Galleries, libraries, archives and museums (glams) and digital preservation activities
| Pages | 8-9 |
| Date | 28 August 2019 |
| Published date | 28 August 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-06-2019-0039 |
| Author | Adetoun A. Oyelude |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Library & information services |
Galleries, libraries, archives and museums (glams)
and digital preservation activities
Adetoun A. Oyelude
Digital preservation is an activity that is
geared towards ensuring that valuable
information is accessible and usable for
accurate rendering of authenticated
content for a long time. Planning,
resource allocation and application of
preservation methods and technologies
are activities that take place in digital
preservation. There are strategies,
policies and actions involved in
ensuring that digital content is available
to all. The Association for Library
Collections and Technical Services
Preservation and Reformatting Section
of the American Library Association
defined digital preservation as a
combination of “policies, strategies and
actions that ensure access to digital
content over time”(Wikipedia, 2019).
The Wikimedia Community, which
builds, guides and develops projects
such as Wikipedia and Wikimedia
Commons, ultimately seeks to make the
sum of all human knowledge freely
accessible to every person in the world.
Galleries, libraries, archives and
museums (GLAMs) are at the forefront
of interpreting cultural heritage
information for the public, while
Wikimedia communities distribute that
heritage content to the world. Open
sources such as Wikipedia integrate rare
or hard-to-find digitized cultural
heritage material into their database and
into Wikimedia projects, namely,
Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource.
These expose the Wikipedia to a much
wider global audience, bringing
attention to the expertise and collections
of heritage organizations around the
world (https://outreach.wikimedia.org/
wiki/GLAM/Digital_collections).
The Digital Public Library of
America is a resourcethat can be used to
gather and showcase special collections
digitally. See more at https://dp.la/.Ina
blogpost by Mary Caldera on 30 April
2019, on the Yale CampusPress blog, the
importance of work with born-digital
resources is reviewed, showcasing the
fact that lotsof help is needed to go far in
preservation of born-digital materials. In
the experience reported working at the
Yale University, Caldera notes that help
comes from archivists, archives assistants
and student assistants and digital
preservation working groups among
others. The African proverb “If you want
to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far,
go together” is apt. Read more at http://
campuspress.yale.edu/borndigital/
David Larsen, in a blogpost on 4
April 2019, announced the arrival of the
Africa Media Online platform in South
Africa. Africa Media Online is an
organization committed to enabling
Africans to tell Africa’s story to the
world. The organization developed a
digital trade route, which is designed to
assist in getting collections to a local or
global audience. This trade route is
made up of five components:
1. Training: This enables staff
training to be able to deal with
the digital world and maintain the
highest professional standards in
building digital collections.
2. Digital consulting services:This
segment works to establish clear
plans and processes for migrating
from analogous collections to
digital collections and to manage
born-digital collections, all at best
practice standards.
3. Professional digitization services:
This enables one to focus on core
competencies yet get collections
into the digital form at the standard
required for long-term archiving
and supply to editorial publishers
and broadcasters.
4. Digital collection management
systems: This helps to enable one
to manage digitized and born-
digital collections and present
them to a global audience.
5. Representation: This helps to
enable one to present
collections to the target
audiences in South Africa,
Africa and around the world
(See https://africamediaonline.
com/).
Librarians from 19 countries in Africa
gathered in Nairobi for the 3rd African
Library and Information Association and
Institution (AfLIA) Conference, and 5th
African Libraries Summit held from 19
to24 May 2019. They called on African
Governments to “consider the roles and
functions of libraries of different types,
archives, museums and research
institutions in the provision of
information services, ensuring quality
education and lifelong learning, building
cultural identity, bridging the digital
divide, preservation of culture and
transforming communities as they make
decisions about Copyright limitations and
exceptions”. The AfLIA President Helena
Asamoah noted that it is important for
African countries to embed complete set
of limitations and exceptions in their
copyright laws as a means of supporting
long-term growth and equity. It was
however unfortunate that “too many
countries in the African continent have no
provisions allowing libraries and
associated information institutions to
carry out basic activities, such as making
a copy of a journal article for a researcher,
or undertaking vital preservation work.
Even where such provisions exist, they
are often not adapted for the digital age”.
These are concerns for GLAMs in Africa,
in their future considerations for digital
preservation (See https://web.aflia.net/
aflia-stand-on-copyright-limitations-and-
exceptions-for-libraries-and-associated-
information-institutions/ for more).
In the UK, the efforts at digital
preservation have been taken up by the
universities. Caroline Donnelly, Senior
Editor, UK of the ComputerWeekly
8LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 6 2019, pp. 8-9, V
CEmerald Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-06-2019-0039
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