Digital Information Preservation—The Landmark
Study
At the end of 1994 the Commission on Preservation and
Access and RLG created the Task Force on Archiving of Digital
Information, charged with investigating and recommending means to
ensure "continued access indefinitely into the future of records stored
in digital electronic form." In May 1996 the 21-member task force,
co-chaired by Donald Waters and John Garrett, completed their final
report, Preserving Digital Information, a
milestone
guide for work on the long-term retention of both born-digital and
digitized materials.
Both RLG and the Council on Library and Information
Resources (CLIR) have made the publication widely available. The online
version earned a Scout Report selection. The task force’s
nine recommendations have shaped our preservation agenda and prompted
projects ranging from an archival server infrastructure ("Arches"); to
an early collaborative digital collection ("Studies in Scarlet"); to
work now underway on digital repository certification.
|
Librarians' Toolbox:
