Seven Pillars of Digital Preservation

Four "itys" of Preservation and Access

UConn Library Brown Bag

February 16, 2017

Greg Colati

Seven Pillars of Digital Preservation

Digital Preservation begins with digital INTEGRITY:

• Content • Fixity • Reference • Provenance • Context --Preserving Digital Information, 1996 HTTPS://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub63watersgarrett.pdf

Content

"Formatted and structured bits"

Digital files and information packages

All quotes on this and following slides from: Paul Conway, Preservation in the Age of Google, 2010 http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/85223

Mm_95_11.jp2

Fixity

"Frozen as discrete objects"

No longer in flux, no longer editable or needing to be altered

Mm_95_11.jp2

Reference

"In a predictable location"

Not just a stable URL, but a globally unique identifier: Handle/Ark/DOI

http://hdl.handle.net/11134/260002:6

Provenance

"With a documented chain of custody"

Audit trails, paper documentation, existing within an organizational framework.

Held by: Mattatuck Museum

Context

"Linkages to related objects"

Through relationship statements and graphs, metadata, or other means

"is memberOF 260002:MM001"

The OAIS Reference Model

A set of data elements (metadata of all types, primary content objects, associative information, system information) combined into a “package” that exists in an electronic environment, is internally coherent and can be managed by applications and processes.

Integrity + Activity/Time = Preservation

The Digital Curation Centre's Lifecycle model incorporates "preservation activities" into the cycle of curation:

Appraisal

Technical activities

Checksums

Redundant storage

Integrity checks

Migration

Re-appraisal

Preservation is the Preservation of Access

How does this theory relate to practice in the real world?

“-itys” of Access

• Interoperability

• Reusability

Recycling Telephones, 1948 Canning Center,

1943

“-itys” of Preservation

• Sustainability

• Reliability

Four "itys" of Preservation and Access

Final Thoughts

Preservation goes beyond keeping things safe. It includes how we think about the world, and what we

value as a society.

It is how we connect, preserve, and share our cultural heritage.