Preservation of the digital memory

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Preservation of the digital memory

• Ray Edmondson
• Archive Associates Pty Ltd, Australia

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Defining preservation

• Preservation is the sum total of the steps
  necessary to ensure the permanent accessibility
  forever -- of documentary heritage
• (UNESCO Memory of the World General Guidelines to
  Safeguard Documentary Heritage 2002)
• It is an ongoing process
• Nothing has ever been preserved it is being
  preserved
• The objective of preservation is permanent access
  

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UNESCO Charter on the Preservation of the
Digital Heritage (2003)

• Digital materials include
• texts, databases, still and moving images,
  audio, graphics, software and web pages
• Analog material converted to digital, usually for
  access
• Born digital documents
• http//portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID13366
  URL_DODO_TOPICURL_SECTION201.html

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Access

• Should be free of unreasonable restrictions
• Sensitive and personal information should be
  protected from intrusion
• Fair balance between legitimate rights of
  creators and rights holders
• and the rights of the public to access public
  memory

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Threat of loss

• Obsolescence of hardware and software
• Uncertain resources
• Locating responsibility for acquisition,
  preservation and maintenance
• Lack of supportive legislation
• Rapid evolution attitudinal change lags
  technological change
• Cost of new preservation strategies

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Continuity

• Preservation depends on continuous action, from
  creation onwards
• Design of reliable systems and procedures
• Maintaining stable and authentic digital objects
• Needs sustained, direct action not passive
  benign neglect
• Losses usually not recoverable

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Selection

• Criteria vary by country and locality
• Significance, and lasting cultural, scientific,
  evidential or other value
• For preservation, give priority to born
  digital, not transfers from analog
• Should be accountable, based on defined
  principles, policies, procedures, standards

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Protecting digital heritage

• Legal and institutional frameworks
• Archive and deposit legislation for libraries,
  archives, museums should embrace digital heritage
• Access to deposits should be assured (without
  prejudice to normal exploitation)
• Legal/ technical frameworks to protect
  authenticity against manipulation and intentional
  alteration

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Roles and responsibilities

• Urge cooperation between hardware/ software
  developers, creators, publishers, producers
• and national libraries, archives and museums
• Develop training and research
• Share experience and knowledge

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The digital divide

• Dependence on expensive technology and software
  separates haves and have nots
• The internet democratises access
• except for those without the technology
• Written documents require literate users
• Audiovisual documents dont require literacy

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Determining policies and criteria

• The Charter and the UNESCO Guidelines for the
  preservation of digital heritage (which provides
  practical application of the Charter) including
  in limited-resource situations gives advice on
  how to
• Decide parameters
• Decide responsibilities
• Decide what to keep
• Decide access arrangements

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Deciding parameters - 1

• These are fundamental policy and strategic issues
• What material are you responsible for?
• Who can you cooperate with?
• What expertise is available?
• Who are relevant publishers/ distributors how
  will they cooperate?
• Who are potential users?

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Deciding parameters - 2

• What level of functionality?
• Interactive?
• User- modifiable?
• Read only
• Do you start small and evolve or conceptualise
  the whole?
• What is under threat?
• What is most urgent?
• Paper a radical alternative?

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Deciding responsibilities - 1

• What organisations/ agencies are responsible?
  Archives, libraries, museums, others? Is the
  responsibility specific and formalised?
• Where will the data be stored and managed?
• Will it be regularly refreshed, backed up,
  transferred as hardware/ software changes?
• Is it secure against tampering?
• Is there a disaster recovery strategy?

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Deciding responsibilities - 2

• Who will handle the ingest (receiving,
  preparing and transferring digital material)?
• Ingest should include
• Applying selection criteria
• Quality checking
• Adding a unique identifier within the system
• Deciding file formats
• How will documents be kept accessible as
  hardware/ software changes?

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Selection principles - 1

• Selection always happens
• By deliberate policy
• By default
• By coincidence
• By neglect
• By deterioration
• By technical change
• Take control. Make a considered choice.

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Selection principles - 2

• Selection is imperfect. We cant see with the
  eyes of the future, but need to make a best guess
• We need to maximise future options, not close
  them off
• We shape the future with our choices
• Well be wrong sometimes

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Selection policy

• A written policy is essential promulgated and
  observed. Provides accountability and guidance
  for others
• Set out vision, mandate, goals
• Invoke external reference points UNESCO, ICA,
  IFLA, CCAAA
• State ethics, standards, relationships
• Prioritise born digital for preservation and
  access, born analog for access only (unless in
  danger).

