This presentation is about preservation and served as a starting point for a discussion on this topic.

1. Seven Pillars of Digital
Preservation
Four "itys" of Preservation
and Access
UConn Library Brown Bag
February 16, 2017
Greg Colati

2. Seven Pillars of Digital Preservation
Digital Preservation begins with digital INTEGRITY:
• Content
• Fixity
• Reference
• Provenance
• Context
--Preserving Digital Information, 1996
HTTPS://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub63watersgarrett.pdf

3. Content
"Formatted and structured bits"
Digital files and information packages
All quotes on this and following slides from:
Paul Conway, Preservation in the Age of Google, 2010
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/85223
Mm_95_11.jp2

4. Fixity
"Frozen as discrete objects"
No longer in flux, no longer editable or
needing to be altered
Mm_95_11.jp2

5. Reference
"In a predictable location"
Not just a stable URL, but a globally
unique identifier: Handle/Ark/DOI
http://hdl.handle.net/11134/260002:6

6. Provenance
"With a documented chain of custody"
Audit trails, paper documentation,
existing within an organizational
framework.
Held by: Mattatuck Museum

7. Context
"Linkages to related objects"
Through relationship statements and
graphs, metadata, or other means
"is memberOF 260002:MM001"

8. The OAIS Reference Model
A set of data elements
(metadata of all types,
primary content objects,
associative information,
system information) combined
into a “package” that exists
in an electronic environment,
is internally coherent and can
be managed by applications
and processes.

9. Integrity + Activity/Time = Preservation
The Digital Curation Centre's
Lifecycle model incorporates
"preservation activities" into the
cycle of curation:
Appraisal
Technical activities
Checksums
Redundant storage
Integrity checks
Migration
Re-appraisal

10. Preservation is the Preservation of Access
How does this theory
relate to practice in the
real world?

11. “-itys” of Access
• Interoperability
• Reusability
Recycling Telephones,1948 Canning Center,
1943
“-itys” of Preservation
• Sustainability
• Reliability
Four "itys" of Preservation and Access

12. Final Thoughts
Preservation goes beyond keeping things safe. It
includes how we think about the world, and what we
value as a society.
It is how we connect, preserve, and share our
cultural heritage.