Saving Our Digital Heritage
| Published date | 01 September 2004 |
| Pages | 34-36 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050410567371 |
| Date | 01 September 2004 |
| Author | Buffy McDonald |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Saving Our Digital Heritage
Buffy McDonald
34 LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 8 2004, pp. 34-36, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050410567371
The digital preservation era is on us.
We have to act today so we will be
certain that important information
being developed now will not be lost for
future generations. Our digital information
has become a growing concern for
many information management
professionals. Having access to what
others have researched and learned has
become a great deal easier to do, but the
problem of keeping this information
around for generations to come is now
becoming a key question that must be
addressed. Digital information is
exploding. We see it being used for
research, scientific, business, industrial,
personal, and entertainment purposes.
The ways in which we communicate,
work, and live have all been impacted
greatly by this digital age. How to
preserve this new way of creating and
storing information is extremely
important if we are going to be able to
keep access to what is being created
today and have it for the historical
record We can begin to solve the digital
preservation problem through advocacy
by educating the public, designing best-
practice policies, and using various
preservation techniques.
Advocacy
Advocacy is an important step in
saving our digital preservation heritage.
The public will not realize the
importance of saving this valuable
information over time unless they are
educated on the impact of losing it.
``Scholarly research and communication
depend upon the perpetual access to the
published scholarship of the past''
(Cantara, 2003).We have the foundation
of what those have learned before us
and we add to that wide base of
knowledge with our own experiences,
expertise, and perspectives. Einstein did
not come up with his famous formula in
a vacuum. He learned his foundation ±
physics ± and then added his own
research and knowledge to that base.
We do want to draw on the past
experiences and learning of others. The
Shakespeares, Bachs, and Van Goghs of
today may be using some form of
digital formats to save their great
works, and we want to be able to save
them for future generations. To do this
we need advocacy.
One great way to promote advocacy is
to form partnerships with groups that
have a vested int erest in preser ving
digital information. Groups like schools,
libraries, and businesses would be great
to partner with for advocacy purposes
and would find this information helpful.
The National Information Infrastructure
and Preservation Program has set up
partnerships with federal and non-federal
groups alike. They are also offering
seminars, workshops, symposiums, and
forums to help advance understanding of
digital preservation issues (National
Digital Infrastructure and Preservation
Program, 2001). In working with other
groups this ensures that a broad range of
people are being educated on the digital
preservation issues.
More of these partnerships need to
be formed along with an abundance of
workshops and classes offered on
digital preservation topics. The Library
Preservation and Conservation (n.d.)
group in Southeast Asia suggests:
``[t]he `behind the scenes' activities of a
preservation unit are often interesting to
the public. Tours of the unit may be
educational and illustrate the need for
improved equipment and facilities''.
Capturing the interest of people is
extremely important in selling a cause.
If people can witness first hand the
importance of a project they will want
to help promote solutions to the
problems involved. ``Handouts such as
bookmarks, brochures, posters, mailings,
and newsletters'' are another great way
to get the word out on digital
preservation advocacy (Library
Preservation and Conservation, n.d.).
Preserving our digital information
today is vital and this message must be
heard. It is important that the general
public begin to understand this concept
and see the importance of saving our
digital heritage. The only way to
impress this important value on them is
through advocacy and education.
The problems with preserving
information are that we do not know
how to best keep up with technology;
and economics are a big factor in
determining what our priorities for
preserving digitalized information will
be. New hardware and software are
being created all the time. Advancement
in technology is mind boggling. We are
so excited by what is new or coming up
on the horizon, that we do not take a
step back to make sure the information
stored digitally today is being preserved
for the future. Advocacy becomes an
important element in the solution to
these problems because if the public is
made aware of the possible loss, it will
want to act to help save our digital
cultural heritage.
Policies
``Fully 75 percent of all government
transactions are now being conducted
electronically, and the volume of data
being generated by the government is
doubling every year'' (Harada, 2003). It
would be a tragedy to put all the time
and resources into gathering this
information just to have it be lost or
destroyed. The government is not the
only group using digital formats to
create and store its information. ``The
introduction of electronic journals has
transformed scholarly communication
in extraordinary ways ± making it
possible to disseminate research results
more quickly, to provide hyperlinked
access to cited publications, and to
amplify text with images, audio and
video files, datasets and software ...''
(Cantara, 2003). Certain guidelines
To continue reading
Request your trial