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Memory of the World perspective

• Check selection criteria for registers in the
  General Guidelines
• Documents comprise content plus carrier
• Born digital are independent of carrier
• Analog documents have both content and carrier
  the relationship is important
• Digitised analog documents are a representation
  of the original

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Selection criteria

• Intellectual criteria intrinsic significance
  (historical record, national identity,
  personalities, places, artistic merit)
• Evidentiary value (transactions, deeds,
  ownership, legal records)
• Informational and cultural value
• Decide scope published/ unpublished, geographic,
  subjects
• Choose more rather than less. You can de-select
  excess documents later no second chance for what
  is passed over now.

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Metadata

• Crucial to preservation, control, access
• Thoroughly document technical character of data
  to maintain future migration possibilities
• Absolute consistency in file naming conventions
  prefer serial names
• Conventional cataloguing by trained cataloguers
  structured and rigorous, subject and name
  authorities

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Access

• On line, off line, CD, DVD.
• Internal and external
• Managing rights back to metadata
• Digitising reduces physical wear and tear
• Content analysis tools provide new ways into
  content
• but the human element remains. Searchability
  often needs an archivist!

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CD and DVD

• Mass produced and writable versions
• Discs and hardware cheap and available
• CD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray
• Moving image content often compressed
• Quality of the disc, the burn, the player
  lack of standards
• Physically vulnerable scratchable sandwich
• Limited technology life
• Unreliable for preservation OK for access

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Moment of truth

• All digital carriers are unreliable to some
  extent! So.
• Choose data tape or hard disc systems for
  preservation the testing, copying and management
  systems help to maintain data integrity
• The digital memory must be in constant motion
  from system to system to avoid loss
• Aim for a sustainable system (not permanent
  carriers)

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Thoughts for the day - 1

• Digitising on demand often necessary but cuts
  across other priorities
• Files corrupt. Constant refreshment is essential
• Software change makes older documents unreadable
  without emulation software
• Quality control is vital. Analog to digital
  transfer involves information loss sometimes
  considerable
• Use open source repository software where
  possible less cost, more control

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Thoughts for the day - 2

• There is no permanent, ultimate storage medium.
• Rapid obsolesence is characteristic of software
  and hardware. The format of most digital
  documents gets quickly out of date.
• Some analog carriers paper, film, disc sound
  recordings are low-tech and relatively stable.
  Digitise for access only. No point in digitising
  for preservation!

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Beware the myths

• Digital is cheaper
• Digital is permanent
• Digital is authentic
• Digital is standardised
• Digital is safe
• Digital is simpler
• Digital is better
• Everything will ultimately be digital
• ..NONE of these is true, however appealing!!

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Recognise the facts

• Digital permanently changes how we work
• Born digital must usually be preserved as such
• Some analog preservation paths are disappearing,
  but
• Our future will be BOTH digital and analog not
  either/or
• Analog loss is gradual and predictable.
• ..digital loss is sudden and TOTAL.
• Migration is a TWO WAY STREET. Going from digital
  TO analog is sometimes preferable!

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Digital Heritage reference points

• UNESCO Charter in digital heritage
• http//portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID133
  66URL_DODO_TOPICURL_SECTION201.html
• Draft Brazilian Charter
• http//portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID
  15870URL_DODO_TOPICURL_SECTION201.html
• UNESCO resource on E- heritage
• http//portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID1539
  URL_DODO_TOPICURL_SECTION201.html
• Guidelines for the preservation of digital
  heritage
• http//portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID1327
  1URL_DODO_TOPICURL_SECTION201.html

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Memory of the World resources

• www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm and look for the
  papers of the Technical Subcommittee, including
• Risks associated with the use of recordable CDs
  and DVDs..
• Open source archival repositories

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What do you think?

• Do CDs sound better than vinyl?
• Will e-books replace the paper book?
• Will e-news replace newspapers?
• Will family photos survive longer in digital or
  analog form?
• Will you be able to buy a CD or DVD player 10
  years from now?
• What is the average life of a website?

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SO.

• Never deliberately lose information or reduce
  your preservation and access options retain
  analog originals for their life
• Use BOTH digital and analog for their different
  strengths public access, restoration,
  preservation
• Make considered preservation and access choices
  case by case
• .AND ALWAYS BACK UP!!

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Closing thoughts

• The struggle of man against power is the struggle
  of memory against forgetting.
• Milan Kundera, Czechoslovakian novelist (1929 - )
• To be ignorant of what happened before you were
  born is to be ever a child. For what is man's
  lifetime unless the memory of past events is
  woven with those of earlier times?
• Cicero, Orator, Roman author, orator,
  politician (106 BC - 43 BC)

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Muchas gracias!

• www.archival.com.au