Howard Besser's take on preservation strategies

Once again I have a colleague to thank for passing on this reference... thanks Mark.

Besser has synthisised the issues surrounding digital longevity into five general areas. These are, in my opinion, a great guide for someone with any level of digital preservation experience.

The Viewing Problem - All digital formats require computer technology to view them. By nature technology (software/hardware/formats) move at such a rapid pace that, odds are, they won't be around when you want to view your data. This is of course unless you're viewing data right after you "preserve it" in which case, it's not really preserved now is it.

The Scrambling Problem - Data is often compressed or "scrambled" to assist in its storage and or protect it's intellectual content. These compression and encryption algorythms are often developed by private organisations who will one day cease to support them. If this happens you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you don't want to get into legal trouble you are no longer able to read your data; and if you go ahead and "do the unwrapping yourself" it's quite possible you're breaking copyright law.

The Inter-Relation Problem - Digital information is often linked to other items. This is much more evident in the digital world than the physical. If these links aren't maintained the information is either incomplete, incorrect, or just plain doesn't make any sense. Unfortuntely, due to the diversity of digital linkages and the relatively recent identification of these issues, they're often overlooked. A simple example of this is links on web pages which have died, never to be resolved again. Frustrating!

The Custodial Problem - Who is the custodian of a digital document? Is it a librarian's job? What if someone changes the content without telling the custodian, after all digital content is dynamic and easily changed. So does the document's custodian have to undertake version control? And then is it really preservation?

The Translation Problem - If we need software to interpret data (due to formats etc), and software changes version to version will it be translated differently in subsequent versions? Even if the software claims it will sometimes it might lose formatting, a font? This is particularly dangerous where the changes are subltle or so small that noone notices them, or does it really matter at all?


Besser, Howard (2000) 'Digital Longevity', in Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access
Available at http://www.nedcc.org/digital/ix.htm