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DP4lib Cost Model (DP4lib)
| Property | Description |
| ID | 7 |
| Name | DP4Lib Cost Model (DP4Lib) |
| Creator and Funding | Developed by the German National Library (DNB) and funded by the German research Foundation (DFG) |
| Status | The latest version of the DP4Lib tool is from 2012. Validation of the model was taking place in 2013. |
| Purpose | The purpose is to support estimating the costs for budgeting, accounting or charging. |
| Information assets | Digital documents, digitised books. |
| Activities | Ingest, Archival Storage, Preservation Planning, Data Management, Administration, Management, Access. |
| Resources | Capital (hardware, software, external services), labour, direct and indirect costs. |
| Time | Past, Present |
| Variables | Hardware, software, people, accommodation, external service, transfer - broken further down; linear depreciation of capital (acquisitions); keys for distributing indirect costs. |
| Type of tool | Recording costs, analysis. |
| Availability of tools | The documentation and description of the model is available online at: http://dp4lib.langzeitarchivierung.de/index_downloads.php.de (The tool is only available in German, and not directly available on the website) |
| References | Report on the DP4lib cost model, A Cost Model for a Long-Term Preservation Service, 2012: http://aparsen.digitalpreservation.eu/pub/Main/CostModels/DP4lib-Cost-By-Service-CostModel.docx DP4lib Kostenmodell f r Lang eitarchivierung, http://dp4lib.langzeitarchivierung.de/downloads/DP4lib-Kostenmodell_eines_LZA-Dienstes_v1.0.pdf |
The DP4lib model is a cost-by-service model for long-term preservation of digital assets. It gives a framework in which all known costs can be recorded and allocated to a specific service. The model is developed by a library but covers any sector and can be used with different levels of detail.
The DP4lib model builds on the OAIS model. It categorises all costs into cost types which are further divided into cost elements. In estimating the costs all major cost elements—direct and indirect—are identified and attributed to the service that ‘caused’ them.
The model is accompanied by a tool for a specific implementation of the model, which can be used for calculating annual costs for long-term preservation expressed as money per year.
The model focuses on costing a service, and allocating (recording) the cost used for that service. Due to traditional accounting principles the cost is categorised as the types: hardware costs, software costs, people costs, accommodation costs, external service costs and transfer costs which are further broken down in cost elements (for example storage, OS, payroll, offices, recovery, internal charges). The model tries to allocate the many indirect costs to the services, so called absorbing.
The main services Ingest, Curation (Archival Storage, Data Management, Preservation Planning, Administration and Management) and Access are further divided in sub-activities. The model does not include the cost of migration. Apparently no migration (normalisation) at ingest is performed.
In order to distribute the many indirect costs a cost distribution key system is used. Equipment is depreciated based on acquisition cost and estimated life time.
Using the model on the data from the German National Library shows that the equipment is mainly storage. The cost of software is mainly annual license fee. The external services cover a major part of the archival information system, including operation and support of the DIAS system. Ingest, Curation and Access each account for about 1/3 of the cost. Internal labour accounts for about 4/10, internal hardware for 2/10, external services for 2/10, software 1/10 and buildings 1/10.
