This document summarizes key aspects of digital preservation and curation. It discusses the rapid growth of digital information and the need for new preservation models. Effective preservation practices require consistent maintenance and addressing technological and social challenges. Different organizational models are described, including government libraries, independent preservation libraries like Portico, and networked library efforts like LOCKSS and CLOCKSS. The roles and responsibilities of curators and repositories include ensuring sustainability, access, security and addressing copyright issues.

1. Digital Preservation and
Curation of Information
TEAM 9: NELL BUTLER, BRANDON HOWARD, CHARI SANDERS, EMILEE WHITEHILL

2. A Wealth of Information
 "According to a recent study by market research
company, IDC...the size of the information universe is
currently 800,000 petabytes...but it's just a down
payment on next year's total, which will reach 1.2 million
petabytes or 1.2 zettabytes" (Harvey, 2012,).
Harvey, D. (2012). Preserving Digital Materials. Berlin ; Boston: De Gruyter Saur, p9.

3. Preservation in a Digital Age
 The rapid growth of technology and the innovation
which accompanies it has given rise to an explosion of
information requiring preservation which can withstand
the tests of time.
 However, the knowledge needed to create effective,
reliable practices has not yet been developed.
 Library and recordkeeping practices are transitioning
from collection-based models, where preservation
principles have been cultivated over hundreds of years,
to environments in which collections are becoming
secondary to information resources.

4. Hybrid Libraries
 It matters little whether information resources are
managed at local or remote locations.
 The idea of non-custodial collections has been
examined, and in some cases, implemented, simply
because the prodigious increase in digital records
demanded new library services which would provide
users with access to a broad array of options.
 Thus, librarians are managing composite resources that
include physical collections, digital information, and
digital libraries.
Harvey, D. (2012). Preserving Digital Materials. Berlin ; Boston: De Gruyter Saur, p7.

5. The Need for a New Preservation
Model
 Library, archive, and recordkeeping conventions are
moving from a preservation model, where the priority
has been on safeguarding physical objects (books,
manuscripts, CDs) to one in which no such articles exist.
 This raises the question of how preservation is to be
understood in digital settings.
Harvey, D. (2012). Preserving Digital Materials. Berlin ; Boston: De Gruyter Saur, p7.

6. Preservation Practices for a Digital
Age
 Fundamental elements of preservation programs in
digital environments should incorporate these
considerations:
 Although many archival items benefit from minimal
handling, digital information must be aggressively
maintained from the moment it is created.
 Without consistent attention to the technology that
houses it, a collection may disappear.
 In addition to technical issues, political and social
concerns may also pose challenges.
arvey, D. (2012). Preserving Digital Materials. Berlin ; Boston: De Gruyter Saur, p12.

7. Digital Curation
 Digital Curation in its most simple form is the collection
and preservation of digital resources to be used by
future users.
 But why?
 To understand digital curation one could first review the
importance of physical curation.

8. Why Physical Curation?
 Because some things can be easily viewed as vital and
representative of a generation or of importance, for
example:
 Journals of world leaders
 Works of popular and influential writers
 Paintings and sketches of artists and inspirational people
 Items that represent an important event

9. Digital Data
 Information in the present age is stored in the Internet in
various forms. Social media, journals, artist pages, and
Vlogs all represent a generation.
 This information is fleeting and stored on various servers
controlled by a single corporation.
 What happens if the information is not viewed as
important?
 What happens if the corporation has a server failure?
 What happens if the information is deleted?

10. Principles of Digital Curation
 Digital curation is a new and growing field of study for
librarians and archivist that is taking advantage of all the
new technology in its field.
 Because of this, the field is broad in objectives.
 Despite this broadness, some objectives overlap.
 According to Elizabeth Yakel’s work, Digital Curation,
published in the OCLC Systems & Services, there are five
similarities or important concepts.

11. Principles of Digital Curation
 Lifecycle/ Continuum management of the materials perhaps
even reaching back to the creation of the record keeping
system
 Active involvement over time of both record creators and
potentially digital curators
 Appraisal and selection of materials
 Development and provision of access
 Ensuring preservation and usability and accessibility of the
objects
Yakel, E, Digital Curation. OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspective, 23(4), 335-340.

12. Orphan Technology
 Technology that is outdated, potentially unusable,
and/or the last of its kind.
 An example would be discovering an old computer with
distinct file formats that would require a specialized team
to carefully extract the data. This may sound like a
James Bond Film, however, it is much closer to reality
than you think. . .

