Digital Preservation and Metadata: History, Theory, Practice

by Susan S. Lazinger

Overview

Protect your digital resources! This book addresses critical issues of preservation, giving you everything you need to effectively protect your resources-from dealing with obsolescence, to responsibilities, methods of preservation, cost, and metadata formats. It also gives examples of numerous national and international institutions that provide frameworks for digital libraries and archives. A long-overdue text for anyone involved in the preservation of digital information, this book is critical in understanding today's methods and practices, intellectual discourse, and preservation guidelines. A must for librarians, archiving professionals, faculty and students of library science, administrators, and corporate leaders!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781563087776
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/15/2001
Pages:	359
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

SUSAN S. LAZINGER is Senior Lecturer, School of Library Science, Archive & Information Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Table of Contents

Part I: Issues
Chapter 1: Why Is Digital Preservation an Issue?
Chapter 2: What Electronic Data Should Be Preserved?
Chapter 3: Who Should Be Responsible for Digital Preservations?
Chapter 4: How Can Electronic Publications Be Prepared?
Chapter 5: How Much Will It Cost?
Part II: Models, Formats, and Standards
Chapter 6: Models for Syntactic and Semantic Interoperability: Metalanguages and Metadata Formats
Chapter 7: Standards for Structural Interoperability: Frameworks and Wrapper Technology
Chapter 8: From Theory to Reality: Selected Electronic Data Archives in the United States
Chapter 9: Further Reality: International Digital Cultural Heritage Centers and Sites and Electronic Data Archives
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Lazinger (senior lecturer, School of Library Science, Archive & Information Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) comprehensively presents in understandable terms a complex and protean topic. She argues that the issue of digital preservation has gained a new urgency since the advent of the web. Likewise, it is sobering to note that "there is no comprehensive system or legal responsibility within the U.S. government to identify, capture, retain, and provide continuous public access to electronic files of government information." Aside from the responsibility of the library and archival community to preserve the historical record, the investment in creating digital libraries and in purchasing electronic resources demands action to protect that investment. The problem of digital preservation is essentially defined by technological obsolescence: the "solutions" refreshing, migration, and emulation each having their limitations and costs. Lazinger includes an excellent chapter on "How Much Will It Cost?," conveniently bringing together helpful information for decision-makers. The inescapable drawback of her book is that the approaches discussed are in such flux that it remains incumbent upon readers to update themselves occasionally (through web sites such as the Council on Library and Information Resources, www.clir.org) on changes in the field. Gregory Hunter's Preserving Digital Information (Professional Media, LJ 10/15/00) is less clogged with acronyms but lighter on discussions of metadata the apparent key to the survivability of digital information. Highly recommended for all larger libraries and archives and for those in IS facing the challenges of this issue. Barry Chad, Carnegie Lib. of Pittsburgh Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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