What is it? Why do we need it? Where is it headed?
Introduction
In my discovery to learn more about the world of archives, I took a class in Preservation. This class allowed me to explore the intricacies of why archives exist, how they came to be, and what they contribute to the continued existence of information in our society. However, simply saving information is not enough. Through the process of research, I learned that the act of preservation involves a multi-faceted process with many things to consider along the way.
One facet of preservation is digital preservation. In a traditional archive, papers and manuscripts are kept in a temperature-controlled setting and assessed for any repairs that need to be made. Similarly, items created in a digital format must be stored in a specific manner. Just as paper can erode over time, analog (i.e. tapes, CDs) and digital (i.e. websites) materials can either erode or become obsolete over time. Evolutions in technology have made it necessary for librarians and archivists to find new ways to preserve digital media.
Investigative questions include (a) What is digital preservation?, (b) Why do we need it?, and (c) Where is it headed? These questions will be answered within the context of digital preservation standards that are either in development or currently exist in library practice.
Terminology
Born-digital: “items created and managed in digital form.”
Source: Ricky Elway of Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC), Defining “Born-Digital”.
Digital preservation: “refers to the series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary.”
Source: Digital Preservation Coalition, Digital Preservation Handbook.
Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
“the management and protection of digital information to ensure authenticity, integrity, reliability, and long-term accessibility”
Source: Society of American Archivists, Glossary.
Mark-up language: “a computer language that uses tags to define elements within a document. It is human-readable, meaning markup files contain standard words, rather than typical programming syntax. While several markup languages exist, the two most popular are HTML and XML”.
Source: TechTerms website
Metadata: “a characterization or description documenting the identification, management, nature, use, or location of information resources (data).” In a nutshell, metadata is data about data. It describes what the user needs to know about the data, including when and how it was created and who created it.
Source: Society of American Archivists, Glossary.
Piotr Kononow gives a good example of metadata on his website Dataedo.
Obsolescence: This occurs when technology becomes no longer useable or readable. This means there is a risk that the information stored in an obsolete system may not be retrievable after a given amount of time. In the context of digital preservation, this occurrence usually prompts the migration or transference of information to a different form of media so that it will not be lost.
What is digital preservation and why do we need it?
Contrary to popular thought, digital media does not last forever. Over time, it becomes obsolete, or no longer useable. The need for digital preservation has grown out of the recognition that, although preferable to analog formats of media, digital formats also require ongoing maintenance, and are not a permanent solution to preventing loss of information.
The Library of Congress explains why digital preservation is so important in this 2010 video.
Here are some examples of methods used for digital preservation.
Digital preservation is a newly emerging practice within the field of preservation. This practice has developed parallel to the evolution of digital media. Over time the need to preserve digital media and born-digital items properly has become more apparent to librarians, preservationists, and archivists alike.
Historical Context
In his 2008 article, “The History and Current State of Digital Preservation in the United States”, Peter B. Hirtle traces the history of digital preservation beginning with the genesis of digital media around the early 1960s. This historical overview is careful to consider the role of analog preservation and its models in the evolution of digital preservation practices. The article also analyzes the current state of digital preservation as of its publication in 2008. Preservation metadata is a central character in the current-state analysis of digital preservation.
Although digital preservation was a concern as early as the 1960s, tangible evidence of active preservation practices did not surface for nearly three decades. By the 1990s, librarians were attempting to find methods for converting analog media into digital formats. According to Hirtle (2008), digital preservation emerged as a parallel complement to analog practices of the time.
The concept of digital preservation originally developed in libraries, not archives, as an aid to ongoing library analog preservation efforts. Furthermore, it initially did not concern itself with the preservation of information that was ‘born digital’ (p. 124).
This type of application was later proved ineffective, with the realization being that maintenance and upkeep on digital materials had to be actively rather than passively pursued. Materials created using electronic platforms gained importance during the next decade, finally being defined as “born digital” by 1998 (Hirtle, 2008, p. 124).
Where is it headed?
Building a Standard for Digital Preservation
Metadata is an important component of digitization and digital preservation. Over time, standards have been created to ensure that descriptions and formats remain consistent across various repositories. Metadata standards have been developed over a long period and have been canonized into entities such as MARC, EAD, and most recently DACS. These standards create a framework from which librarians can code their item descriptions to be read by a computer, and subsequently shown in a computer or online catalog.
