TDR Section 3 focuses on the organizational infrastructure required for a trustworthy digital repository, ensuring long-term preservation, management, and accessibility of digital content. It emphasizes the importance of governance structures, including a clear mission statement that reflects the repository’s preservation commitments and a strategic preservation plan guiding its long-term approach. This section highlights the need for formalized succession and contingency plans to protect digital assets if the repository ceases operations, alongside mechanisms for monitoring the organizational environment to determine when such plans should be activated. A well-defined collection policy ensures the repository preserves content aligned with its mission while avoiding the accumulation of low-value material.

Additionally, TDR 3 stresses the importance of adequate staffing, professional development programs, and procedural accountability, including documenting changes to operations, policies, and technologies. It mandates transparency in decision-making and the measurement of information integrity, requiring regular internal audits and external certifications to maintain trustworthiness. Financial sustainability is also addressed, with repositories expected to demonstrate sound business planning, transparent financial practices, and ongoing risk assessment. Finally, the section outlines the importance of contracts and deposit agreements that clearly define rights, responsibilities, and conditions for acquiring, maintaining, accessing, and withdrawing digital content, ensuring the repository can fulfill its preservation obligations while protecting against liability and rights challenges.