Here you can read about organizational decisions, policies, roles, responsibilities, etc.
What do organizations need to think about when they shall store digital objects for a long time? What does it mean when organizations also must handle handle digital archive objects?
Read more »
There are different strategies for preserving digital material. The two most common are migration and emulation. At migration materials are continuously transfered to new data media, new formats and new systems. In emulation you strive to keep the digital files as they were at creation, and instead build new hardware and software that mimics the environment where files once were created.
Preservation plan describes what will happen with the digital archive, but also when it should be done and by whom. What is to be preserved must be well preserved and what should be deselected, shall be deselected according to plan and what is about to be destroyed must be destroyed - if it is part of the plan. Whatever happens, it will be according to the preservation plan. This means that you have a plan for how to act in the future to keep your material, adapted to changes in your system (hardware and software), aging of the data carrier, etc.
How are professional roles affected? Who is involved and in what way when an organization starts storing digital files in archives? What do the staff responsible for long-term digital preservation need to know?
Institutions with aim to preserve digital material must take responsible decisions about what should be included in the digital archive and what must preserved in order to provide access for long term.
Something that needs to be considered is whether each digital archive must have its own format registry or if a national register is better, or maybe even to use some of the registries already available.
Articles on preservation planning.
