1. Preserving the End of a Digital Era Kate Kosturski December 16, 2008

2. Introduction President Bush - first “digital president” First president to witness and harness the growth of the Internet. Project underway to preserve government websites before January 20, 2009.

3. The Challenges Technical - preservation of content Bibliographic - preservation of metadata and bibliographic integrity Security - integrity of sensitivity of information Access - formats, desire for access to all

4. Technical Challenges Web Harvesting “Born digital” Information Preservation of Dynamic/Local Content Preservation of Blogs Current Modules and Projects

5. Web Harvesting The capture of web pages for preservation. Challenges: What to preserve Depth of preservation Frequency of Capture Permissions and Copyright Preservation Tools

6. Born Digital Content Created digitally, only exists digitally Challenges: Permanence - will the page be there when the decision is made to preserve? Are preservation tools capable enough for the task as technology changes? Can - and should - everything be preserved?

7. Dynamic Content Created from various sources based on user requests and needs (ex. iGoogle). Also can be expanded to include web site media (sound, video) Challenges: Very fluid content Information from various sources (including third parties) requires preservationist to cast net far and wide. Questions of permission for preservation.

8. Blogs Appear to be easy to preserve - easy answers to questions of permissions, provenance, and original order. Blogs can also include links to third-party information Is a blog worth preserving?

9. Current Projects “Modoai” module - Joan Smith and Michael Nelson U.S. Government Web Harvesting Program “Arizona Model” (Wells and Moses) - web preservation with an archival eye ECHO DEPository Project - OCLC and University of Illinois

10. Bibliographic Challenges The question of establishment of standards. Should be flexible to be applied as broadly as possible. Should also be individual enough for customization for each agency’s needs.

11. In large governments, working to establish standards across many different agencies can be difficult “Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth” 2005 Canadian Government Digital Preservation Initiative Also important to enforce standards - U.S. GPO faces this as many of their documents do not go through their office. Bibliographic Challenges

12. Security The easy answer - if it’s confidential or sensitive, don’t preserve it! This can eliminate useful information, or inadvertently put sensitive information out to the public.

13. Security “An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure.” How to define security? Physical Network Backup and Recovery (concepts of migration and refreshing) User Authentication and Training

14. Security of Third-Party Information Copyright/permissions questions Is the information in a format that can be preserved? Hope that increased desire for preservation will lead to preservation standards at the point of creation.

15. Access Challenges The “CD-ROM problem” stability and compatibility of media varying formats on this media no archival policies in place Desire for immediate access - direct publishing to web circumvents cataloging treatment that limits access Authenticity - is what you see the real deal? Authen

16. Access Projects GPO Federal Digital System (FDsys) New GPO Catalog of U.S. Government Publications CyberCemetery (University of North Texas)

17. Final Thoughts Preservation of government websites face the same challenges as preservation of other websites “This digital transition can either offer the great works of humankind to everyone or the wilting of a great civic space.**” -- Brewster Kahle ** 2005. "Straight Answers from Brewster Kahle." American Libraries 36, no. 2: 22. Library Lit & Inf Full Text, WilsonWeb (accessed December 14, 2008).