1. OCLC Online Computer Library Center The ‘Hows’ and ‘Whys’ of Preserving Digital Materials Brian Lavoie Research Scientist OCLC CARL program: “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” June 2, 2004

2. Roadmap Digital preservation Why is it important? How do we do it? Current initiatives

3. Rising digital tide Equivalent of 5 exabytes of new information created in 2002; 92 percent stored on magnetic or optical media Rush to digitize: –Cultural artifacts (images, audio, video, text) –Electronic publishing (books, journals, newspapers, databases) –Scholarly and “non-scholarly” communication (listservs, e-prints, blogs, Web sites, chat rooms) Growing proportion of scholarly and cultural record manifested in digital form

4. Opportunities and challenges Digital technologies offer new opportunities to create, share, re-purpose, and link information … … but introduce new challenges in managing information Critical element in managing digital materials is securing their long-term persistence … … but digital materials have relatively brief “shelf-life”

5. Bit rot, obsolescence, and other digital diseases … Fragile digital storage media: –Computer hard drives, floppy disks, tapes, CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc. –Subject to rapid media degradation and “bit rot” –Prone to damage from careless handling Technological obsolescence: –Technological environment between content and user –Technology rapidly changing and evolving –Obsolete technology impairs access to dependent digital materials

6. Digital preservation Preserving digital materials means ensuring they endure into the future But also: Ensuring they endure in a form compatible with contemporary technology “Traditional preservation” (books, art, buildings) –Preserve object Digital preservation –Preserve object AND the means to access and use it Challenges: technical, legal, economic

7. Technical challenges How do we preserve digital materials? Menu of digital preservation techniques: –Media refreshment –Migration –Emulation Digital preservation in action: Camileon Project –Univ. of Michigan and Univ. of Leeds –Practical implementation of emulation –Rescue of British Domesday materials –http://www.si.umich.edu/CAMILEON/

8. Other technical issues Blueprint for a digital archiving system: –Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model –Articulates functional components of complete digital archiving system –Many current digital archives based on OAIS –http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/wwwclassic/documents/pdf/ CCSDS-650.0-B-1.pdf Preservation metadata: –Information “bundled” with archived digital materials; supports digital preservation process –PREMIS (Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) –http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/

9. Legal challenges Digital preservation and the right to preserve Issues: –Digital preservation often occurs while materials still under copyright –Many digital materials outside custody of institutions with mandate to preserve Preserving digital materials under copyright: –Preservation may require reproducing materials –Migration may alter appearance, functionality, etc.

10. Legal challenges (continued) “Custody” and the right to preserve: –Digital materials obtained through license, subscription –Web sites NESLI (National E-Journals Initiative) –Coordinates e-journal licensing for UK higher education –Model License: requires publishers to preserve content –http://www.nesli2.ac.uk/ Internet Archive –Harvest and stores Web sites for future access –“Cease and desist” policy –http://www.archive.org/

11. Economic challenges Economic sustainability: ability to marshal, on an ongoing basis, sufficient resources to meet preservation objectives Obstacles: –Preservation typically under-funded –Reliance on one-off, short-term funding sources Economic infrastructure for digital preservation: –Appropriate allocation of preservation responsibilities –Sufficient incentives to carry out these responsibilities –Efficient organization of scarce preservation resources

12. Economic infrastructure … Responsibilities: –Recognize “diffused” preservation responsibilities, including publishers, Webmasters, software developers, etc. Incentives: –Address potential gaps between preservation objectives and incentives Organization: –Leverage infrastructure, exploit economies of scale, eliminate redundancies More information: –http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/digipres/incentives- dp.pdf –http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub126/pub126.pdf

13. Towards a secure digital future … Digital technologies facilitate creating and sharing information Long-term future of digital information threatened: –Fragile digital storage media –Technological obsolescence –Must take steps to preserve digital materials Challenges: –Effective preservation strategies –Sorting out right to preserve –Allocating resources to digital preservation, and using them effectively

14. More information … PADI (Preserving Access to Digital Information): http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/ Digital Preservation Coalition: http://www.dpconline.org/graphics/index.html Canadian Initiative on Digital Libraries: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/cidl/pres-preserv-e.html lavoie@oclc.org