Drawing from the format of metadata standards, the mission to create a cohesive set of digital preservation standards has become more prevalent in recent years.
One line of thought presented in the supporting literature is a recommendation for procedural correctness and long-term effectiveness. In their article Minimum Digitization Capture Recommendations (2013), Ian Bogus and his colleagues propose guidelines for proper digitization of items so that information will not be lost. These recommendations come from a detailed study of existing standards. A 2012 article by Chandra & Gokhale discusses requirements for compliance with the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model as a standard for digital preservation. It details six characteristics of OAIS compliance (ingest, archival storage, administration, data management, preservation planning, and access) and suggests developing procedures to maintain compliance and execute digital preservation effectively using OAIS standards.
UNESCO and OAIS
Guidelines for the Preservation of Digital Heritage, published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2003, follows and argument similar to other articles in the literature. It states that its goal is “defining a standard to guide…preservation endeavours in the digital age” (p. 5). What is unique about this publication is that it addresses issues on a governmental level, rather than just on a library level. This creates an interesting angle to investigate current digital preservation standards.
In its Digital Preservation Handbook, the Digital Preservation Coalition describes the OAIS Reference Model in this way:
The OAIS abbreviation is…used commonly to refer to the Open Archival Information System reference model standard which defined the term. The standard is a conceptual framework describing the environment, functional components, and information objects associated with a system responsible for the long-term preservation. As a reference model, its primary purpose is to provide a common set of concepts and definitions that can assist discussion across sectors and professional groups and facilitate the specification of archives and digital preservation systems.
The University of Minnesota’s webpage outlines the university’s plan for a digital preservation program. It covers aspects such as standards compliance, the scope of the program, and its goals and responsibilities. The webpage also outlines the university program’s operating principles which include access, authenticity, collaboration, intellectual property, standards and best practices, sustainability, technology, training, and transparency. The standards that this program is adhering to include the OAIS Reference Model and the Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification (TRAC) standard (ISO/DIS 16363).
Christopher A. Lee’s dissertation (2005) reports on a case study done in the development of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model. It focuses primarily on the genesis of the project concerning space systems and its eventual evolution as a set of digital preservation standards for use in a wider range of professional fields.
Lee’s subsequent article (2010) follows up on his dissertation work done in 2005. It updates its initial report by revisiting the history of OAIS’s development and further explaining the intricacies of the model in terms of function and information. To further inform on reference models it “explains the nature of reference models as a particular type of standard, and then describes the major components and concepts of the OAIS Reference Model” (Lee, 2010, p. 4020). This includes the six characteristics of OAIS compliance: ingest, archival storage, administration, data management, preservation planning, and access.
Correlations Between Preservation and Description Standards
In his 2011 book Preserving Digital Materials, author Ross Harvey maintains that adherence to standards is what will ultimately make digital preservation efforts successful, emphasizing a move toward collaborative management among institutions. This is consistent with statements made by his contemporaries.
Widespread adoption of standards is of considerable importance because it promotes collaboration among organizations and interoperability among systems. Standards that are stable and have been widely adopted are more likely to be supported and remain viable over a longer period (p. 111).
The author also recognizes that this stability may not be plausible with descriptive standards that are initially created for a specific type of system or operation, such as the description of metadata. Description standards that fall in this category include MARC, DACS, and EAD. As a means of clarification, the example codified by Elings and Waibel (2007) provides a consistent framework for categorizing each of these standards as either content, structure, or format standards. Each content and structure standard discussed here uses XML format as a mark-up language (see Image 2).
As this investigation of preservation and description standards has unfolded, a picture begins to emerge based on earlier discussion. If we can imagine a simple house-like structure, the definitions of framework, reference model, and standard(s) create a structure consisting of three distinct parts. The standard or set of standards acts as the base or foundation, the framework becomes the standing support or frame, and the reference model becomes the door through which everything is accessed. With consistent monitoring and maintenance, this structure can continue to grow and refine itself over time, making the mammoth task of digital preservation more feasible (See Images 3 and 3a).
