1/2 hour lecture introducing students to the basics of digital preservation

1. Keep It Safe Stupid!
or
An Intro to Digital Preservation
Kyle Banerjee
banerjek@ohsu.edu

2. Why preservation?
Image credit: https://www.cuteness.com/blog/content/why-do-dogs-bury-things

3. Digital preservation is about use!
The bottom line

4. ● Metadata provides the value of what you
preserve
● Success depends on practical effect rather
than following standards or procedures
● Preservation is much more than backing
up files
Keys to success

5. ● What you want to preserve
● Why you’re preserving it
● How it will be used
What you need to know

6. What you don’t need to know
PREMIS
PCDM
DRAMBORA
TDR
AIP
tldr;
METS
OAIS
LOD
SIP
*
And so much more!*

7. Seriously, don’t sweat this stuff
AIP Archival Information Package
DRAMBORA
Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk
Assessment
LOD Linked Open Data
METS Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard
OAIS Open Archival Information System
PCDM Portland Common Data Model
PREMIS PREservation Metadata Implementation Strategies
SIP Submission Information Package
TDR Trusted Digital Repository

8. ● Provide an overall framework for your
repository (models)
● Provide tools and procedures for
preservation activities (standards)
● Encode descriptive, structural, and
administrative information essential for
preservation (standards)
But know what it aims to accomplish

9. In theory, standards work in concert

10. Bagdad Theater (Portland, Or.) -- History
Content standards define what is stored
GNIS
AACR2
Subject Heading Manual

11. ● Leaves definition of content to other
standards (XML doesn’t say what it contains)
● Implementation details are critical. For
example, two systems that fully support METS
can be totally incompatible
● Converting from one container to another (e.g.
archival file or metadata format) can be lossy
● Containers can’t solve missing information
problems
Format = container standard

12. ● Facilitate understanding and working with
what they represent
● Consider desktop and filesystem on
computer -- allows you to do useful things
even though they are *very* different than
what’s actually occurring in computer
hardware
● Implementation details not defined
Models are abstractions that represent reality

13. ● Are so complex even experts have
difficulty understanding them
● Require more labor and resources than will
ever be available
● Are based on needs, systems, and
procedures that existed when they were
created
Preservation standards (including procedures)

14. Focus on needs rather than literature
Image credit: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/02/11

15. ● Concept of preservation becomes tricky as
content and platform become more
connected
● Many ways to legitimately adopt standards
with complex relationships that are totally
incompatible
● Many “best practices” are impractical or
even unhelpful
Reality is messy

16. Preservation options boil down to two choices
1. Migration (lossy, limited, works only with things
that act like files)
2. Emulation (expensive, requires technical
knowledge)
Both options presume self contained objects and are
problematic in dynamic, distributed, and cloud
environments
There are no silver bullets

17. Selection and organization are critical!
Image credit:
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/city_of_waco/political-battle-over-waco-landfill-heats-up-with-charges-of/article_e2243b35-1d27-521a-9885-66cfcc9657b8.html

18. ● Migration (including metadata)
● Discovery
● Rights
● Provenance
● Authenticity
Preservation requires active management!

19. ● LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe)
Expensive, labor intensive. Based on 1990’s
understanding of computing.
● Checksums
Ineffective and resource intensive as deployed. Based on
1980’s understanding of storage. Problematic for
migrations.
Don’t worry about...

20. ● Be realistic!
● Identify the best entity to handle
preservation and component aspects,
whoever that may be
● Simplicity is often very lossy, but
ultimately more resilient over time
Preservation, the easy way

21. ● Define success in terms of usability rather
than optimizing systems and
administrative concerns
● Understand digital objects in their own
context rather than treating them like
physical objects
● Look outside the library for solutions
Parting thoughts

22. Questions?
Kyle Banerjee
banerjek@ohsu.edu