Annotated Bibliography on Digital Preservation

Maruja De Villa Lorica
Paper/project written in Spring 2009

1. Cornell University Library. (2003). Moving theory into practice: digital imaging tutorial. Retrieved March 5, 2009 from http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/contents.html;
http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/preservation/preservation-01.html

The article provides the rationale for digital preservation which is to maintain the ability to display, retrieve, and use digital collections in the face of rapidly changing technological and organizational infrastructures and elements. It also discusses the challenges facing digital preservation, categorized into technical vulnerabilities and organizational and administrative issues. It cites examples of initiatives towards practical approaches to digital preservation are such as the Open Archival Information System (OAIS), Networked European Deposit Library, and the Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia (PANDORA) Project, among others.

2. Deegan, M. and Tanner, S. eds. (2006). Digital Preservation. London: Facet Publishing.

The book edited by Deegan and Tanner with contributions from leading experts in the field of digital preservation, provides a clear description of the various methods that can be adopted to preserve digital material, and various strategic issues related to digital preservation such as copyright and moral rights. It also covers topics on the OAIS Reference Model – the generic standard that lays down the principles of digital preservation; metadata; web archiving including case studies, especially those involving national libraries); costs involved; and examples of European approaches to digital preservation.


3. Digital Preservation Coalition. Preservation Management of Digital Materials: The Handbook (www.dpconline.org/graphics/handb). Retrieved March 5, 2009 from http://www.dpconline.org/docs/handbook/DPCHandbookDigPres.pdf

This article deals on digital preservation strategies to address the problem of digital objects not being accessible in the future. These strategies include preservation, emulation, and migration. The technology preservation strategy is concerned with the preservation of the original software and hardware that was used to create and access the information. The technology emulation strategy involves the re-creation of the technical environment required to view and use a digital collection. In the digital information migration strategy, digital information is re-encoded in new formats before the old format becomes obsolete


4. Grindley, N. (February 2009). Saving for the future. Research Information (40) 13- 14. Retrieved March 5, 2009 from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text via UNT Electronic Resources: http://irservices.library.unt.edu/

The article provides a sound rationale for digital preservation. Grindley states that storage media can simply decay or malfunction, a process known as bit rot, which can lead to serious losses of information. This can affect digital data to varying extents, from single character omission, to scrambling of information, or to a major loss of data. Further, he says that organizational issues like withdrawal of funding and general institutional instability are valid concerns for digital collections. Organizations merge and fold, and as a result, digital collections and whole data sets can become ‘orphaned’ as institutional priorities, interest and incentive to deal with digital materials change.

5. Hirtle, P. (2003). Digital Preservation and Copyright. Retrieved March 3, 2009, from http://fairuse.stanford.edu/commentary_and_analysis/2003_11_hirtle.html

Hirtle explores the concerns and issues related to digital preservation and copyright. He states that there are at least three specific sections of the copyright law that may be of assistance. Section 17 USC § 117 of the United States copyright states that in spite of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, it is permissible to make a copy for archival purposes of a copyrighted computer program. Likewise, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") has a provision that explicitly allows libraries and archives to make up to three copies of a work for preservation purposes. In addition, individuals and libraries can turn to the Fair Use provision in US copyright law.

6. Marcum, D. and Friedlander, A. (2003). Keepers of the crumbling culture: What digital preservation can learn from library history. D-Lib Magazine 9 (5). Retrieved March 10, 2009 from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may03/friedlander/05friedlander.html

The article summarizes the history of preservation in libraries centered on the book. It also states that the degradation of books and newsprint, which was an unanticipated adverse consequence of technological innovation, led to the modern, scientific study of preservation requirements by re-formatting, first to microfilm and subsequently to digital media. It presents some issues and concerns related to digital preservation such as what should be preserved, who should preserve, who will ensure access to these resources, and who will preserve them as part of the human cultural record, among others.

7. Rothenberg, J. (1999). Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital Preservation. Retrieved March 4, 2009, from Council of Library and Information Resources (CLIR): http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub77.html

This report explores the technical problems associated with long-term digital preservation, analyzes a number of ideas proposed as solutions, and elaborates the emulation strategy. The central idea of the emulation strategy is to emulate obsolete systems on future, unknown systems, so that a digital document's original software can be run in the future despite being obsolete. Rothenberg asserts that emulation strategy has many advantages over the other approaches suggested and offers a promising solution to the problem of preserving digital material far into the future.

8. Savage, B. (2001). Introductory Notes on Digital Imaging and Preservation. Retrieved March 10, 2009 from http://cool-palimpsest.stanford.edu/byauth/savage/dignotes1.html

The article discusses two types of digital reformatting, namely, a) reformatting to prevent the types of deterioration to which the native format is prone, and b) creation of digital surrogates, which extend the life of the original by diminishing handling, or exposure to air and light. The article also deals on media integrity (the inherent characteristics of the host medium), format obsolescence (both for physical media and file structure), and information fidelity (creating image file which describes as accurately as possible the source signal).

9. van Horik, R. (2005). Permanent pixels: Building blocks for the longevity of digital surrogates of historical photographs. The Hague. (PhD Dissertation). Retrieved March 6, 2009 from http://www.knaw.nl/publicaties/pdf/20051103.pdf

This research project aimed to illustrate a means for memory institutes to create durable digital surrogates of photographs, to manage them and to provide long-term access to them. Likewise, the project was conducted to gain increased understanding on the digital preservation of photographs and to contribute to better insights related to longevity of digital objects in general. The research report provides a good overview of the various efforts of “memory institutes” towards digitization, and digital preservation in the US, Europe and other parts of the world.

10. The Library of Congress. Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections. Retrieved February 12, 2009 from http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/intro/format_eval_rel.shtml

The document discusses several sustainability factors to consider when evaluating a digital format because these factors affect the feasibility and cost of preserving content given the changes in technology and how archiving institutions operate. These sustainability factors are: disclosure, adoption, transparency, self-documentation, external dependencies, impact of patents, and technical protection mechanisms.