Archiving in the networked world: authenticity and integrity
| Pages | 545-552 |
| Date | 31 August 2012 |
| Published date | 31 August 2012 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378831211266654 |
| Author | Michael Seadle |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
REGULAR PAPER
Archiving in the networked
world: authenticity and integrity
Michael Seadle
Berlin School of Library and Information Science, Humboldt-Universita
¨tzu
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Abstract
Purpose – This article aims to discuss how concepts from the analog world apply to a purely digital
environment, and look in particular at how authenticity needs to be viewed in the digital world in order
to make some form of validation possible.
Design/methodology/approach – The article describes authenticity and integrity in the analog
world and looks at how to measure it in a digital environment.
Findings – Authenticity in the digital world generally means, in a purely technical sense, that a
document’s integrity has been checked using mathematical algorithms against other copies on
independently managed servers, and that provenance records show that the document has a clearly
established succession from a clearly defined original. Readers should recognize that this is different
than how one defines authenticity and integrity in the analog world.
Originality/value – Most of the key issues surrounding digital authenticity have not yet been tested,
but they will be when the economic value of an authentic digital work reaches the courts.
Keywords Archiving, Digitalpreservation, Digital documents,Electronic publishing,
Information technology, Preservation,Computer networks, Digital libraries
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Authenticity and integrity are concepts that lie at the heart of long-term archiving,
whether digital or analog. Essentially every long-term archiving system claims to pay
attention to guaranteeing the authenticity of content. Portico, for example, lists
authenticity as one of the “key goals of digital preservation” on its web site:
Authenticity – the provenance of the content must be proven and the content an authentic
replica of the original (Portico, 2012).
While the goal of maintaining authenticity is clear, the steps for achieving the goal are
not, despite long years of discussion. This article does not pretend to a systematic
analysis of the literature in our field about authenticity, but begins with highlights
from a few key figures to show the progression of thought on the topic.
A number of authors refer to Clifford Lynch’s (2000) report about authenticity as the
defining work. In fact he is careful to point out the problems with our attempts at a
precise definition and why they tend to fail:
This distrust of the immaterial world of digital information has forced us to closely and
rigorously examine definitions of authenticity and integrity – definitions that we have
historically been rather glib about – using the requirements for verifiable proofs as a
benchmark. As this paper will demonstrate, authenticity and integrity, when held to this
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Archiving in the
networked world
545
Received June 2012
Revised June 2012
Accepted June 2012
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 30 No. 3, 2012
pp. 545-552
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378831211266654
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