Archives have a core mandate to collect, preserve and provide access to a political, social, and cultural historic record. This means that archival institutions are likely to understand digital preservation and the reasons for doing it.

You may also want to check the statements associated with Libraries and Higher Education and Research.

What is Digital Preservation?

  • Part of an ongoing stewardship mission to ensure to the future of libraries and archives as memory organizations,
  • Necessary for libraries and archives to tell the unbroken story of our communities and societies.

What are the Risks of not preserving digital materials?

Risks

Potential Consequences

Key Motivators

Lack of collaboration behind different departments/areas of the organization

  • Unable to establish a sustainable, fit for purpose digital preservation programme
  • Efforts duplicated in different departments/areas
  • Inefficient use of resources

Business Continuity

Costs

Executive level support for digital preservation is not persistent

  • Unable to establish a sustainable, fit for purpose digital preservation programme
  • Data loss/corruption
  • Unable to provide access to digital objects
  • Unable to meet legal/regulatory requirements

Accountability

Business Continuity

Compliance

Corporate/Cultural Memory
Enabling Research

Reputation

Revenue

Failure to engage with stakeholders at all stages of the record life-cycle

  • Lack of support for digital preservation work
  • System/procedures do not support user needs
  • Do not capture necessary documentation
  • Unable to provide access to digital objects in a useable format

Accountability
Corporate/Cultural Memory
Enabling Research
Reputation

Failure to maintain preservation system and processes.

  • Preservation system/processes become redundant/ineffectual
  • Data loss/corruption
  • Unable to provide access to digital objects
  • High cost of replacing/extracting data from outdated systems

Costs

Reputation

Technology

What Opportunities do preserved digital materials create?

Digital Preservation can…

Key Motivators

hold governments to account by maintaining a clear and permanent audit trail

Accountability

Compliance

make available a dynamic, powerful information asset which represents an accurate social and cultural record

Corporate/Cultural Memory

Enabling Research

demonstrate a commitment to core statutory function for collection, for present and future generations

Business Continuity

Compliance

What do Archives need to enable Digital Preservation?

All organisations require the same things to enable effective digital preservation.

Go to Digital Preservation Needs

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