💻Digital Cultural Heritage Unit 5 – Digital Preservation Strategies

What's Digital Preservation All About?

• Focuses on ensuring long-term access to digital materials and protecting them from loss or damage
• Involves a series of managed activities to maintain the usability, authenticity, and integrity of digital objects over time
• Addresses the challenges of rapidly changing technology and the risk of obsolescence (file formats, hardware, software)
• Encompasses a wide range of digital materials including born-digital content (websites, social media) and digitized versions of analog materials (scanned documents, photographs)
• Requires ongoing commitment and resources to implement effective strategies and stay current with best practices
• Plays a crucial role in preserving cultural heritage, scientific data, and historical records for future generations
• Involves collaboration among various stakeholders (libraries, archives, museums, IT professionals) to develop and implement preservation plans

Key Concepts and Terminology

• Digital object: A discrete unit of digital information, such as a file or a database record, that is the focus of preservation efforts
• Metadata: Structured information that describes, explains, or locates a digital object, essential for long-term management and access
  • Descriptive metadata provides information about the content and context of the digital object (title, author, date)
  • Administrative metadata includes technical details about the object's creation and management (file format, rights information)
  • Structural metadata describes the internal structure and relationships of complex digital objects (page order, chapters)
• Fixity: The property of a digital object being unchanged or unaltered since a previous point in time, often verified using checksums or hash values
• Migration: The process of converting digital objects from one file format to another to ensure ongoing accessibility as technology changes
• Emulation: The use of software to simulate an older computing environment, allowing access to obsolete file formats or systems
• Trusted digital repository: A system that has been certified to meet established criteria for reliable, long-term preservation of digital materials
• OAIS (Open Archival Information System): A conceptual framework for designing and operating a digital preservation system, defining functional components and information packages

Common Threats to Digital Materials

• Hardware failure: The physical components of storage devices (hard drives, solid-state drives) can malfunction or degrade over time, leading to data loss
• Software obsolescence: As software applications and operating systems evolve, older file formats may become unreadable or unsupported
• Media degradation: Storage media (optical discs, magnetic tapes) can deteriorate due to environmental factors (humidity, temperature) or inherent instability
• Human error: Accidental deletion, overwriting, or mishandling of digital files can result in permanent loss
• Malicious attacks: Cybersecurity threats (viruses, malware, hacking) can compromise the integrity and availability of digital materials
• Natural disasters: Events such as floods, fires, or earthquakes can damage or destroy storage infrastructure and digital collections
• Lack of documentation: Insufficient metadata or documentation about file formats, software dependencies, or rights can hinder long-term preservation efforts
• Organizational challenges: Inadequate funding, staffing, or institutional support can undermine the sustainability of digital preservation programs

Preservation Strategies and Methods

• Bitstream preservation: Ensuring the integrity of the raw data that makes up a digital object, typically through secure storage and fixity checking
• Normalization: Converting digital objects to a limited set of standardized file formats to reduce the complexity of preservation efforts
• Refreshing: Periodically transferring digital materials to new storage media to prevent loss due to media degradation or obsolescence
• Replication: Creating multiple copies of digital objects and storing them in geographically dispersed locations to mitigate the risk of loss
• Emulation: Recreating the original computing environment to ensure access to obsolete file formats or software dependencies
• Encapsulation: Packaging digital objects with metadata and other necessary information to facilitate future access and understanding
• Persistent identifiers: Assigning unique, long-lasting identifiers (DOIs, ARKs) to digital objects to ensure consistent referencing and access over time
• Preservation planning: Developing and documenting strategies, policies, and procedures for the long-term management of digital collections

Tools and Technologies for Digital Preservation

• Fixity tools: Software applications that generate and verify checksums or hash values to ensure the integrity of digital files (MD5, SHA-256)
• File format registries: Centralized databases that provide information about file formats, their characteristics, and recommended preservation actions (PRONOM, UDFR)
• Metadata standards: Standardized schemas and vocabularies for describing and structuring metadata (Dublin Core, PREMIS, METS)
• Digital repository systems: Software platforms designed to manage, store, and provide access to digital collections (DSpace, Fedora, Islandora)
• Web archiving tools: Applications and services that capture and preserve web content, including websites and social media (Archive-It, Webrecorder)
• Storage systems: Hardware and software components used to store and manage digital files, such as servers, cloud storage, or tape libraries
• Emulation frameworks: Software platforms that facilitate the creation and deployment of emulators for accessing obsolete digital environments (EaaSI, Emulation as a Service Infrastructure)
• Preservation metadata tools: Applications that extract, generate, and manage preservation metadata for digital objects (JHOVE, DROID)

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

• Technological obsolescence: The rapid pace of technological change requires ongoing investment in preservation strategies and infrastructure
• Scale and complexity: The sheer volume and diversity of digital materials can strain the capacity of preservation systems and workflows
• Copyright and intellectual property: Navigating the legal landscape of rights management and access restrictions for digital collections
• Privacy and confidentiality: Balancing the need for long-term preservation with the protection of sensitive or personal information
• Authenticity and integrity: Ensuring that preserved digital objects remain true to their original form and content, free from tampering or corruption
• Selection and appraisal: Making informed decisions about which digital materials to preserve, given limited resources and competing priorities
• Sustainability and funding: Securing long-term financial support for digital preservation programs and infrastructure
• Collaboration and interoperability: Fostering partnerships and developing shared standards to enable effective preservation across institutions and domains

Real-World Applications and Case Studies

• Library of Congress: The U.S. national library has developed a comprehensive digital preservation program, including the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)
• Internet Archive: A non-profit organization that has been archiving web content since 1996, preserving billions of web pages, books, and other digital materials
• LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe): A distributed preservation system used by libraries to ensure long-term access to digital journal content
• NASA Earth Science Data Preservation Content Specification: A set of guidelines and requirements for preserving Earth science data collected by NASA missions
• Europeana: A digital platform that aggregates and preserves cultural heritage materials from institutions across Europe, using standardized metadata and preservation practices
• Digital Preservation Coalition: A UK-based membership organization that promotes best practices and provides resources for digital preservation
• Portico: A digital preservation service that works with libraries and publishers to ensure the long-term accessibility of e-journals, e-books, and other digital scholarly content
• Time-Based Media Art Preservation: Initiatives focused on preserving complex digital artworks that incorporate video, audio, and interactive elements (Guggenheim Museum, Tate)

Future Trends in Digital Preservation

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Leveraging AI techniques to automate and enhance various aspects of digital preservation, such as file format identification, metadata generation, and risk assessment
• Blockchain technology: Exploring the potential of distributed ledger systems to support the integrity, provenance, and authenticity of digital objects
• Linked data and semantic web: Adopting linked data principles to improve the interoperability and discoverability of preserved digital resources across institutions and domains
• Cloud-based preservation: Leveraging the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing platforms to store, manage, and provide access to digital collections
• Preservation of complex digital objects: Developing strategies and tools to preserve emerging types of digital content, such as 3D models, virtual reality experiences, and interactive multimedia
• Collaborative and distributed preservation: Fostering partnerships and networks among institutions to share resources, expertise, and infrastructure for digital preservation
• Preservation of research data: Addressing the unique challenges of preserving and providing access to scientific data sets, workflows, and software dependencies
• Sustainable digital preservation: Exploring economic models and funding strategies to ensure the long-term viability of digital preservation programs and infrastructure