Just as preservation standards create their own infrastructure, description and metadata standards serve to reinforce the foundation of their preservation counterparts. Descriptive standards such as MARC and EAD provide a solid foundation with which to build preservation standards. Lavoie illustrates this through his synthesis of the fundamental responsibilities required by OAIS compliant institutions. One of these listed includes acquiring appropriate information and any relevant metadata and subsequently surrendering it to OAIS for preservation (Lavoie, 2014, p. 7; CCSDS, 2012, p. 3-1). Without the descriptive information provided in the metadata, an item cannot be accurately preserved.
Conclusion
Digital preservation has various components that require careful consideration when applying these practices in a library setting. By building upon the foundations laid with metadata and description standards, preservation standards such as OAIS have a better chance for success. The relative newness of models such as these signal a new wave of innovation in digital library practices. By regulating the framework for using digital media, libraries are beginning to show the strength of their innovative and evolutionary methods. Both preservation and descriptive standards show steady evolution, refinement, and focus that allows for new and unforeseen challenges to be dealt with when they appear. Digital media is changing at an exponential rate. By focusing their efforts on long-term sustainability and consistency across information repositories, libraries and other institutions will be able to keep at the forefront of the digital preservation movement.
Image 1: Courtesty of the Digital Preservation Coalition. Illustration by Jørgen Stamp digitalbevaring.dk CC BY 2.5 Denmark.
Image 2: Illustration of relationships between description standards, Elings and Waibel (2007).
Image 3: Illustration of hierarchy in digital preservation standards.
Image 3a: Illustration of correlation between preservation and description standards.
References
Bogus, I., Blood, G., Dale, R.L., Leech, R., & Matthews, D. (June 2013). Minimum digitization capture recommendations. The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services: Preservation and Reformatting Section, http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/preserv/minimum-digitization-capture-recommendations
Chandra, S., & Gokhale, P. (2012). Implementing Open Archival Information System Model for Digital Preservation at Indian Institute of Geomagnetism. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 32(4), 327-334. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258890509_Implementing_Open_Archival_Information_System_Model_for_Digital_Preservation_at_Indian_Institute_of_Geomagnetism
Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, The. (2012). Recommendation for space data system practices: Reference model for an open archival information system (OAIS). Magenta Book 2, CCSDS 650.0-M-2. https://public.ccsds.org/pubs/650x0m2.pdf
Elings, M. W., & Waibel, G. (2007). Metadata for all: Descriptive standards and metadata sharing across libraries, archives and museums. First Monday, 12(3). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v12i3.1628, also available at https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/1628/1543?inline=1#e5
Erway, Ricky. (201). Defining “Born-Digital”. OCLC Research. OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/activities/hiddencollections/borndigital.pdf
Harvey, R. (2011). Preserving digital materials (2nd ed.). Berlin: De Gruyter Saur, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110253696. Also available at ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Hirtle, P.B. (2008). The History and Current State of Digital Preservation in the United States. In E. Westbrooks, & K. Jenkins (Eds.), Metadata and Digital Collections: A Festschrift in Honor of Tom Turner (pp. 121-140). Cornell Initiatives in Publishing. https://hdl.handle.net/1813/45862
Lavoie, B. F. (Ed.). (2014). The open archival information system reference model: Introductory guide. (2nd ed.). Digital Preservation Coalition. http://dx.doi.org/10.7207/twr14-02
Lee, C. A. (2005). Defining digital preservation work: A case study of the development of the reference model for an open archival information system. (Dissertation). Retrieved from https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/39372
Lee, C. A. (2010). Defining digital preservation work: A case study of the development of the reference model for an open archival information system. In M.J. Bates & M.N. Maack (Eds.), Encyclopedia of library and information sciences, (3rd ed., pp.4020-4030). Boca Raton: CRC Press. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203757635/chapters/10.1081/E-ELIS3-120044377
Rattan, G. K. (2017). Library and information science and obsolescence. (Conference paper). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315896704
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2003). Guidelines for the preservation of digital heritage, prepared by the National Library of Australia. Paris: UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000130071
University of Minnesota. (2020). Digital preservation framework. https://www.lib.umn.edu/dp/digital-preservation-framework#2
This post comes from a paper submitted by Jayme Nelson for a course in Preservation at the University of North Texas, Fall 2019.
About the Author
Jayme Nelson is a graduate student in library science at Texas Woman's University, with a focus on archives and special collections. She plays bassoon in the Austin Symphonic Band and serves as a collections volunteer at the Austin History Center, a local city archive. She is currently completing her practicum at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History in Austin, TX.
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