13. What Will Digital Preservation Do?
 This very incident happened not long ago and was
reported on by Wired.com (Link to outside page).
 An old computer was found in the Andy Warhol Museum
that no one had chosen to investigate. The file formats
were old, but contained unique art the world had never
scene.
 A team came together and carefully extracted the
information and new works were displayed to the world.
 If the team had hurried quickly and just accessed the
data, the world may have never seen those digital
paintings.

14. How Can You Help?
 There are many Digital Curation projects available to be
a part of. Check your local, museum, or university club
to be a part of something exciting.
 One may also use their ALA membership to join the
Digital Curation Interest Group located on their website.
 Educate patrons about donating potential orphan
technology and being cautious of deleting digital
treasures.
 Hold library programs that excite and educate patrons
about digital archiving and curation.

15. Short Term Preservation
Technologies
 Backup
 Redundancy Configuration in Content Delivery Systems
 Byte Replication

16. Backup
 Many times the content can only be retrieved via the
software with which it was originally backed up

17. Redundancy Configuration in
Content Delivery Systems
 The entire system is running over two or more computers
in two or more data centers
 Online at the same time, or one of the systems is held in
reserve to be brought online quickly if the other system
fails

18. Byte Replication
 Creation of identical copies of files, file systems, or
websites
 Different copies held in different locations to ensure the
likelihood that should one become unavailable, access
to another is probable
 No file format updates
 Discoverability can be extremely difficult

19. Technical Strategies
 Migration
 The process of transforming digital content from its
existing format to a different format that is usable and
accessible on the technology in current use
 Emulation
 Involves developing software that imitates earlier
hardware and software that can be used to read
older file formats

20. Three Organizational Models
 Government Funded National Libraries
 Community-Supported Independent Preservation
Libraries
 e.g. Portico
 Networked Library Efforts
 Groups of libraries that have pooled their resources to
share the responsibility and costs of preservation
 e.g. LOCKSS and CLOCKSS

21. Portico
 Focus on preserving e-journals, e-books, digitized
newspapers, and libraries’ locally created or
digitized content
 Publishers provide digital files
 Both libraries and publishers give annual financial
contributions
 Libraries audit the archive and make sure content is
being added to the archive for preservation
 Uses the migration-based preservation strategy

22. Portico Content Availability
 Accessible by faculty, staff, and students at participating
libraries when a publisher
 Ceases operations
 Stops publishing a title
 No longer offers back issues
 Suffers catastrophic and sustained failure of its
delivery platform
 Or in the case of a post-cancellation access request
by the publisher

23. Portico Services
 Preservation planning
 Analyzed and given a plan of action
 Receipt and inventory management
 Supplied to Portico via
 Portable media
 Standard transfer protocol
 Software developed by Portico
 Processing and archival deposit
 Given multiple formats and kept in many geographical locations
 Monitoring and management
 Performs regular fixity and completeness checks

24. LOCKSS and CLOCKSS
 Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe (LOCKSS)
 Digital archiving system in which content is collected in the
system as it gets published
 Content continuously compared between all different member
libraries, and differences are corrected
 If for any reason the content a user is looking for is not retrieved
from the publisher, the LOCKSS copy is provided
 Transparent format migration: involves a change of format to
match the needs of the user as the content is viewed
 Controlled LOCKSS (CLOCKSS)
 An offshoot of LOCKSS
 Content is only provided in the advent of a trigger event
 Content is preserved in the publisher’s original format, not an
archival format

25. Roles and Responsibilities
 What are the roles and responsibilities of curators and
repositories?

26. Roles-Repositories and Curators
 Repositories- archives, special collections libraries,
museums, research centers, etc.
 They maintain “stewardship of digital materials.”
 Curators- keepers and custodians of collections
 Two groups- resource creators and resource managers
 Resource creators “create well formed and sustainable
resources using open and standard file formats wherever
possible.”
 Resource managers provide information or resources,
correctly manage them and make them accessible to
users

27. Responsibilities
Sustainability
 How long will the resource last?
 What infrastructure and policies
must be established to provide
continuous development and
care?
 Proper care and maintenance
to ensure resources long-term
viability
 Protect against obsolescence
Appraisal and Identification
 What information or resources
should be chosen to preserve?
 What identifier (unique label)
should be used for cataloging
and indexing?
 How many digital records
should be retained?

