My ContentDigital Preservation - Need, Purpose, Standards, Methods, Techniques, Projects (National and International)
Digital preservationNeed of Digital PreservationPurpose of digital preservationDigital Preservation StandardsStrategy and Methods of Digital Preservation Intellectual Preservation Technology Preservation Emulation Data Migration Refreshing Data Archaeology Output to Analog MediaDigital Technology
Digital Preservation - Need, Purpose, Standards, Methods, Techniques, Projects (National and International)
Digital preservation
Digital preservation is the method of keeping digital material alive so that they remain usable as technological advances render original hardware and software specification obsolete.
Digital preservation is defined as a long term error free storage information which means for the retrieval and interpretation for the entire time span of information is required.
Digital preservation is about a series of actions that need to be taken and managed to make sure there is continued access to digital materials for as long as is necessary.
According To ALA (2007) defines Digital Preservation combines policies, strategies and actions that ensure access to digital content over time.
Need of Digital Preservation
• Exponential growth in digital information.
• Increased complexity and their dependency on software required to read and use them.
• Rapid flux of technology, standards and formats.
• Multiplicity of standards and formats.
• Absence of widely accepted standards.
• Need to ensure usability, durability and intellectual integrity; and
• Rapid changes and obsolescence of storage media.
Purpose of digital preservation
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Digital Preservation Standards
To standardize digital preservation practice and provide a set of recommendations for preservation program implementation, the reference model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) was developed. The reference model (ISO 14721: 2003) includes the following responsibilities that an OAIS archive must abide by :
a. Negotiate for and accept appropriate information from information producers.
b. Obtain sufficient control of the information provided to the level needed to ensure Long -Term preservation.
c. Determine, either by itself or in conjunction with other parties, which communities should become the designated community and there fore, should be able to understand the information provided.
d. Ensure that the information to be preserved is independently understandable to the designated community. In other words, the community should be able to understand the information without needing the assistance of the experts who produced the information.
e. Follow documented policies and procedures which ensure that the information is preserved against all reasonable contingencies, and which enable the information to be disseminated as authenticated copies of the original or as traceable to the original.
f. Make the preserved information available to the designated community.
Strategy and Methods of Digital Preservation
There are various strategies and methods which can be adopted in the process of digital preservation. Some of such important strategies and methods include. Intellectual preservation, Technological Preservation, Emulation, Data Migration, Refreshing, Data Archaeology, output to Analogue Media.
1. Intellectual Preservation
It includes printing of digital meterial on paper and recording it on microfilm.
2. Technology Preservation
This strategy aims at preserving the poftware and hardware environment that was used to access the resources when it was created. This approach may be the best solution for some digital objects in the short term but not in the longer term.
3. Emulation
It refers to creating new software that mimics the operations of older hardware or software in onder to produce its performance. Thus, not only are physical presence and content preserved but also digital objects could display original features (eg layout and functionality available with the older software.
4. Data Migration
it involves change in the configuration of the underlying data without change in the intellectual content. The purpose of migration in to preserve the integrity of digital objects and to retain the ability for clients to retrieve, display and otherwise use them in the face of constantly changing technology.
5. Refreshing
This important method of digital preservation to achieve longevity involves periodically moving one from one physical storage mediam to another storage medium in order to avoid physical decay or obsolescence.
6. Data Archaeology
Here data would be reflected regularly but no migration would be performed and no programmes would be preserved to emulate at a latest stage. It involves recovery of data by using better techniques available in future.
7. Output to Analog Media
It provides preservation copy in an analog format. It is fact that microfilm cannot capture all of the features of original object that satisfy the accesss needs of the majority of the users. All these strategies and methods have their own merits and demerits. To carry out digital preservation work in the true sense, libraries must retain the ability to display, retrieve, manipulate and use the digital information in the face of constantly changing technology.
Digital Technology
Digital technology can be used as tool for preservation of information that is currently in non- digital format. The uses of digital technology include analog-to-digital conversion for sound and video recording images- to digital conversion for documents, books, photos etc. and text to digital conversion for documents and books using OCR/ICR optical. The wide range of technology and tools are available to create digital information for text and multimedia staff such as web publishing using HTML, XML, JAVA, PERI etc. technology on creation of database for online access. Digital information offers many apparent access including remote and multiple acces, complex searches, searches access to different format and materials from different storage media over the mesh of wires or fiber optics. Banks of the digital knowledge river (content creation and access) have been bridged by digital preservation. Floppies and CDS are the examples of new digitization technology. It has become possible to store electronic new images of the documents on magnetic tape, f loppy or CD. which can be read on computer screen whenever wanted. Email and Internet have proved to be beneficial for libraries since they have given a new dimension to their reprographic services no doubt but seen from a different angle these developments certain things need to be kept in mind like the basic materials needed for digitizing, the software requirements, standards to be followed etc.
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