digital preservation

1
digital preservation
a conservatorsperspective

• Walter HenryStanford University LibrariesAugust
  2000

2
digital preservation

• digital reformatting
• Using digital technology to preserve the
  information content (explicit signal) of print
  and non-print materials. The product is a digital
  surrogate for the original.
• preserving digital objects born
  digital business records, archives electronic
  publications digital ephemera

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traditional reformatting

• microfilming
• photocopying
• photography
• other facsimile technologies

4
digitization compared with traditional
reformatting

• value added

• can capture complex objects

• access

• material can be used in new ways

5
digital reformatting

• page images
• masters
• presentation versions
• reference versions
• simple readable text
• markup
• combination of above

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Once digitized, its just another object
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what makes digital preservation different?

• no benign neglect
• loss will happen without an action
• requires perpetual maintenance

8
falsification authentication
before.jpg937a0f56f2078859c4c2f81a96d48942
after.jpgd278b0a9741e164dd01467a4f6c36273
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routine maintenance

• backup
• housekeeping
• retensioning tapes
• refreshing
• monitoring verification

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digital preservation strategies

• migration
• emulation
• redundancy
• LOCKSS, distributed archives

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can digitization be preservation?

• trivially reduce need to handle originals
• may actually increase demand for originals (A
  Good Thing)
• electronic browsing reduces casual handling
• use of electronic masters for publishing

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can digitization be preservation?

• the prevailing wisdom says no
• media undependable
• institutional commitment to life-cycle management
  not in place
• standards lacking
• when compared to film, digitalobjects seem
  inherently ephemeral

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can digitization be preservation?

• Challenges
• ongoing maintenance/lifecycle management
• standards
• no roadmap to follow
• best practices
• active involvement of technical staff and
  facilities

14
can digitization be preservation?

• Understandable counter-reaction to the attitude
  that
• We digitized it its preserved

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digitization must be preservation

• We have no choice
• We have a fallback
• Hide your valuables where the money is

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digital preservation policy

• tied to mission of institution
• makes explicit what aspects of a collection are
  being preserved and why
• indicates scope of institutions commitment
• declares institutions preservation strategies
• declares which standards/guidelines are being
  followed

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digital archiving

• born electronic
• reborn electronic
• preserving what we produce

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storage

• physical
• electronic
• Masters (offline, nearline)
• Access (nearline, online)

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strategic challenges

• continuous technological change
• evolving standards and best practices

• ever increasing demand for services

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strategic challenges

• making digitization a trusted preservation tool

• fostering long-term outlook
• digital archiving

21
sorry we ran overtime

• http//www.clir.org/
• http//www.nla.gov.au/padi/
• http//www.dlib.org/
• http//www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/
• http//palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/electronic-
  records/
• http//palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/electronic-
  records/electronic-storage-media/
• http//aic.stanford.edu/conspec/emg/

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digital reformatting
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lossless copying

• Potentially lossless multi-generational copying
• Except
• Depends on proper copying and verification
• May be complicated by compression
• Device evolution may make bit-for-bit copying
  impossible (i.e. may involve some format changes

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digitization
Detailpresentation version
Detailreference version
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UPF
To decode the following
To playback the following

• Content