Simplify Digital Preservation
Preserve your digital records, stress-free.
Digital preservation is necessary to ensure ongoing to access to cultural heritage collections in an increasingly digital world. There is a misconception that digital objects do not need to be preserved because they do not decay or degrade in the same manner as their physical counterparts. However, digital formats are subject to various risks and need continual maintenance to guarantee their long-term endurance.
Threats to a digital object’s preservation not only includes digital equivalents of degradation and decay, but due to the consistent and rapid evolution of digital formats, they are also threatened with obsolescence.
Digital preservation software tools can safeguard digital collections by preforming regular checks on each item’s health, accessibility, and usability. If a fault is identified, the tool will make sure an identical backup can be used as a replacement, securing the digital object’s ongoing preservation.
On the surface, digital preservation appears to be a complex subject suited to large organizations with dedicated resources. This is often compounded with lots of confusing information that may seem over-complicated to those unfamiliar with technical jargon.
However, when described in simple terms, digital preservation can be a realistic and achievable task for all collecting organizations. Our resource, What is Digital Preservation?, breaks down the subject of digital preservation into easily to digestible core concepts and terms.
