Preservation Ruminations Digital preservation and the unfamiliar future Priscilla Caplan Florida Center for Library Automation

Outline The need for digital preservation Some preservation basics Some preservation problems A handful of implications roles rights community values

THE NEED FOR DIGITAL PRESERVATION: Number of academic/scholarly journals published online: 15,757 Number of serials published only electronically: 4600 Percent of U.S. federal government publications produced exclusively online in 2003: 65 percent Estimated percent of U.S. federal government publications available exclusively online by 2008: 90 percent Mostly from: California Digital Library http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/preservation/

Some Preservation Basics

Media issues: life expectancy, obsolescence, degradation

Format issues: obsolescence, obsolescence,

Duration in years of PDF versions (as of 3/03)

Some Preservation Problems

THE PROBLEM OF ABUNDANCE

Proportion of websites in 1998 gone in 1999: 44% THE PROBLEM OF EPHEMERALITY: Percent of web-based references in scientific articles from 3 major journals inaccessible within 2 years of publication: 21% Proportion of websites in 1998 gone in 1999: 44% Life of an average website: 44 days

THE PROBLEM OF AUTHENTICITY

Some Implications Roles Rights Community values

Changing roles

CHANGING RIGHTS Access v. ownership No help from DMCA Contracts must grant the right to preserve But what is the right to preserve anyway?

UNCHANGING VALUES Democracy Stewardship Service Intellectual freedom Privacy Literacy and learning