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This presentation is to create awareness of the need to take active steps to preserve the digital content being created today. It was presented in 2006 to a group of nationally prominent publishers. I am involved in the Preserving Creative America project, part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, a Strategic initiative by the Library of Congress.
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Digital Preservation
Catherine Kirkland
BBC Domesday Project Domesday Book ca. 1086 Still viewable today at National Archives Digitized from 1984-86 Cost £2.5 million to produce
BBC Domesday Project Data released on 12” LV-ROM disks
that could only be read by a special BBC microcomputer
By 2000, nearly every 12” drivewas out of commission
DIGITAL DOMESDAY An important digital work had
a life-span of 14 years…from creation to obsolescence!
Digital files will last a lifetime…or five years, whichever comes first.
--Jeff Rothenberg, RAND Corporation
Long Term Digital Preservation Oxymoron? Information Age = Impermanent
information Easily accessible Easily lost
Digital Information At Risk Medical and Health Records Historical and financial records Motion pictures and television broadcasts Published periodicals both in print and online E-books and E-journals Music recordings Personal and commercial photography and
video Other artistic works
Library of Congress / NDIIPP National Digital Information Infrastructure and
Preservation Program established by Congress in 2000 (NDIIPP)
Librarian of Congress to lead planning effort to preserve “born digital” artistic works.
“Born Digital” = wholly created electronically with no analog equivalent
Preserving Creative America Kicked off April 2006 in Los Angeles 75 participants represented creative
industries, software development, education, archival institutions and publishing
Shared common vocabulary and challenges
First Questions to Answer
What should be saved? Who is responsible? Who pays?
Preserving Creative America Relative to Publishing:
Preservation of digital photography, illustration, web sites, page layouts from print magazines, newspapers and advertising
These works are valued by sociologists, historials, archivists, genealogists and researchers
Copyright Protection Copyright = Life of creator plus 70 years The nation’s most valuable historical, intellectual and cultural content may not survive its copyright protection.
Digital Asset Management Systems
Good start Only addresses storage and retrieval Don’t address updating legacy files to
current versions Don’t address cross-application
migration
Digital Preservation Challenges
Unpredictable technological development
Over 200 storage systems deployed since 1960s
None have lasted more than 10 years Numerous operating systems; several
platforms Digital data doubles every 12-18
months!
Preservation No Longer a“Just in Case” Activity Preservation requires active
management of files from the time of creation
Active Management1. Plan for preservation at job’s inception2. Update legacy files periodically to new
versions3. Convert files to new formats, if format is
becoming obsolete4. Refresh files; copy to new media.5. Create a Mac/PC “museum of hardware and
peripherals with necessary OS and applications.
The Rest of the Story…
Domesday Redux Not a total loss as feared Changing storage media identified Rescue project initiated Working hardware found! Data recovered and transferred to PC Viewer application was restored through
reverse engineering Luck and skill!
Lesson Learned If you have enough time and resources,
recovery of data is possible…provided you don’t start too late.
Domesday recovery project NOT a model
ACT NOW!
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