Digital Heritage Preservation Confronting Technology Challenges Patricia Galloway School of Information University of Texas at Austin

Introduction Digital heritage preservation Digital heritage as cultural heritage Worthy of having preserved (in addition to content): Working context of creation Working context of active use Context of maintenance/preservation Digital heritage technicians in archives Maintaining past digital infrastructures

Archives and digital preservation Archival truisms Don’t keep it all Don’t try to preserve all properties BUT: Media materiality Critical code Big Data

Preserving culture X 3 Rochefort, Centre Internationale de la Mer A school for 18th-century shipbuilding UBC Museum of Anthropology A platform for preservation of Northwest Coast woodcarving Goodwill Computer Museum A venue for passing on computer (maintenance) skills

Principles for preserving cultural skills Preservation of skill stack Skills for creation Skills for use/performance Skills for maintenance/preservation Framework for preservation practice Active practice or documentation of practice Recognition of significance Recognition of qualification as culture!

UNESCO: Digital as intangible 1993 Memory of the World 2003 Four documents Charter on preservation of digital heritage Convention on safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage Guidelines for preservation of digital heritage Guidelines for the establishment of national Living Human Treasures systems

Technicians preserving the digital intangible Technicians: what do they do? Combine craft and professional skills Maintain and preserve technical infrastructure Broker between users of infrastructure and its creators/inventors Technicians: why no cultural respect? Invisibility of infrastructure They aren’t called conservators!

Preserving digital materiality Digital environments are unique Though manufactured, unique in use Though subject to formal specifications, complexly interact Technical knowledge and skill can preserve: Hardware Software Documentation

Digital heritage preservation Present Computer museums (CHM, LCM) Computer-related archives (Babbage) Archives with digital holdings Retrocomputing museums and archives Future Technician-masters as informants, teachers, conservators