Transcript Digital Preservation: State of Play

Current State of Play in
Digital Preservation
Peter B. Hirtle
Cornell University Library
Society of American Archivists
Outline
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Brief history
Overview of some current US initiatives
Summary of some consensus conclusions
Questions for the future
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Brief History of Digital Preservation
 Relatively new concept
Theatre Crafts, 1992:
Digital Preservation as
Reformatting
 1990: Cornell begins “digital preservation”
research on reformatting
Original documents that are of concern for library
preservation purposes are not normally encoded in
a digital electronic medium.
Stuart Lynn, Preservation and Access Technology. A
Structured Glossary of Technical Terms, 8/1990
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Preservation’s 2nd Face: Electronic
Information
 1960s: Data centers appear
 1994-1996: CPA/RLG
Task Force on Archiving of
Digital Information
 1997: “Born digital”
preservation identified
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Digital Preservation Today
 Focus is on “born digital”
– “Reborn digital” is a subset
Broad public interest
– In the popular press…
– In government…
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“Strategies to assure long-term
preservation of digital records
constitute another particularly
pressing issue for research…”
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Some Current US Initiatives
 National Digital Information
Infrastructure and
Preservation Program
(NDIIPP)
<http://www.digitalpreservation.
gov>
 An initiative of the Library of
Congress
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NDIIPP
 Mission:
Develop a national strategy to collect, archive and
preserve the burgeoning amounts of digital
content, especially materials that are created
only in digital formats, for current and future
generations.
 Funding: $150 million (half private, half
Federal match)
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NARA’s Electronic Record Archive
 Vision:
“The Electronic Records
Archives will authentically
preserve and provide access
to any kind of electronic
record, free from dependency
on any specific hardware or
software, enabling NARA to carry
out its mission into the future.”
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ERA at work
 Concerned with volume, authenticity, access
 Heavily focused on technology and infrastructure
– Partnerships with SDSC, US Army Research Lab, NIST,
NASA
 Special interest in developing hardware and
software independent digital objects
 $38 million dollars in FY2003 budget
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Other Initiatives
 National Science Foundation
– Research agenda workshop
– Specific projects, including international
collaborations
 RLG and OCLC
– “Attributes of Trusted Digital Repositories”
– New work on preservation metadata
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More initiatives
 Mellon Foundation E-Journal
project
 University-based research
projects
 Growth of institutional
repositories
 Industry-based projects
 NISO Still Image standard
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What have we learned?
 Technological approaches:
– Combination of migration, emulation, and
encapsulation
– Need to select the proper method for the object
 Technology itself is not an answer
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Organizational Requirements
 RLG/OCLC definition:
Digital preservation refers to the series of
managed activities necessary to ensure
continued access to and preservation of
digital materials.
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Need to address issues of
 Organization
– Economics
– Authenticity
– Permanence
 Answers are likely to evolve
 Digital preservation is continuous obligation
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Diagram by Nancy Y. McGovern based upon the RLG-OCLC Attributes of a Trusted Repository
Collaboration Needed
 Scope of need means no one institution can
do it all
 Multiple copies are the best way of
preserving digital information
– Stanford’s LOCKSS project
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Intellectual Property Issues
 Copyright and other IP laws challenge our
ability to preserve
 Digital Rights Management (DRM) and
license agreements further complicate
 Unclear what the legal and economic answers
are
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Issues awaiting answers
 What is “usable and interpretable”?
– Do we keep content readable?
– Maintain the “look and feel?”
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What do we select for long-term preservation?
How long is “the long term”?
What technologies can be employed?
What standards should be followed?
How will we pay for everything?
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