The Preservation of Digital Content

Abstract

The authors are conducting a three-part study to evaluate current trends in the preservation of digital content, with an emphasis on electronic records. The study emanated from the authors' work on the Preservation Task Force of the International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES) project. This article incorporates the findings of both the survey and individual key-informant interviews that we conducted from August 2001 through February 2003, as round 2 of the study. Round 2 builds on the 2000-2001 round 1 survey that sought to identify and describe strategies for preserving electronic records. In this second round the authors found that progress has been made in some areas while it is still lags in others.1 The full study consists of three phases: round 1 identified and surveyed 13 institutions, projects, and programs in North America, Australia, and Europe. Round 2 surveyed eight of the 13 institutions again to follow up on their progress. Additionally, we interviewed 18 key informants, including archivists and librarians. In round 3 the authors will each conduct one case study drawn from the survey participants in rounds 1 and 2. By the end of the three rounds, the authors will have studied a continuum of activities (over a six-year period) that constitutes a range of digital preservation strategies. The study will have charted the change in technological developments over this period—developments that have occurred in our survey institutions to meet the requirements of their mandates to preserve digital content for as long as needed.

Digitization in education system and management of Early Childhood Care Education in Nigeria

“…Digitization in education is the process of turning traditional methods of teaching such as paper document, sounds and more to a digital format that can be understood by pupils or students toward the achievement of educational goals and objectives (Falasteen, 2018). Digitizing is the central way of making digital representations of geographical features, storing images, creating of electronic charts by digitizing traditional paper documents, graphs or images (Cloonan & Sanett, 2005). Digitization in this study refers to collaborative and game-based learning used by teachers to improve their job performance towards the realization of effective management of early childhood care education.…”

Archival Digital Preservation Programs: Staffing, Costs, and Policy

“…Findings of Round 1 were published in 2002 (Cloonan and Sanett). Round 2 findings appeared in Portal: Libraries and the Academy (Cloonan and Sanett 2005). The case study at NAA was the last round of the three-part study which evaluated current trends in the management and preservation of electronic records in national archives; it was conducted by Sanett alone.…”

“…The first project that does reach this point will likely become a model or at least an important resource for others to study (Cloonan and Sanett 2005 Retention of the Digital Assets. This stage has become a popular topic at conferences, notably at the DigCCurr2007 Conference and is currently unable to be reliably forecast due to the lack of actual cost information available.…”

“…She emphasizes two notable areas of development, the "need to integrate the organizational policies for digital preservation into technological implementations and the need to develop and evolve digital preservation skills" (McGovern). Several institutions which participated in the Cloonan/ Sanett study focused on the development of technological products and deferred the development of policy to support the digital preservation program (Cloonan and Sanett 2005).…”

Six Key Challenges for the Future of Collection Development

“…Despite significant research and collaborative experimentation, digital preservation technology has not proceeded nearly as quickly as we had expected, and a range of technical issues (especially with respect to technological obsolescence) remain to be confronted. 2 The second major challenge is political-economic and stems from the fact that libraries no longer have direct access to many of the materials they need to preserve. Such materials no longer reside in libraries, but are rather maintained exclusively in vendor databases around the world.…”