Reading the posts lately on organizations that are making the step towards converting their papers records to electronic made me really think about how we as a society are going to preserve our electronic heritage. We all can walk to our local museum that proudly will display documents, books and other written manuscripts but how will this preservation be done for our electronic digital records. Preserving records has been defined as:

"the planning, resource allocation, and application of preservation methods and technologies necessary to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable". 


Additionally authenticity may be added to this definition.  According to a paper written by Det Norske Veritas called "SURVIVABILITY OF DIGITAL RECORDS" digital preservation addresses hardware (e.g. storage media, reading and processing hardware), software (e.g. reading and processing), data models (e.g. file formats, preservation metadata) and involved processes (e.g. migration or conversion procedures, emulation strategies, obsolescence detection, quality assurance, and all kind of documentations). A digital record is defined as a record created or received and/or maintained by means of digital computer technology. A digital record is thereby not just the digital equivalent of a paper document but can virtually be anything that can be created and stored on a computer. 

In this respect digital records are not tangible objects but a combination of hardware, software and computer files. This combination is necessary to be able to use the records. The digital record "lives" (i.e. is only useful within a software environment) but is consigned to a physical carrier medium for storage. This dual nature of digital records tremendously complicates the long term survival problem. It both requires addressing the physical media and its durability or lack thereof, i.e. storage media and hardware equipment, and it requires maintaining a suitable living condition for the record, i.e. the program and/or operating system. No wonder the survival of digital records for decades or centuries is yet an unresolved problem as the electronic storage media has not shown yet to last for the time we need it to be.

You can read the full DNV report here http://www.longrec.com/Intranet/ResearchResults/StateOfTheArt/READ_Final.pdf


Thoughts / comments?


Martin Tuip
Sr Technical Product Marketing Manager
Mimosa Systems Inc
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