28. Responsibilities
Selection
 Complementary to Appraisal
 What records are most
important to preserve? Which
records to discard?
 Which records provide the
most comprehensive view of
modern society?
 Create a wide range of criteria
to select these resources
Authenticity
 Allows digital resources to be
reliably reused
 Is the resource free from
corruption, alteration or
manipulation?
 Keeping resources as close to
their original form as possible
and retaining the most vital
elements

29. Responsibilities
Accessibility & Use
 Who can use or access this
information?
 Ensure all users access in
accordance with repositories
access policies
 Does not deny access or
bestow privileged access to
users
 Enable continued access to
digital resources
 Make certain any restrictions
are appropriate
Security & Protection
 How should the information
and resources be stored?
 Must ensure safety from
damage, vandalism, theft and
disasters
 Create and implement policies
that protect resources
 Work with colleagues, IT staff
and law enforcement to
protect against threats and
dangers digital and physical

30. Copyrights
 As stated by Hirtle (2003), “Digital preservation and
access is all about copying.”
 The exclusive rights of copyright holders are in conflict
with the needs of curators and repositories
 Copyrights holders control (1) the ability to reproduce,
(2) the ability to publicly display information, (3) the right
to adapt information
 Digital rights management software embedded in
resources control how they are used and for how long
 What rights do curators and repositories have to preserve
digital information and resources?

31. Rights
 What are the rights of curators and repositories?

32. Copyright Act:
Section 108(b) & 108(c)
 Section 108(b)- allows libraries and archives right to reproduce
unpublished resources as long as they own them
 May make maximum three copies for “preservation, security and
deposit.”
 Have the authority to create maximum three copies of published
resources if damaged, deteriorating or lost. Cannot make copy
unless this occurs
 Section 108(c)- allows libraries and archives narrowed reproduction
rights
 Have the authority to create maximum three copies of published
resources if damaged, deteriorating or lost. Cannot make copy
unless this occurs

33. The Fair Use Provision
 Gives repositories and curators the right to copy and
preserve resources that they may not own and digital
resources that they legally own
 Must fulfill the four factors (PNMA) as stated by Mary
Minow (2006)
 1) Purpose of use- socially beneficial? Non-commercial?
 2) Nature of work- what is being copied?
 3) Amount of Substantiality used- how much is being
copied?
 4) Market impact- monetary compensation for the
copyright owner?

34. US Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DCMA)
 Libraries and archives are able to make a maximum of
three copies of digital resource for preservation.
 Many formats can be copied.
 Copies cannot be accessed outside of the repository
 Copies cannot be digitally distributed

35. Digital Preservation and the Three-
Legged Stool
 The frameworks associated with digital preservation
have been compared to a three-legged stool.
 Nancy McGovern, who began working with the
preservation of digital information at the U.S. National
Archives thirty years ago, describes the three-legged
stool, as consisting of “organizational infrastructure (the
"what"), technological infrastructure (the "how") and a
resources framework (the "how much") of building an
organization's digital preservation program.
Nancy McGovern, Digital Preservation Pioneer. Library of Congress: Digital Preservation. Retrieved April 2015, from:
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/series/pioneers/mcgovern.html

36. Information as Power
 From a philosophical perspective, power is central to the
infrastructure of the organization, and is the means
through which resources are generated.
 Knowledge has traditionally been wielded by elites who
recognized the power of intelligence.
 In fact, “Problems of government secrecy and the
dangers of political influence on recordkeeping have
ancient origins” (Jimerson, 2007).
Jimerson, R. (2007). Archives for All: Professional Responsibility and Social Justice. The American Archivist, Vol. 70, p261.

37. Archives as Power
 “Written texts entrenched theocratic tyranny over vast
reaches of monotheistic time and space,” according to
David Lowenthal. “Most archives originated as
instruments of landowners’ and lawgivers’ control. . .
Archives confirmed and certified rights to land, labor,
rents, and produce. Entry to archives was confined to
princely, and scribal elites” (2006).
Lowenthal, D. (2006). Archives, Heritage, and History. Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory: Essays from the Sawyer Seminar. Editors:
Francis X. Blouin, Jr. and William G. Rosenberg. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), p194.

38. Archives and Advocacy
 Archivists, recordkeepers, and information professionals hold
the positions once reserved for princely and scribal elites, for
they control access to the material for which they are
responsible.
 Randall Jimerson, former President of the Society for American
Archivists, refers to archives as “sites of power.”
 He believes archivists should embrace their power in
ascertaining “what records will be preserved…..for the benefit
of all members of society (and that) archivists can use the
power of archives to promote accountability, open
government, diversity, and social justice” (2007).
Jimerson, R. (2007). Archives for All: Professional Responsibility and Social Justice. The American Archivist, Vol. 70, p252.

39. TED Talk
To summarize the potential and value of digital
information, here is a TED Talk by Adam Ostrow about
the possibilities and values of our digital lives