Financial Uncertainty and CoreTrustSeal Certified Repositories

Описание: Rebecca D. Frank, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan School of Information
NDSA Digital Preservation 2025 Conference Session 5A2

Staff members from digital repositories that have successfully demonstrated adequate funding to achieve CoreTrustSeal (CTS) certification continue to identify financial uncertainty as the most significant risk facing their repositories. Those same staff members find that a key value of certification is that it facilitates communication with external funders, making their repositories a more attractive target for support. This presentation will explore the tension between the need to demonstrate financial sustainability in order to become certified as trustworthy, while at the same time using that certification as a tool to acquire funding to address ongoing financial uncertainty.

Drawing on the results from a survey of CTS certified repositories, this research reveals a fundamental paradox: repositories must prove financial stability to achieve certification, yet continue to face persistent concerns about funding loss, over-reliance on short-term grants, and unpredictable resource requirements. Despite satisfying external audit requirements for financial sustainability, staff members from these organizations view certification as a tool that has the potential to reduce financial uncertainty by making their policies and practices legible to external stakeholders such as parent institutions and external funders.

This presentation will examine this apparent contradiction in detail, exploring what it reveals about the relationship between certification standards and the practical realities of managing a digital repository. By understanding this paradox, I argue that we can move toward an understanding of TDR certification that recognizes its utility as a tool for mitigating risk and addressing financial uncertainty. This reframing has implications for how repositories, funders, and certification bodies approach long-term sustainability in digital preservation.