carl2004

The ‘Hows’ and ‘Whys’ of Preserving Digital Materials: 

The ‘Hows’ and ‘Whys’ of Preserving Digital Materials Brian Lavoie Research Scientist OCLC CARL program: 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow' June 2, 2004

Roadmap: 

Roadmap Digital preservation Why is it important? How do we do it? Current initiatives

Rising digital tide: 

Rising digital tide Equivalent of 5 exabytes of new information created in 2002; 92 percent stored on magnetic or optical media Rush to digitize: Cultural artifacts (images, audio, video, text) Electronic publishing (books, journals, newspapers, databases) Scholarly and 'non-scholarly' communication (listservs, e-prints, blogs, Web sites, chat rooms) Growing proportion of scholarly and cultural record manifested in digital form

Opportunities and challenges: 

Opportunities and challenges Digital technologies offer new opportunities to create, share, re-purpose, and link information … … but introduce new challenges in managing information Critical element in managing digital materials is securing their long-term persistence … … but digital materials have relatively brief 'shelf-life'

Bit rot, obsolescence, and otherdigital diseases … : 

Bit rot, obsolescence, and other digital diseases … Fragile digital storage media: Computer hard drives, floppy disks, tapes, CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc. Subject to rapid media degradation and 'bit rot' Prone to damage from careless handling Technological obsolescence: Technological environment between content and user Technology rapidly changing and evolving Obsolete technology impairs access to dependent digital materials

Digital preservation: 

Digital preservation Preserving digital materials means ensuring they endure into the future But also: Ensuring they endure in a form compatible with contemporary technology 'Traditional preservation' (books, art, buildings) Preserve object Digital preservation Preserve object AND the means to access and use it Challenges: technical, legal, economic

Technical challenges: 

Technical challenges How do we preserve digital materials? Menu of digital preservation techniques: Media refreshment Migration Emulation Digital preservation in action: Camileon Project Univ. of Michigan and Univ. of Leeds Practical implementation of emulation Rescue of British Domesday materials http://www.si.umich.edu/CAMILEON/

Other technical issues: 

Other technical issues Blueprint for a digital archiving system: Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model Articulates functional components of complete digital archiving system Many current digital archives based on OAIS http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/wwwclassic/documents/pdf/CCSDS-650.0-B-1.pdf Preservation metadata: Information 'bundled' with archived digital materials; supports digital preservation process PREMIS (Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/

Legal challenges: 

Legal challenges Digital preservation and the right to preserve Issues: Digital preservation often occurs while materials still under copyright Many digital materials outside custody of institutions with mandate to preserve Preserving digital materials under copyright: Preservation may require reproducing materials Migration may alter appearance, functionality, etc.

Legal challenges (continued): 

Legal challenges (continued) 'Custody' and the right to preserve: Digital materials obtained through license, subscription Web sites NESLI (National E-Journals Initiative) Coordinates e-journal licensing for UK higher education Model License: requires publishers to preserve content http://www.nesli2.ac.uk/ Internet Archive Harvest and stores Web sites for future access 'Cease and desist' policy http://www.archive.org/

Economic challenges: 

Economic challenges Economic sustainability: ability to marshal, on an ongoing basis, sufficient resources to meet preservation objectives Obstacles: Preservation typically under-funded Reliance on one-off, short-term funding sources Economic infrastructure for digital preservation: Appropriate allocation of preservation responsibilities Sufficient incentives to carry out these responsibilities Efficient organization of scarce preservation resources

Economic infrastructure …: 

Economic infrastructure … Responsibilities: Recognize 'diffused' preservation responsibilities, including publishers, Webmasters, software developers, etc. Incentives: Address potential gaps between preservation objectives and incentives Organization: Leverage infrastructure, exploit economies of scale, eliminate redundancies More information: http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/digipres/incentives-dp.pdf http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub126/pub126.pdf

Towards a secure digital future …: 

Towards a secure digital future … Digital technologies facilitate creating and sharing information Long-term future of digital information threatened: Fragile digital storage media Technological obsolescence Must take steps to preserve digital materials Challenges: Effective preservation strategies Sorting out right to preserve Allocating resources to digital preservation, and using them effectively

More information …: 

More information … PADI (Preserving Access to Digital Information): http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/ Digital Preservation Coalition: http://www.dpconline.org/graphics/index.html Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/cidl/pres-preserv-e.html lavoie@oclc.org