I’m sure you’re all aware of the digital collections that are viewable on our online catalogue and under ‘Digital Mirror’ on the National Library of Wales (NLW) website, but not many realise the threats that are presented by archiving digital collections. What I’m talking about here is ‘Digital Preservation’.
Some of the threats that effect our digital collections include:
- File formats – a file format may be superseded by newer versions, which may no longer be supported by the current vendor or relevant standards body, i.e. have you ever tried opening a very early version of Microsoft Word with today’s versions?
- Storage medium may be superseded by newer and denser version of that medium, or by new types of media, i.e. you don’t see many floppy disks anymore?
- Device needed to read a storage medium may no longer be manufactured, i.e. when was the last time you purchased a computer with a floppy drive as standard?
- Software used to create, manage or access digital content may be superseded by newer versions, i.e. like in file formats, newer versions of software is not backwards compatible.
- Computers are continually being superseded by faster, more powerful machines with more capabilities.
In 2003 NLW created their first Digital Preservation Policy to help steer us in achieving a high standard of digital preservation, the policy is reviewed every 5 years. The person that has the responsibility of ensuring the policy is adhered to is Sally McInnes along with her Digital Asset Management Team.
The management of Digital Preservation is done using the following methods:
Metadata – Metadata is a way we can describe, explain and locate our content, i.e. when storing a box on a shelf you would label the box stating what’s inside and maybe a date to aid future searching, metadata is the digital equivalent to a label.
Infrastructure – Like any other organistaion we have devised systems on archiving digital data so we can remain consistent in our work. We use a repository called Fedora/VITAL which helps to give further structure to our collections. Our digital archive currently has 40 Tb of material within and has an endless capacity to it.
Software and Tools – Here is a list of software and tools that aid us:
- DROID - Helps us to identify what formats we have.
- PRONOM – An online registry providing information about file formats.
- MediaInfo – Provides information about audio and video files.
- Md5sum – Is how we do checksums on our digital objects
- Digital Workflow System – A tool we use that helps us structure our digital projects.
What all the above means is that we need to plan what we do with our collections very carefully. It would be impossible to plan for the next 100 years so we plan for the next technological change, which could be in 2 years or even 10 years.
Ioan Isaac-Richards
Ingest Processes Manager