Preparing for the age of the digital palimpsest
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378831211266636 |
| Published date | 31 August 2012 |
| Date | 31 August 2012 |
| Pages | 513-522 |
| Author | Jason Bengtson |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
REGULAR PAPER
Preparing for the age of the digital
palimpsest
Jason Bengtson
Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center, University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to define and stimulate interest in a potential new specialty
within the information science field.
Design/methodology/app roach – Sources on digital forensi cs and digital archeology ar e
discussed, and the topic is examined critically from a librarian perspective. The author examines
the possibility of an information science specialty pursuing the reconstruction of “digital palimpsests”,
where data that later becomes historically significant has been deleted or partially overwritten on
digital media.
Findings – The author identifies at least one key incident (the NASA moon landing tapes) where this
potential field has already started to be defined. Examination of the literature indicates that emphasis
in data recovery to this point has centered on the needs of law enforcement and disaster recovery
rather than on the considerations of manuscript preservation, recovery, and curation. The author
emphasizes the need for librarians to bring together the skills of multiple fields, especially that of
information technology, in order to shape the tools needed to take the lead in “digital palimpsest”
recovery.
Originality/value – The author asserts that the recovery of “digital palimpsests” will become
important as digital archives age and society’s position on what has historical value inevitably shifts.
The author further asserts that members of the information science field must actively work to take
ownership of the field before it is subsumed by information technology or another discipline less
equipped to manage its nebulous considerations effectively.
Keywords Information technology, Informatics,Preservation, Digital forensics,Data curation,
Palimpsest,Digital libraries, Data management
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
We, as a society, must make our choices.
This paper is about one of those choices, the choice of what we preserve and the
repercussions of that choice for the field of information science. It describes the modern
phenomenon of deleted and partially overwritten digital data and positions it within
the larger historical context of data partially overwritten in previous eras and in
previous formats. At its core, this paper’s argument is simple; just as information
science sub-fields of various types have had a large part in the work of discovering and
recovering such overwritten, or palimpsested texts in the past, information science
should take a leadership role in the recovery of these new, digital palimpsests. This
issue is not simply one of technology. It is an issue of the management and recovery of
information; an issue that includes technological considerations but also transcends
them. Digital palimpsests will require the efforts of many disciplines, including
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
The age of the
digital
palimpsest
513
Received November 2011
Revised May 2012
Accepted May 2012
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 30 No. 3, 2012
pp. 513-522
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378831211266636
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