Digital Preservation involves the management and continued long-term sustainability of and access to digital resources, whether originally physical media based, or digitally created ("born-digital). It's a collection of methods to manage digital resources and archives, that considers long-term access and availability alongside maintaining the information a resource contains for future use, publication and dissemination.
Preservation can be important in several ways. Firstly, the information itself within the archive may be worth preserving due to its importance alone. Secondly, it may allow us to understand the process of creation; this can be particularly important for authors, artists or creators, and can inform our understanding of how a created work has been produced, or the methods used in its creation. Or it may inform how technology was used within a particular period, as technology evolved.
As we commit to preserving archival data, we need to make sure we record the vital information that might allow future access. Requesting information about the item's usage or creation process is critical, as knowing what hardware was used or what the media item's properties are may be the key to accessing or recovering data further into the future. Extensive metadata needs to be recorded, which may include data formats, size and shape of media, and the internal logical structure of the data.
We may decide to record a forensic level of data and metadata, which may enable more comprehensive recovery of a media item in future. This often involves recovering data at the bit level using specialist tools (we use BitCurator, for example), which records not just the data itself but often the way the data has been produced and managed over its lifetime, and can offer insights into the creative processes of the personnel involved.
However, this can also include sensitive, and possibly hidden, levels of data that may need to be 'closed' to the public for access, such as financial data, correspondents' contact details and other private information. These aspects should be considered carefully, and if possible, discussed with donors or contributors.
