The document summarizes key discussion points from Axiell East Coast Roadshow 2018's Digital Preservation Discussion Group. The group discussed: 1) the types of digital materials cultural heritage organizations manage like images, documents, and born-digital files; 2) who has organizational digital preservation policies in place; and 3) what digital preservation means and current challenges organizations face in preserving digital collections over time given risks like file formats becoming unreadable and materials becoming lost or unrecoverable without preservation planning. The group also explored options for on-site and cloud-based preservation solutions and factors to consider when developing a digital preservation program and policy.

1. Axiell East Coast Roadshow 2018
Digital Preservation Discussion Group
Gayle Silverman, Continuing Education

2. Why We’re Talking About Digital Preservation
● Learn more about digital preservation policies in the Axiell
community
● Discuss the scope of digital preservation requirements for EMu and
Mimsy XG users
● Find out what Axiell might be able to do to help
● Understand if people are looking for additional guidance

3. What Digital Material is Being Managed?
• Collection images
• Object photos
• Conservation images
• Publication images
• Scanned documents
• Loan agreements
• Facilities reports
• Born digital
• Audio, video
• Marketing materials

4. Who Has A
Organizational
Digital Preservation
Policy?

5. What Does Digital Preservation Mean To Your
Organization?
● What preservation processes do you have in place?
• IT backups
• Retention policies
• File formats
• File integrity audits

6. Axiell’s Observations about
Digital Preservation

7. Some Stuff We Think We Know
● People know they need to do something, but not sure what
● Best practice and community practice often conflict
● Preservation takes time & resources
● Archives seem better prepared
● Preservation seen as an “IT problem”
● Vocabulary we use around preservation isn’t always clear
● Sites more used to preserving physical material
● Backups potentially offer false security

8. What Are the Risks if We Don’t Plan?
• Problem realized after a loss
• Accreditation / funding bodies don’t recognize organizations
• Born digital materials become unrecoverable
• Expensive reshoots / rescans
• File formats become unreadable (Photo CDs)

9. What Are Our Options
● On-site solutions
• Scale up very well (cost per GB), difficult to scale down (few TB)
● Cloud storage
• Long term availability / cost
• Internet pipeline speed vs. rate of acquisition
• In contrast to recent trends to cloud

10. Things to Consider
● Integration with Collections Management System
● Priorities can be defined as “tiers”
● Different materials will be preserved in different ways
● Why you’re preserving something may change how its
preserved
● Set institution policies up-front
● Digital preservation policy “wizard”
● Automated checks of fixity / checksum / formats
● Integrity of the assets
● Formats & longevity
• Email alerts when action is required, policies need review

11. challenges?
problems?
questions to the floor?
Open Discussion