Current State of Play in Digital Preservation Peter B. Hirtle Cornell University Library Society of American Archivists.

Current State of Play in Digital Preservation

Peter B. Hirtle

Cornell University Library

Society of American Archivists

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Outline

Brief history Overview of some current US initiatives Summary of some consensus conclusions Questions for the future

Brief History of Digital Preservation

Relatively new concept

Theatre Crafts, 1992:

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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

– In government…

Broad public interest– In the popular press…

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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

Diagram by Nancy Y. McGovern based upon the RLG-OCLC Attributes of a Trusted Repository

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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?”

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?