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International Journal of Library and Information Science (IJLIS), ISSN: 2277 – 3533 (Print)
ISSN: 2277 – 3584 (Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January – June 2014, © IAEME
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ISSUES PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS FOR DIGITAL PRESERVATION
N.SIVAKUMAR
Chief Librarian
Kalaignar Karunanidhi Institute of Technology, Coimbatore
Dr.N.TAMILSELVAN
Chief Librarian
RVS College of Engineering & Technology, Coimbatore
“TECHNOLOGY IS A KEY ELEMENT IN DIGITAL PRESERVATION”
We believe it isn't the greatest inhibitor the lack of organizational will and way is. Despite
the increasing evidence documenting the fragility and ubiquity of digital content, cultural
repositories have been slow to respond to the need to safeguard digital heritage materials.
Digital preservation presents its own unique challenges, arising from the basic nature of
digital data, it is machine-readable, not eye-readable. Unlike the fairly straightforward process of
decoding other machine-dependent media, such as microfilm, maintaining digital data in a form that
is intelligible to humans involves the use of a complex set of tightly interwoven technologies.
Numerous reports are detail why digital preservation is so challenging from technological
obsolescence of hardware, software, and formats to media vulnerability, competing stakeholder
interests, organizational and legal issues, and resource requirements.
Digital Preservation encompasses a broad range of activities designed to extend the usable
life of machine-readable computer files and protect them from media failure, physical loss, and
obsolescence. Digital preservation activities into those that promote the long-term maintenance of a
bit stream (the zeros and ones) and those that provide continued accessibility of its contents. The
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE (IJLIS)
ISSN : 2277 – 3533 (Print)
ISSN : 2277 – 3584 (Online)
Volume 3, Issue 1, January - June (2014), pp. 54-58
© IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijlis.html
Journal Impact Factor (2013): 5.1389 (Calculated by GISI),
www.jifactor.com
IJLIS
© I A E M E

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Preservation Metadata added the concept of viability to the maintenance of the bit stream, indicating
that information must be intact and readable from the storage media, and further subdivides the
content accessibility need into render ability (viewable by humans and processed by computers)
and understandability (interpretable by humans). As these terms imply, it is one thing to preserve a
bit stream, but quite another to preserve the content, form, style, appearance, and functionality. We
conceive of digital preservation as a process that requires the use of the best available technology as
well as carefully thought out administrative policies and procedures.
THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF DIGITAL PRESERVATION PROGRAM ARE:
 It needs to fit defined needs, requirements, and resources
 It requires ongoing and iterative development
 It should reflect best practices and standards
THE CORE COMPONENTS OF DIGITAL PRESERVATION ARE:
A fully implemented and viable preservation program addresses organizational issues,
technological concerns, and funding questions, balancing them like a three-legged stool.
Organizational Infrastructure includes the policies, procedures, practices, people the
elements that any programmatic area needs to thrive, but specialized to address digital preservation
requirements.

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Technological Infrastructure consists of the requisite equipment, software, hardware, a
secure environment, and skills to establish and maintain the digital preservation program. It
anticipates and responds wisely to changing technology.
Resources Framework addresses the requisite startup, ongoing, and contingency funding to
enable and sustain the digital preservation program.
A digital preservation program exists within an organizational context and as such must fit
the needs, priorities, and resources of that organization. The core of a digital preservation program
is a digital preservation system.
The “long-term preservation of digital information on a scale adequate for the demands of
future research and scholarship will require a deep infrastructure capable of supporting a distributed
system of digital archives.” An organization must provide some core requirements to build a digital
preservation program that can be part of that distributed system. We identify here three interlocking
components that surround an institution’s digital assets those digital resources considered valuable
to the organization, whether for a limited time or an indefinite future.
Organizational Infrastructure is expressed in a comprehensive policy framework,
providing the rationale and mandate for a program as well as detailing the requisite policies,
procedures, and plans.

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Technological Infrastructure entails preservation planning to provide ongoing support for a
robust, flexible, and cost-effective technological platform. Technology forecasting identifies and
incorporates relevant developments and solutions over time.
A sustainable Resources Framework, covering staffing, technological, operational, and
other costs, is necessary to under gird the organizational and technology infrastructures.
Digital preservation is not a new concern: it began when the first computers were
introduced. A number of national archives, data archives, and other cultural institutions in many
countries established digital preservation programs as early as the late 1960s. Those programs
reflected the prevailing technology and digital content of that time. Each generation of technology
brings changes in potential capabilities to both create and preserve digital content and will affect a
suitable institutional response.
Being aware of the context of relevant technology contributes to identifying and weighing
options for preserving digital content. The path technology takes from idea, to development, to
implementation, to mainstream use, and, in most cases, to obsolescence is an important cycle to
appreciate. Knowing something about where a technology came from influences the preservation
approach that might work best in a particular organizational setting or for particular digital
materials.
Key points to be noted in the Digital Preservation are
 Identify significant precedents and milestones professional, organizational, and
technological
 Illustrate the combination of developments, events, and decisions that got us to where we
are today, in regards to technology that pertains to digital preservation
 Help place new and emerging technologies into context for digital preservation programs

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CONCLUSION
Digital preservation to date has relied on two main technical strategies: standards
and migration. Technical standards form a foundation for much of what makes digital libraries
possible. Standards and protocols for storage, data formats, bibliographic control, display, retrieval,
transport, and distribution are imbedded in the infrastructure that makes digital libraries accessible,
manageable, and useable. In an ideal world, institutions that are building digital libraries and
individuals with particular expertise in this area would participate actively in standards
developments that affect the ability to preserve digital information and lower the costs of doing so.
Digital libraries would then adopt policies that limit the materials in their collections only to those
that conform to open standards.
REFERENCE
1. British Library. Digital Library System. http://www.bl.uk/
2. Council on Library and Information Resources, (May 2000). Authenticity in a Digital
Environment. Washington, DC CLIR.
3. Hedstrom, M., (1997/98) "Digital Preservation: A Time Bomb for Digital Libraries,"
Computers and the Humanities 31:3, 189-202.
4. Internet Archive: Building an Internet Library. http://www.archive.org/
5. Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information. (1995). "Preserving Digital Information,"
Report of the Task Force, commissioned by the Commission on Preservation and Access
and The Research Libraries Group, Version 1.0, August 24, 1995.
6. Gladney, H. M. (2006). "Principles for digital preservation". Communications of the ACM
49 (2): 111–116.
7. Edwards, Eli (2004). "Ephemeral to Enduring: The Internet Archive and Its Role in
Preserving Digital Media". Information Technology & Libraries 23 (1).
8. Kenney, Anne R., and Oya Y. Reiger. 2000. Moving Theory Into Practice. Mountain View,
Calif.: Research Libraries Group.
9. http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/dpm/workshops/instructors.html.
10. Preserving Digital Information: Report of the Task Force on Archiving of Digital
Information, Commission on Preservation and Access and The Research Libraries Group,
Inc., May 1, 1996,

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