Preserving Digital Materials

by Ross Harvey

Overview

This book provides a single-volume introduction to the principles, strategies and practices currently applied by librarians and recordkeeping professionals to the critical issue of preservation of digital information. It incorporates practice from both the recordkeeping and the library communities, taking stock of current knowledge about digital preservation and describing recent and current research, to provide a framework for reflecting on the issues that digital preservation raises in professional practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110253696
Publisher:	De Gruyter Saur
Publication date:	11/30/2011
Series:	Current Topics in Library and Information Practice Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	251
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ross Harvey, Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College

Table of Contents

Part I: Why Do We Preserve Digital Materials?
Chapter 1: Preservation in the Digital Age
Chapter 2: The Need for Digital Preservation
Part II: What Digital Materials Are We Preserving?
Chapter 3: Digital Artifacts, Digital Objects, Storage
Chapter 4: Selection for Preservation
Chapter 5: Requirements for Successful Digital Preservation
Part III: How Do We Preserve Digital Materials?
Chapter 6: Digital Preservation Strategies I
Chapter 7: Digital Preservation Strategies II
Chapter 8: Case Studies
Part IV: Collaboration and the Future
Chapter 9: Digital Preservation Initiatives
Chapter 10: The Future of Digital Preservation

Editorial Reviews

The third edition of Preserving Digital Materials is now the single best volume on digital preservation. Thoroughly updated to incorporate knowledge from fifteen years of best practice, the book offers conceptually clear insight on how to keep digital information accessible.

Paul Conway

In the third edition of Preserving Digital Materials, Ross Harvey (adjunct professor of information management at Monash University) and Jaye Weatherburn (digital preservation officer at the University of Melbourne) offer their beleaguered colleagues a well-organized text that illuminates key digital preservation discussions and topics.. .. Addressing both digital curation and preservation, Preserving Digital Materials possesses numerous strengths.. .. [it] is also remarkably comprehensive in scope.. .. a useful text for audiences from all walks of life who deal with digital resources. With its vast scope and rich detail, readers will no doubt find this book to be an important resource, regardless of whether their interest in digital preservation is personal, academic, professional, or a combination of all three.

Archival Issues

The preservation of digital heritage is an ongoing pursuit. After over twenty years of digital preservation initiatives, there is still little standardization. But there is a useful guide: Preserving Digital Materials. Now in its third edition, Ross Harvey, and his new co-author, Jaye Weatherburn, elucidate the ongoing challenges and successes in the quest for digital sustainability. The third edition broadens our perspective about the contemporary preservation environment. It brings the reader up to date on the many robust and international digital programs. Readers will come away from this book understanding how enormous the responsibility of preserving digital content is; they should also be comforted by the variety of strategies being developed. The authors guide us well through this complex terrain.

Michele V. Cloonan

As someone not formally trained and sort of new to the field, Harvey and Weatherburn’s comprehensive survey is a good companion and tool for advocacy validating and confirming many of my suspicions and instincts regarding the possibilities, practices and workflows, extrapolated from other professional experiences.

Metropolitan Archivist

This is an excellent reference and handbook on digital preservation for any institution engaged in digital preservation activities. It would be a worthy addition to circulating collections for academic and public libraries as the general public becomes increasingly aware of and interested in digital preservation.

Technical Services Quarterly