1. Lighting the way Ensuring the survival of news archives into the future Victoria McCargar, M.A., MLIS Senior Editor, Los Angeles Times Adjunct professor, UCLA Dept. of Information Studies

2. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.20042 The New Dark Ages? n Digital media are among the most fragile formats ever created n Longevity is inversely proportional to data density n The research agenda is still being established n The 1990s are ‘gone’

3. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.20043 The New Dark Ages? n Do we care? Serving future historians is not our mandate Value of material drops after 90 days Digitization is all about access: reuse, outside sales, sharing with other business units Media companies are bottom-line oriented

4. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.20044 The New Dark Ages? n Yes, but … Similarities with other cultural heritage institutions—like it or not Newspapers have unique collections Material potentially has enduring social, political, cultural, literary, artistic value The older it gets, the more valuable it is Invaluable to present and future historians

5. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.20045 The New Dark Ages? n No standards, protocols, models … n … While our data is growing more complex n No “originals” to go back to n To digitize is not to preserve—at least not today n Do you know where your 1990s are?

6. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.20046 Dawn of Enlightenment? n International initiatives Library of Congress, OCLC, NARA, major universities, others U.K. Europe, Canada, Australia Migration, emulation, encapsulation, XML decomposition; normalization, archaeology Metadata schemas Schema, format registries Trusted third-party repositories

7. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.20047 Rocket science: OAIS Submission package Archival package Display package Preservation Planning Administration Open Archive Information System Reference Model

8. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.20048 Night and day Archives DAM Systems Few or no standards Robust standards Minimal metadata Lots of schemas Simplistic data structures Nested schemas Focus on print product Holistic view of asset cycle Don’t annoy users Institutional discipline

9. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.20049 Night and day Flexible systems Rigid workflows, standards, best practices Lots of software Controlled suites ‘Keep’ ‘everything’ ‘forever’ Selectivity, archival appraisal Master of your data Trusted repositories Information wants to be free Information hates to be free

10. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.200410 Night and day Research budget Preservation budget Informal acquisition Well-defined policy Flexibility, tweaking Standards, controls Latest and greatest Stable platforms Native formats Normalized formats Copyright tools Transparent code Hardware upgrades Hardware museums Creativity Discipline

11. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.200411 Squinting ahead n Long-term costs: too big, too complex, too expensive n D-Space (MIT) model n Defined levels of supported formats n Trusted repositories, non- and for- profit datakeepers n Escrowed code n Emulation houses

12. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.200412 Squinting ahead n Education and awareness n IT department buy-in n Vendor buy-in n Emerging standards n Accession policies n Problematic formats n Metadata and migration strategies

13. Victoria McCargar | SLA News Division | © 6.7.200413 PREMIS n Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies n Grew out of OAIS work: LC and OCLC n Survey of compliance n News subset? Focus group Vicky McCargar (213) 237-7129