Sarah Higgins is a Lecturer and the Department Director of Recruitment & Admissions at the Department of Information Studies at Aberystwyth University
Today is Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant or Saint David’s Day in Wales – a national celebration to mark the death in 589 A.D. of our patron saint. It also marks exactly 11 years since my family, and I, left my native Scotland to make Wales our home. A journey of discovery both personally and professionally, I quickly felt at home in our village, Aberystwyth University’s Department of Information Studies and the wider information professional community in Wales.
One of my remits since joining the Department has been to develop and deliver education in digital information management, and in particular digital preservation. This has been a challenging and satisfying role, involving the development and delivery of assessed modules and full degree schemes at both undergraduate and master’s level, while embedding digital preservation into the curriculum across all our accredited courses (CILIP and/or ARA)[i]
However, one of the most rewarding aspects of the role is supervising student research projects on digital preservation themes. In undertaking their master’s dissertations and research degrees the students choose their own topics based on interests developed during their studies and are guided by supervisors to develop robust research aims and objectives, collect new data and make unique conclusions to further the discipline. The students bring imagination, energy, and new ways of exploring old problems to their projects, and on this day of national celebration, it would seem fitting to highlight some recently completed and ongoing digital preservation research, at Wales’s oldest university, to the international community.
Three students have concentrated on issues surrounding national record-keeping in the context of international developments in technology and digital preservation.
Mychely Schubert’s (MSc Digital Information and Media Management) focus was on blockchain technologies. She aimed to identify the barriers countries were facing when implementing a blockchain based solution to their land property records. Comparative case-studies were undertaken across three nation states experimenting with, or in the early stages of implementing blockchain technology to record land transactions and ownerships. These identified the drivers and the barriers to implementing this technology. The primary drivers were found to be blockchain’s tamper-resistant nature, enhanced trustworthiness of data and possible improvements to e-government services. Secondary considerations were long-term preservation of records, traceability of transactions, the prevention of corruption and legal reform of land-administration. Barriers were identified as: legal uncertainty around the records creation and retention requiring the development of laws and regulations; lack of awareness of the technology by professionals and users requiring cross-disciplinary education; and problems with systems interoperability requiring technical integration with existing systems.
Badar Alrahbi (MSc Digital Information and Media Management) also used comparative case-studies to identify the level of maturity in digital preservation in cultural heritage organisations in the Sultanate of Oman. He benchmarked 3 national organisations against the 5 functional areas of the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation to evaluate their digital preservation programmes and identify areas requiring development. Shortlisted for the 2020 Digital Preservation Award for the Most Distinguished Student Work in Digital Preservation, Badar’s results identified areas of strength but also functional weaknesses, and made recommendations for continuing improvement.
Hamad Al Mutairi (Professional Doctorate), is investigating the records and archives value chain in the National Archives of the United Arab Emirates. In the early stages of his studies, he is developing aims around born-digital records and archives, and how their lifecycle management can be enhanced through application of AI (artificial intelligence). His objectives are to identify relevant intervention points, and analyse possible benefits, problems and implementation strategies. Studying for a Professional Doctorate enables qualified professionals to remain in employment while gaining a doctorate qualification. It combines a taught programme of studies, that progressively builds skills and experience, while preparing for an extended research project that will benefit the employing organisation.
The preservation of digital cultural heritage is of interest to many of our students, and keen gamers, Oscar Seager, Alistair Stone, Callum Harkins (all MA Archives and Records Management) and Rachel Moss-Jones (MA Information and Library Studies) all focused on aspects of preserving digital games.
Seager is interested in preserving the full experience of video games for future generations. He explored the success of emulation as a preservation strategy in terms of game performance and future accessibility. He developed functionality and scoring criteria for performance and, using an innovative self-gaming methodology, benchmarked 8 high profile games from established development studios against these criteria. Games were played through 3 different emulators on 6th generation hardware using both handheld and home consoles. This research was triangulated through responses to a short questionnaire distributed to emulation focused gaming forums on Reddit and Discord. A similar questionnaire for developers unfortunately received no responses. 99% (91/92) of the gamers who responded to the questionnaire believed emulation to be successful means of preserving video games. However, both Seager and the study population experienced poor quality play including bugs, glitches and crashes, and identified the need for a powerful PC to get a good performance. Respondents also noted a lack of knowledge around set-up, access and legal restrictions. Analysis of the rich data-set collected led Seager to conclude that, although emulation has significant potential, there is still too much inconsistency in performance for it to be used reliably to recreate the full experience of playing most games as originally intended.
