in training
• Those with more advanced levels of educational attainment are more reciprocal
• There is no systematic relation between respondents’ reciprocal attitudes whether
they are female, migrant, single or have children
• Women are less likely to participate in organisation-sponsored training than men, but
are more likely to participate in training that the organisation does not support
• Employees are more likely to participate in sponsored training when the employer
possesses its own training centre and when the organisation is larger
• Organisations learn quickly about the level of an employee’s reciprocity
• Respondents with a high reciprocity rating were 15% more likely to receive training in
a 12 month period than those declaring low reciprocity
Leuven et al (2003) – http://www.economists.nl/files/20070903-leuvenEA2005.pdf

12. What can we conclude then about demand ...?
There would seem to be a lot of demand and it’s highly likely to develop and increase
That economic theory can frame it in formal ways and may explain unhelpful attitudes
towards the uptake of training opportunities in some organisations
Demand is complicated and full of contextual and fuzzy factors
... And on the basis of some reports, it appears demand is not being met by supply
For example … the DigCurV study states: “Across the groups participants stated a lack of
appropriate training offers.”

13. SUPPLY
Depending on where you look, and what you are looking for, you might argue that it
seems like there are quite a lot of offerings covering all sort of topics at all kinds of
prices from $0 – around $1500 for training
http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2011/07/how-do-you-find-training-on-digital-preservation/
BUT ... We see from surveys and we read in reports and anecdotally we hear
That there is an insufficient supply of training to meet a predictable and growing
demand for training
In economic terms, we have ... MARKET FAILURE
Why have we got market failure and what can we do about it?

14. 5 Possible Reasons
1. Developing training courses or materials for digital curation is disproportionately
expensive or difficult ...?
2. Digital Curation is too technically complex or niche a field and many providers are
not yet in a position to assemble and deliver appropriate training ...?
3. The market for training is confusing and obscure for training providers and they
don’t understand who they would deliver products to ...?
4. There are no established products that address clear tasks that institutions
require someone to tackle ...?
5. There is no obvious level of certified capability that confers credit on the trainer
or the trainee ...?

15. Is this what we
should be
aiming for?
OAIS ISO 14721
TRAC
ISO 16363
DIN 31644
ISO 31000
ISO 27000
DANS DSA
METS (PREMIS)
ISO 10303
LOTAR
ISO 15489-2:2001

16. Of course it may be possible that ...
• The shortfall in supply is only apparent rather than genuine; or what is being
offered is just not understood by potential customers
• The demand is stated but not actual
So what are the implications?
And what should we do about it?

17. The demand-side and the supply side of digital curation training are complex and we
still don’t fully understand either. This indicates lingering immaturity in relation to
other work domains. So this warrants further research – particularly on the precise
origin of the demand within organisations.
We need to carefully design courses and be very clear in the marketing of them
whether they are pitched at a basic, intermediate or advanced level; and we need to
understand very clearly what those levels mean; and what they will enable people to
achieve afterwards. Enabling rapid productivity gains (at all levels) needs to be the
overriding objective.
If standard economic theories about training are (even partially) applicable, then we
have to foster more trust and reciprocity in our organisations to take fuller advantage
of the training that is on offer.

18. One way we might foster that trust is to use career and personal development
opportunities within our organisations as the incentive to stay – rather than the
mechanism which allows people to leave for more lucrative posts
http://mashable.com/2012/12/15/survey-overworking/

19. 365
Days
If sponsoring organisations are unwilling to allow staff the
‘time off work’ to attend training, it is perhaps indicative of a
deeper structural problem within the organisation.
Organisations have a duty to understand the true level of
reciprocity that is occurring between the organisation and its
employees.

20. Days
261 Weekends – 104 days

21. Days
249 Weekends – 104 days
Bank Holidays – 12 days

22. Days
244 Weekends – 104 days
Bank Holidays – 12 days
Sickness – 5 days

23. Days
219 Weekends – 104 days
Bank Holidays – 12 days
Sickness – 5 days
Holidays – 25 days

24. Days
196 Weekends – 104 days
Bank Holidays – 12 days
Sickness – 5 days
Holidays – 25 days
Admin – 23 days

25. Days
184 Weekends – 104 days
Bank Holidays – 12 days
Sickness – 5 days
Holidays – 25 days
Admin – 23 days
Internal Meetings – 12 days

26. Days
174 Weekends – 104 days
Bank Holidays – 12 days
Sickness – 5 days
Holidays – 25 days
Admin – 23 days
Internal Meetings – 12 days
Travelling for Work – 10 days

27. Days
172 Weekends – 104 days
Bank Holidays – 12 days
Sickness – 5 days
Holidays – 25 days
Admin – 23 days
Internal Meetings – 12 days
Travelling for Work – 10 days
Obligatory Training – 2 days

28. Days
167 Weekends – 104 days
Bank Holidays – 12 days
Sickness – 5 days
Holidays – 25 days
Admin – 23 days
Internal Meetings – 12 days
Travelling for Work – 10 days
Obligatory Training – 2 days
Career & Personal development – 5 days

29. Days
167 Weekends – 104 days
Bank Holidays – 12 days
Sickness – 5 days
Holidays – 25 days
Admin – 23 days
Internal Meetings – 12 days
Travelling for Work – 10 days
Obligatory Training – 2 days
Career & Personal Development – 5 days
CORE Productive year – 167 days

30. What relevance does all of this thinking about training issues have for the 4C Project
and other projects working in the digital curation space?
It’s certainly made me realise that training and skills and capability within
organisations (to undertake digital curation) is an important indirect economic
determinant.
And consequently (as a potential threat to the sustainability of digital assets) this
needs to be a component part of the Economic Sustainability Reference Model that
we are continuing to develop.
And we need to think carefully about our stakeholder engagement with training and
education professionals and what information they might usefully extract from the
Curation Costs Exchange (CCEx)

31. And finally ...
One of the things I was asked to do was to think about the overall rationale for
investment in human capital in the digital curation area.
I haven’t really done that here. I’ve assumed that people need to know about digital
curation and I’ve started to investigate whether economics can explain some of the
barriers to uptake of training.
So I’ll end with a very quick quote that I think does a good job explaining why we
need to have trained people in our organisations doing effective digital curation ...
“One of the greatest risks we run in not preserving our
own digital assets for ourselves is that we
simultaneously cease to preserve our own viability as
institutions.”
K. Skinner and M. Schultz, Eds. (Atlanta, GA: Educopia Institute, 2010)

32. Thankyou
Neil Grindley I Programme Manager - Digital Preservation & Curation I Jisc
T: +44 (0)203 006 6059 I M: +44 (0)7816 277 573 I Twitter: @neilgrindley I Skype: neil.grindley
n.grindley@jisc.ac.uk