Where to obtain the services the programme will need

What resources will be made available and how the programme will be sustained
What organisational structures are required to support the programme
Whom the programme will work with
What issues should be given priority attention
How accessibility will be maintained
What succession arrangements should be put in place as a fail-safe mechanism.

10.4.2 Risks and risk management

Preservation programmes must seek to understand and respond to threats that would
jeopardise ongoing accessibility and other aspects of the programme's mission. A risk
management approach provides an appropriate basis for deciding what risks warrant attention,
and for planning action that will lower the level of risk.

There are many suitable risk management models available. A reasonably simple but effective
one is suggested in Table 10-1.

Risk analysis, even undertaken informally, helps in a number of ways:

Recognising:
The most pressing threats (such as web publications disappearing; media failure of
magnetic carriers; impending replacement of equipment or software; a change in
government agency arrangements that will threaten record keeping systems)
Threats that may not require immediate action (such as the eventual obsolescence
of a standardised, ubiquitous file format such as TIFF, the impact of which should
be manageable when a replacement standard appears)
Threats over which the programme may have no influence (such as the business
imperatives of producers)
Threats that are so pressing but so intractable that the programme may decide to
withdraw from responsibility (such as a refusal by rights owners to allow any form
of access or preservation copying at any future time).
Deciding:
Where to allocate resources
What steps to take as a priority
When action may be needed
What supporting action is needed to address priority risks.
Planning ahead
Justifying decisions.
Risk assessment is especially helpful if it is extended beyond the immediately apparent risks
to include:
The risks associated with the action that is proposed to deal with the threat. For
example, the programme may not have the required skills, resources, permissions, etc.
This in turn might lead to action that is a prerequisite for dealing with the priority

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