1. Non-Digital Preservation: Lessons Learned
A related story by National Public Radio:
Shellac, the Sound of the Future
Thom Lutkenhouse
January 29, 2004

2. Papers Covered
Michael Lesk, "Preserving Digital Objects: Recurrent Needs and Challenges", 2nd NPO conference on Multimedia Preservation, Brisbane, Australia,
Deanna Marcum and Amy Friedlander, "Keepers of the Crumbling Culture: What Digital Preservation Can Learn from Library History", D- Lib Magazine, 9(5), dlander.html

3. Pre-Digital: Preservation of Artifact

4. Digital: Preservation of Content

5. Preservation: Forethought or Afterthought?
“If [librarians] had given those moments to proper care of the books under their charge, their shelves would not have been found filled with neglected volumes, many of which had been plainly badly treated and injured, but not beyond reclamation by timely and provident care .”
-Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Librarian of Congress, 1900

6. Today’s Echo
“Digital collections are growing at a rate that outpaces our ability to manage and preserve them.”
- “It’s About Time,” August 2003 report on Digital Preservation by National Science Foundation and Library of Congress
Preservation remains an ancillary concern in the production and distribution of published materials

7. Complicating Factors Lack of Ownership:
If libraries lease access rights to proprietary information rather than purchasing resources, who is reponsible for preservation?
What incentives exist for a for-profit information provider to preserve data that no longer brings revenue?

8. Acid Paper: A Wake-up Call for Preservation Issues
“Technological innovations in the mid-nineteenth century had produced a less expensive kind of paper made from wood pulp, which made possible an explosion in printed materials that contributed to public literacy and to the organization of public libraries with print collections. The unintended consequence of the new paper technology was the later ‘brittle book.’ ”
-Marcum & Friedlander

9. Today’s Echo:
Technological innovations in the late twentieth century produce a less expensive form of publishing, which makes possible an explosion in published materials that contributes to public literacy and to the organization of public libraries. . . The unintended consequence of the new technology is the decaying digital object.
Economic motives of information producers and consumers
Comparatively little advocacy for the beneficiaries of a well-preserved cultural history, as with Russel Young’s ignored proposal in 1897

10. The Digital Difference
Instead of a single artifact to preserve for
any given work, we have content embedded in
a hierarchy of devices, removable media and
file formats.
Each level of the hierarchy may present
its own preservation challenges.

11. Hardware Devices Quickly obsolete Difficult to maintain
May be impossible to replace parts

12. Removable Media Constantly replaced by higher-density alternatives
Condition of data cannot be determined by inspection
Varying expected lifetimes
Damage may be proportional to use

13. File Formats The sheer terrible variety
May be multiple formats per logical work
Standard formats: at what cost the one true format?
Must :
-Be descriptive at content level
-Allow for comments/metadata
-Be openly available
-Exist in interpretable form

14. Formats
3,181 File Formats Listed on whatis.com

15. Selection
The publishing process has traditionally provided a measure of quality control and addition of metadata.
If we bypass traditional publishers, who will provide these services?

16. Economic Issues
Traditional library economic model with high administrative costs.
Digital publishing offers an opportunity to trim the administrative fat.
Stolen without permission from Lesk

17. Cost of Storage
Stolen from Lesk

18. Cooperation
Libraries have a history of cooperative efforts with inter-library loans, shared catalogs and collaborative microfilming efforts.
These organizational strengths should continue to help us avoid redundant efforts.

19. Legal Issues “Microsoft Patents Ones, Zeroes”
-The Onion, March 26, 1998

20. Legal Issues Does concept of “first sale” apply?
Copyrights: last longer, easier to maintain
Patents - GIF and LZW compression
Increasing use of contract law

21. Lessons Learned:
Preservation is key to a library’s mission, and must be supported with proper funding, facilities, staff and training
There is no technological panacea, organizational efforts must support the preservation function
Value judgments remain: every bit does not need to be preserved

22. Other sources
M. Hedstrom Et Al: “It’s About Time: Research Challenges in Digital Archiving and Long-term Preservation (
Whatis.Com: “Every File Format in the World” (