Page 71 - Building Digital Libraries

CHAPTER 4

case has been made that the original digital object, regardless of format, has
significant historical value. (See figure 4.1.)
Generally, these documents are MS Word files, meaning that in a num-
ber of years, it is very likely that these “master” preservation files will be
inaccessible using current software. In those cases, OSUL will have to rely
on software emulation to provide access to the original source, or “master”
content, should a user request it. At the same time, the organization has
adopted a policy that in these cases a more modern master file has been
developed. In this case, the format selected has been a PDF/A. This file is
used to generate an accessible copy of the content, but it also functions as
the de facto preservation copy, since this file will be actively curated and
migrated should the need arise.
If this example at OSUL sounds messy, it is . . . and it’s pretty common
within cultural heritage organizations. It also underlines an important fact
around digital preservation: there is no one correct way to set up one’s
preservation system; nor is there any one organization that is doing it right.
Preservation is a messy, moving target . . . and it is this messiness, the fuzzi-
ness of the workflows and the process, that cause many organizations to
throw up their hands and decide that this will be an issue for some future
administrator or future curator to solve. But this will never be a perfect or
straightforward process. Has anything related to preservation, even in the
analog era or since, ever been a perfect or straightforward process? No. We
have an idea of what the best practices might be, some guidelines that we
use to keep content safe, and then we move forward and do the best we can.

Why Preservation Doesn’t Happen

There are many reasons why preservation or the development of a preserva-
tion plan doesn’t happen within an organization. Above, we identified three
general reasons why this might be case.

Language Difference between IT and
Cultural Heritage Staff

As noted earlier, data backups are not preservation, at least not preservation
within the context of cultural heritage organizations. When librarians and
archivists talk about preserving content, there is an implicit understand-
ing that preservation includes the long-term access to content. The com-
mingling of preservation and access is a fundamental pillar of the cultural
heritage profession. However, this implicit understanding isn’t universally
shared, and this leads to many misunderstandings between information
technology and cultural heritage staff related to preservation planning. At
the Ohio State University Libraries, this difference in cultures was one of
the early challenges when crafting a digital preservation strategy. In order
to move forward, the organization’s systems staff and archival staff needed

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