With more and more E-government documents coming our way, depositories need to be familiar with digital preservation strategies and issues. We preserve digital information differently than tangible information. In fact, according to the Library of Congress, “digital materials can be more difficult to preserve than physical ones…Take the quiz!“
I took the quiz, and learned a lot of facts I didn’t know. In addition to the quiz, the library’s Digital Preservation page offers practical tools for educating ourselves about the features of various formats and planning for how to sustain various digital formats. Discussions about copyright and models for how to go about creating a plan are available on the site also.
Another good resource for digital preservation is Cornell’s tutorial: Digital Preservation Management: Implementing Short-term Strategies for Long-term Problems. The tutorial will explain concepts such as OASIS and TDR, gives a timeline of digital media, and discusses how to think about planning a presevation program, among other things.
