Part 1. Research Material: 13 Ways To Look At Digital Preservation

Now we would have a brief understanding on what digital preservation is all about. Let’s get a more in-depth of understanding regarding digital preservation. We can actually look at digital preservation in 13 different ways.

1.       Digital preservation as…an ongoing activity Digital materials do not afford the luxury of procrastination, due to the fragility of digital storage media and high dependency on technology. The sense of urgency is driven largely because it will be problematic if the deterioration has set in. A digital object that has become corrupted/ obsolete is often impossible to restore. Digital preservation techniques are most effective when they are pre-emptive. This suggest that digital preservation is not something that can occur at a discrete intervals; it is more like a process which has to be proceed continuously over time. Besides ensuring the long-term persistence of digital objects, it should also support access and usage. 2.       Digital preservation as…a set of agreed outcomes The outcome of preservation should be articulate precisely. According to Nicholas Baker (2001), decried that reformatting efforts that results in the loss of the original item; preservation of the original is the measure of successful preservation. This applied on digital preservation as well. Digital content subsume multiple formats, text, images, animations, sound, video, be it interactive, alternate options selection, link to new content, broken apart and used individually, or re-combined to create new resources. In short, it can be in many features. How many of these features can or should be preserved? There is no single answer to this question. It is suggest that the choice of preservation will need to reflect a consensus of all stake holders. The outcomes should in turn be understood and validated by stakeholders. 3.       Digital preservation as…an understood responsibility Digital preservation responsibilities will extend beyond traditional cultural record. For example, preservation considerations must be taken at the time of a digital object’s creation, it is authors and publishers, rather than libraries and archives. Authors must take the first steps toward securing the digital materials. Those who have custody of these materials must act upon the need to preserve them. 4.       Digital preservation as…a selection process As the volume of information in digital form continues to expand rapidly, active decision-making is required. What should be preserved? Preserving everything is not an option. The strategy is to select, the choice depends on a few factors, including institutional mission, culture preferences, economic practicality, and risk management policies. Selection is not just a “preserve or not preserve” issue. This is a difficult choice to make, but in a world scarce preservation resource, these choices need to be confronted. 5.       Digital preservation as…an economically sustainable activity Two key economic challenge the efforts to preserve digital materials. First, allocation of funds to digital preservation has been insufficient. The need to preserve digital collections is usually overshadowed by the desire to create new forms of digital content (Neil Beagrie, 2003). Seconds, funds that are available are often temporary basis, often as grants to support one-off undertakings. Digital preservation might also be self-sustaining, generating income as a by-product. Economic sustainability might be defined in term of cost recovery, or a minimum level of profitability. 6.       Digital preservation as…a cooperative effort Digital preservation activities would benefit from cooperation. Cooperation can enhance the productive capacity of a limited supply of digital preservation funds. Sharing analogue materials between cooperation is more expensive than sharing digital materials. In contrast, digital information can be easily replicated and share over networks. Maintaining digital materials will require a costly technical infrastructure, as well as human expertise. It is impractical for each institution to develop local digital preservation capabilities. 7.       Digital preservation as…an innocuous activity Digital preservation is perceived as a threat to intellectual property rights. Publishers are reluctant to distribute digital copies of their income-generating assets, even for preservation purposes. The content provider must be persuaded to preserve the materials in their custody. The archiving agency may have to alter the content in order to meet preservation objectives. In this case, permission must be obtained from the rights holders. The best way to solve all these issue can be achieved through appropriately designed contracts. Copyright law is generally superseded by contract law. 8.       Digital preservation as…an aggregated or disaggregated service? Mostly, digital preservation systems disseminate archived content into a physically integrated, centrally administered system. But “disaggregated” approach is also possible, where various components of the preservation process are broken apart into separate services distributed over multiple organizations. The system can be deconstructed into several functional layers. The bottom layer includes hardware, software, network infrastructures. The next layer is metadata creation & management and validation. Preservation measures are implemented in the next layer of services. The top-most layer includes services that support browsing/searching/access/request/permission/arranging for delivery. 9.       Digital preservation as…a complement to other library services Although there are still works remains to be done to resolve the challenges of digital preservation, digital preservation mechanisms will be integrated with and operate alongside of constitute a digital library. Preservation should not impede access or reduce the scope of sharing information. The characteristics of digital information are such that access and use of materials can be supported without comprising preservation objectives. 10.    Digital preservation as…well-understood process Prospects for cultivating a shared view on this issue based on 3 factors: development of standards to support digital preservation; suitable benchmarks and evaluative procedures for assessing the outcomes of digital preservation processes; and mechanisms for certifying adherence to minimum set of practices on the part of digital respositories. The Open Archival Information System reference model (2002), which details a conceptual framework for an archival repository, has been well-received and extensively applied in the digital preservation community. 11.    Digital preservation as…an arm’s length transaction The cost of digital preservation is subject to the vagaries of numerous factors. The faster the technological change, the costlier it will be. Sustainable pricing models must be developed. Several possibilities such as, charge only one-time, upfront capitalized fee, distribute the fees over time, perhaps as annual fee. The most concern question is that what is supplied in exchange for payment. Repository should guarantee a specific outcome, for example, the digital objects are readable using contemporary technology in 50 years. Resolution to this issue should be discuss among the customer and repository. 12.    Digital preservation as…one of many options Most of the people would assume that materials currently in digital form must be preserved in digital form. Digital materials with no obvious print equivalent got no choice but to preserve them as digital objects. But digital surrogates of analogue items and born-digital objects for which analogue equivalents can be easily produced, present other options other than digital preservation. For some of the materials, preservation in analogue forms maybe more preferable to digital form. Anyway, it should take into account of the preferences of users. Users may prefer some information resources be preserved as analogue objects and others as digital objects. Most of the users will concerns about ease of access. 13.    Digital preservation as…a public good Preserving an information resource not just benefits its owner, library, museum, archive, and publisher. It actually benefits on society at large, by making sure the resource’s continued availability for use by current and future generations. Digital materials are easier to be shared than analogue materials. Once a digital resource has been preserved by one institution, it has, in a sense, been preserved for all. (Donald Water, 2002).

With these 13 different ways of looking at digital preservation, we can understand that preserving the digital heritage is more than just a technical process for making sure the digital materials sustain over long periods of time. It is a social and cultural process, in the sense of selecting what should be preserved, and in what form; it is an economic process, matching different objectives; it is a legal process, defining the rights and privileges. It is a question of responsibilities and incentives. More importantly, it is an ongoing, long-term commitment, often shared, and cooperatively met, by many stakeholders.