Stone and Moss-Jones independently noted the popularity of video recorded footage of gameplay on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. Technically simpler than emulation, and with fewer legal challenges, Stone explored the viability of preserving such recordings as cultural objects in their own right, while providing an authentic record of the look, feel, functionality and behaviour of games. He investigated community demand for the preservation of recordings, whether sufficient context and information could be collected to make them meaningful to future generations, and developer attitudes to their custodial long-term preservation. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected through both questionnaires and interviews with gamers and developers recruited from relevant forums. Coding and analysis of the results showed that both groups believe video games to be valuable cultural material. Gamers most valued preserving the experience of playing the game, while developers’ most valued preserving the technology that makes it possible. Being able to play the game was important to both groups, who preferred a mixed approach to preservation including emulation of the full game, emulation of local multiplayer aspects, preservation of video recorded gameplay and also physical media. If emulation wasn’t possible then it was agreed that video game footage would suffice. However, opinions diverged around the best custodian for video games footage with 72% (88/126) of gamers suggesting YouTube or Twitch streaming sites, and 65% (28/43) of developers preferring a heritage organisation.
Moss-Jones investigated the issue of custodianship of video game footage by YouTube and Twitch further. Quantitative and qualitative data, again collected from both gamers and developers, corroborated Stone’s earlier data around attitudes to who would make the best long-term custodians. Gamers were found to play games for fun and over 90% (45/48) enjoyed the community that has developed around YouTube and Twitch. Over 50% (26/48) believed these sites should be actively preserving their gaming content, with frustrations around their power to remove material at will through changes in policy and issues with copyright. Developers reported that, although they are now ensuring interoperability across consoles and platforms, they are not prepared to put resource into maintaining their own archives. For them, YouTube and Twitch represent a handy ‘library’ of older games to inform new developments, but similar frustrations to those of the gamers were voiced. The data collected showed that the business ethos of YouTube and Twitch was unfit for the goals of long-term preservation and access, however as content collecting sites they had reach and influence. Moss-Jones concluded that preserving game footage could be achieved through collaborative activity between the sites and the established LAM community.
Harkins investigated the documentation of video games, and how metadata standards could be improved to support their future discovery and use, both in their native format and in gameplay footage. He concentrated on ‘mods’ (player made modifications that alter the look or behaviour of a game), an important aspect of gaming culture. He analysed a selection of mods against the metadata standard VGMS (Video Game Metadata Schema) and triangulated the results through questionnaires with gamers from relevant online platforms. He identified a gap in VGMS’s ability to capture technical representation information, and the external influences and cultural contexts of mods, while maintaining links with their source media. Cross-walking VGMS to other cultural heritage metadata standards revealed that including elements from VRA Core could enable better contextual description and future discovery, while elements from PREMIS could support technical preservation.
As has been highlighted above, digital preservation is an ongoing research area for information studies. New areas of research will continue to present themselves as information management theories, methodologies and technologies develop. Each of the 7 research projects described above had little resource attached to them and those that are finished had short timescales – just over 4 months - for inception, implementation and completion. Some of the projects started just as the first COVID-19 lockdown restrictions began in the UK adding to the difficulties of collecting data when time limits are short. However, each of the students identified and responded to a gap in the literature; and collected and analysed relevant data to make conclusions that contribute a little bit more to our knowledge and understanding of how to tackle digital preservation. As Saint David’s most famous saying goes “gwnewch y pethau bychain” or “do the little things”.
[i] Aberystwyth University Department of Information Studies offers: BA Cultural Heritage, BSc Information and Computer Sciences, MA Archives and Records Management, MA Information and Library Studies, MSc Digital Information and Media Management (all master’s courses are offered over one year on-campus or over 2-5 years distance-learning). Full information about our Degree Courses can be found on our website, including Short Courses for CPD and the Aberystwyth University Professional Doctorate Programme. Enquiries regarding any of our courses including Professional Doctorate and Doctoral Studies are always welcome. Please contact me directly at sjh@aber.ac.uk.